Direct Marketing Plan Checklist

When developing your marketing campaigns, whether they are direct marketing or online advertising, there is "homework" to be done before hand. Planning helps reduce risk and increase likelihood of success. This checklist provides the essential planning information and activity required to create a successful direct marketing campaign.

1. Executive Summary
2. Situation Analysis - Marketing environment, economic trends and competitive analysis. Analysis is not just a collection of information but an analysis of importance and impact of information (Not just the What, but the Why).
3. Target Group Profile(s) & Analysis - Know your audience(s) Opportunity and Issues Analysis - Including SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
4. Goals and Objectives: Quantitative - Build lead database, acquire new customers, cross-sell, new product introduction, prospect cost per lead, acquisition cost, retention, Win back cost, return on advertising Qualitative - Increase customer satisfaction, enhance brand perception, etc.
5. Marketing Strategy - Including differentiation/positioning/uniqueness
6. Tactics
7. Test Plan - Direct marketers always TEST! List/media, offer, visuals, copy
8. Budget/Financial - Budget, Breakeven scenarios (0 profit, % profit, etc.)

Direct Marketing Creative Strategy & Campaign Plan Checklist

1. Advertising Objectives - Primary (e.g., response, sales), Secondary (e.g., brand awareness)
2. Marketing Messaging - "The Promise"
3. Product/Service Description - Benefits, benefits, benefits. Practical, emotional
4. Customer Problem Creative Must Solve
5. Media Plan-Media Mix and Budget
6. Creative Strategy - Know your audience!
7. Offers and Call-to-Action - Hard offers, soft offers
8. Direct Marketing Essentials - Urgency, ways to respond, messages/affiliations to reduce risk in mind of customer
9. Copy/Layout
10. Legal - Know FTC, FDA and FCC advertising guidelines. Disclaimers. Self-regulation

When it comes down to fundamentals: The right offer to the right person at the right time. Relevancy and personalization are ways to win better response in direct marketing. Test, test, test...and track, track, track.

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How Does Marketing Create and Satisfy Consumer Needs?

A. Marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers. B. Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants. 

Part A

'Marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers.' We all need to eat, drink and sleep and reproduce, this is all part of who we are as human beings. Therefore at the basic level companies will strive to satisfy these functions and keep doing so by once in a while showing advertisements that tells the public that they are around and can provide the products they need.  

The other aspect is that needs vary depending on what country you live in. "For example a consumer in the United States may need food but may want a hamburger, french fries and a soft drink and a person that lives in Mauritius that needs food may want a mango, rice, lentils and beans. Wants are shaped by our society." The other part is wants, everybody can want something but only a few has the means to acquire it. A good example would be that everyone wants to eat out at expensive restaurants everyday but in reality only very few people can actually afford that lifestyle. This is why various segments have been created to target different groups and classes of people.

Marketers must therefore continually be creating and developing attractive products and then in turn devising a brilliant marketing strategy to win the consumer over to buy their product over other competing products. Companies strive to retain their customer base by delivering value and satisfaction from their products and this is formulated in consumers' minds as a combination of service, quality and price. Some consumers would not mind paying a higher price for an item or service if they received very good service.

This is all part of what a consumer's expectations on a product are, if these perceived expectations are met time after time then they become a loyal customer to that particular company. We as people like consistency and if a marketer provides consistent service in addition to great products and price then we will keep on going back for years. A good example would be Ben's Chili Bowl located in Washington DC. It is an eatery that has been in business for decades and the fact that it had kept so many loyal customers is because they have offered consistent service and great food over the years and people who used to go there to eat as kids still go there as adults. They even have patrons fly into Washington DC just to experience their food and service. Companies also create brands and these brands have an effect on people's purchasing habits.

These brands can mean several aspects of the company combined to form a perception in the consumer's mind such as products, services, information and experiences. The more unique and interesting a brand the better it will perform. One brand that comes to mind is the Coach Company that manufactures accessories in the retail sector. They produce items such as handbags, purses, belts and other items. Coach has built a strong brand name for themselves by being unique in their style and service and this is primarily the reason that customers create a high demand for their products. This has also allowed the company to maintain an above average price for their products compared with their competitors with the knowledge that consumers would pay that higher price. Segmentation is another way that companies target the consumer to satisfy their needs and companies use this technique to target where they should market their products. There are various criteria that companies use to segment their products and some of them are geographic, demographic, psycho graphic and behavioral.

