Direct response marketing is one of the most measurable forms of marketing, you can see how many leads were generated and how many of those leads became sales. You can also test different copy and styles to see which version best achieves your businesses marketing goals.
Traditional direct response methods include having cut out coupons or forms on print adverts, using loose inserts in a similar way or sending out mailings in the post with pre-paid envelopes for people to send back their responses in. Moving into the digital space, e-mail marketing has been used for direct response marketing methods, monitoring how many people reply or visit your website via your e-mail, and how many of those people completed a desired action once on your website. If you want people to call you, unique phone numbers can be used to monitor how many people called having seen your advertisement or e-mail.
SMS campaigns can be used as a direct response medium too, the easiest way is through the use of short codes. This is when your text message’s call to action encourages recipients to text back a word, letter or number to a short number, e.g. Text DETAILS to 81025. There are many uses for short code SMS campaigns, whether it’s offering deals or coupons, getting people to enter a competition, asking people to donate (fee added to their bill or taken from their credit balance), sending out more information on certain topics or products, or asking people if they would like a call back to discuss your product or service with you. Please feel free to try our example above, you will only incur your standard network message charge, based on your service provider rates and tariff package
SMS campaigns using short codes also enable you to conduct quick surveys or gauge opinions, for example by asking people to text back with 1-3 words to describe what they think of something.
Short codes can also be used in conjunction with traditional advertising methods, which make them more measurable too, e.g. putting a text-in response as the call to action on your posters or even on T.V. advertisements.
Like with the traditional direct response marketing methods, SMS campaigns can also be used when you want recipients to call you, this can be very successful as the person is already using their phones and with most phones, they can simply click the number in your text message or select a use this number option from their phones menu. Also, SMS campaigns can encourage recipients to visit and use your mobile website; much like e-mail campaigns can do this for your full ‘desktop’ website.
SMS campaigns can be used for practically all direct response marketing goals, they are much easier to set up and monitor than traditional methods, they are not subject to spam filters like e-mail campaigns and they are cheaper too. SMS campaigns are used less often than other methods too, so are also a great way of breaking through all the advertising noise.