They would use factors such as how populated and area is or how wealthy the population of a specific area is and target products that fit that mold. This has proved to be a very successful tactic for companies in marketing. Marketing channels are also used by companies to reach their consumers. They use three types of marketing channels which are communications, distribution and service channels. Communications is important to get the company's message out to the public and this could be in many forms such as the radio, television, the internet, posters and the like. They also need to distribute their products to the consumer and this means they will need a physical location like a store, or be a wholesaler and have others retail your products for you and also sell your products on the internet. Service channels are needed to effect transactions with the consumers and these could be banks for credit card purchases and transportation companies such as UPS to deliver the products to homes and businesses.

Marketing has relied on four marketing skills and tools and they are the sales force, advertising, sales promotion and marketing research, they must also use brand building, customer relations, telemarketing and others to make their product selling become reality. Companies must also function ethically and honestly to serve the consumer in the best possible manner. Marketing in the United States is unique in the world because it has evolved and changed over the years to blend in with the capitalistic society we live in in the US. This also means that some of the marketing we use in this country can only work with the credit system we currently have. This is not so in other parts of the world even in industrialized countries. So I would view marketing in the United States as one of the spokes in the wheel that makes our economy such a giant as it is today. 

Part B

Regarding the second argument 'Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants.' I have to also agree with this statement. My reasons are many and varied. After seeing so many television commercials and advertisements both on the Internet and on newspapers I have concluded that some companies construct their ads to create a need in the consumer's mind even if originally they were not interested in the product. I took some time to research some of the words that advertisements commonly use and I found an interesting mix of words and phrases. The word 'free' is the most common denominator I found in the ads, free is used in combinations such as free home trial, free inspection, buy one get one free, free installation, free estimates, free parking, free demonstration and free consultation. The word free is usually a powerful catalyst that springs the consumer into buying that particular product or idea even though he or she might not need it. I think other terms also kind of bait people into buying things they don't need.

Terms such as 'no payments till 2010' or 'money back guarantee' 'no down payment' 'offer good while supplies last' help dissipate any doubts that the consumer may have and spur them on to make the purchase. "Because the goal is to get customers' attention, persuade and create demand, market segmentation has historically been based on variables that correlate to creating demand: geography, age, gender, income, education, occupation and other traditional demographics, as well as psychographics around personality, lifestyle, values and attitudes. It works because these attributes are helpful for defining how to effectively speak to different groups of people."

Some companies do act unethical in their advertising, for example I have seen some ads on the internet especially where companies would advertise a product and make it very appealing to the consumer then at the very bottom is tiny fonts the word 'restrictions apply' they would hide the link that takes you to where the restrictions are listed. So if you happen to buy that product without reading the fine print and something happens that you are not satisfied or want to return the item the company would refuse and make reference to their restriction policy. Other tactics that companies use to shape consumers needs and wants is to use celebrities or other famous people to sell their products. A good example of a company would be Nike. Nike teamed up with Michael Jordan to create marketing giant. One of the themes behind their partnership was to create the desire within consumers that if they wore Michael Jordan's sneakers they could play basketball or jump as high as him.

This was directed primarily towards the younger consumers and turned out to be a huge marketing success. Companies also take advantage of world events or changes in the economy to come out with new products. A good example is the ever increasing popularity of hybrid cars. This has been brought about by gas prices going up and the economy slowing down. However the increase in hybrid cars has led to a marked decrease of large SUV vehicles. In the past we used to associate hybrid cars with car companies such as Toyota and Honda, but nowadays companies such as Lincoln, Ford and others are coming out with hybrid vehicles. This has been a necessity of them to compete in today's changed car market.  

However advertising is not the only force that drives the consumer. Most companies do a lot of research before releasing an advertisement in getting a feel of what the consumers really desire. There is a constant interaction with the public in studying what is in vogue at the time and also what brands people want to be associated with. I have always wondered at why companies come out with new models or new releases at such a quick pace. This tactic is basically mainly a tweak or an enhancement of the previous model or version in order to create the perception of a totally new product which in turn creates more demand for the product.

Good examples of these products would be software, Microsoft is especially good at coming out with new versions of their products. For example with the release of Microsoft Vista operating system it meant that people had to upgrade their computers also because their existing hardware could not support Microsoft Vista's requirements. In conclusion, newer firms tend to lean more towards creating needs because the public does not yet know about their products. Established companies are more interested in fulfilling the existing needs of consumers. These companies are already known and their products have already being deemed essential to their lives so they would continue buying their products even with little or no advertisement. 

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What is Network Marketing

Network Marketing success is more then buying lead list and cold calling. Top income earners know this secret. Do you? I have been in our great industry for some time now. I have learned some secrets that exploded my business to a whole new level. This only happened when I finally received some real Network Marketing Training secrets from some top income earners. This didn't happen over night. It took me two long years of buying lead list and cold calling, wasting my money finally to stop listening to my upline and go out on my own as my own leader and find out what is it that these top income earners are doing to be a massive success.

This is what I found. Top income earners in our industry don't buy lead list and cold call them. They have people contact them so they can join that leader in their primary company. Network Marketing professionals know how to attract other leaders in our industry to them. That's right they don't call people off a list. They have people call them. They put themselves in a position to become the hunted instead if being the hunter. How would you like that for a change? Real Network Marketing Training consist of real world marketing. Buying leads off a list and cold calling them is not marketing and is not duplicable. This is what I learned after talking with many Network Marketing professionals in our industry. I also learned these amazing secrets by learning Internet marketing as well. After applying all I learned after two long years of challenges in my business, it all paid off and paid off in a big way.

Top income earners in Network Marketing are masters at building large list of other network marketers and business contact. They know that these are people who are their true target market. Not tire kickers off some generic lead list. They also know that their list will never be sold five or six times like generic lead list are. They know that they don't have to convince them in believing in Network Marketing because they already do. As top income earners build this list they take the time to build relationships with them by marketing mlm training information to them regularly for a price. This will help them fund there advertising cost so they can advertise endlessly to keep building that highly targeted, list of contact. Then they teach them how to apply it to help them in their own primary business. Buy doing this, the top income earners build that trust and respect factor.

Once the targeted contacts off their list start to see positive results, they start to wonder what network marketing company that they are associated with. Why would they do this. Think about it. If some successful leader in our industry helped you to build your primary business, wouldn't you want to learn more about them. Of course you would! And if you like the company there with you will probably join them as well because you see them as a person of value, a true leader.

By building a team this way and teaching real world network marketing training that is duplicable, you will see success on a massive scale. That's what happened to me and it can happen to you also. I suggest learning this real world marketing training right away! If you don't know were to start then start by visiting my resource box.

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Online Product Marketing - Real Ways to Market

Online product marketing is the most essential skill sets needed in order for you business to succeed online. You can have the best business model and product ever, but it will not matter unless you can get it in front of your target market's eyes. In this article I will explain some different types of online product marketing.

Article marketing can make your website jump to the front page of search engine results just because of the back links it can provide. This online product marketing method also has the added benefit of attracting targeted visitors to your website. You receive visitors when people read your articles, and then click the link in the resource box in the bottom. This form of online marketing takes time to build up, but it can provide large streams of sustainable traffic (potential customers) over time.

Pay per click (PPC) marketing is probably the most popular form of online advertising these days. This is both a good and bad thing. The advantage of PPC marketing is that you can generate massive amounts of extremely targeted visitors to your website in almost no time at all. The disadvantage of this form of marketing is that there is potential to have large losses with it. You must know the right techniques to use with this form of marketing. Often, there will be new online marketers who jump into this form of marketing because of its fast results. They end up losing a lot of money.

Another form of online product marketing is buying bulk traffic. This is the easiest way to get enormous amounts of visitors to your website. However, they will not be targeted towards your specific product or business opportunity. Using this method of online marketing results in extremely low conversion rates because of the lack of relevance your visitors have with your website.

Are you a Small and Medium enterprises that are seeking for the good digital marketing partner, visit Scotts Digital today.

Metrics - The How's and Why's of Proving Diversity and Inclusion Accelerate Business Results

I know. It's 2015 and there are still skeptics in the workplace who do not believe inclusion of diverse people makes a positive difference in organizational results. They just don't think it matters. Let's not get upset with the skeptics; they are resisting for a reason. I always advise my clients to put a skeptic on their diversity council or committee, when they are designing an initiative. Their questions keep us (D&I practitioners) focused on results. Sometimes the resistance is a result of lack of information or understanding. If we view their attitude of trust but verify as an opportunity to prove how diversity works, the results become a win - win for everyone.

Why then is there still a reluctance to invest in organizational actions that help to attract the best talent, and foster diversity of thought among all workers? Because so many of today's workers were born after 1975, they did not experience the full force of the Civil Rights Movement or the Women's Rights Movement, however they are experiencing the positive results of both. For many of them at least some diversity is "normal and expected", thus it appears to them that focused efforts to make diversity work are no longer needed.

A snapshot of the leadership of large established corporations reveals that women currently hold 5.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 5.4 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO positions. (source: Catalyst) There are six Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 1.2 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs. There are nine Asian CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 1.8 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs. There are 10 Latino CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 2 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs. (source: DiversityInc.com) Some may view these numbers and percentages as great progress, while others are wondering why it's taking so long. It is all about perspective.

Some people - particularly those who have seen their share of strategies hailed as the "next best thing" - have seen a lot of theories come and go. So it might be especially hard for them to get excited every time new initiatives come forward. There isn't a willful and conscious desire to not advance inclusion and diversity, or any other strategy for that matter. However, among managers that are more distant from senior leadership, there might be a belief that, unless there is a compelling payoff for them personally, "this too shall pass."

Then there are others who, but for the twelve thousand other things they have on their plate, just can't focus on inclusion and diversity - right now. It's not that they don't want to; they simply don't have the time.

Another group of resistors are persons of great intent who can make the time but don't have a clue as to how they should begin. Organizations have many knowledgeable and savvy business professionals who can quickly figure out almost any topic - and then take action. However, though many understand the business imperative associated with inclusion and diversity, these same skilled managers seem to need a road map to know exactly what to do and how to talk about it. When they're given sufficient direction, they get things done with their usual efficiency and do a great job supporting these initiatives.

Though I hope this group is small in most organizations, the last category to consider are those people who have zero interest and fear no consequences or repercussions. They - as Rhett Butler told Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind - "... don't give a damn!" For these characters we say, don't waste your time trying to convert them, but make sure you are clear with them regarding expected work behavior.

But in cases where employees do care, what can be done to reduce resistance and increase the effectiveness of accountability measures associated with inclusion and diversity? The answer is, plenty.

Recognizing resistance, embracing the challenges it brings, investing in two - way communication regarding the challenges, and addressing needed adaptations can make a significant positive impact on a more successful implementation strategy.

One of the key ways to address skeptics is to answer their questions about the impact on results, even before they are asked. Metrics turn soft skills into hard results. As you plan your D&I strategies, processes, practices and programs be sure to define how you will measure success. The chief diversity officers featured in Trailblazers use the following measures and report the results to their board of directors, executives and others on a regular basis.

• MARKETSHARE - % increase of market share of key markets
• PRODUCTIVITY - Business Contributions from BRGs
• COMMUNITY RELATIONS - Supplier Diversity Usage
• RETENTION/TALENT DEVELOPMENT - Reduced # of HR issues and complaints
• CORPORATE CULTURE - Employee Engagement Survey Results

These are the levers that enable leaders to consistently realize essential progress. By attaching real cost/benefit analysis to these factors and others helps leaders acknowledge and articulate the positive impact of these measures. This combined with effective resistance management, further assures organizational success through collaboration and accountability for results.

Facing staff attrition situations? Talk to our talent management & HR advisory consultancy in Singapore. Click here. A internet marketing activity for smes by Scotts digital.

More Reasons to Become a Virtual, Contract Recruiter

There are no shortcuts to achieving financial success as a virtual, home based recruiter. There are, however, a lot of things you can do that will put real success well within your reach. Earning a residual income is powerful and a good virtual recruiter can do that by working with companies placing contractors (those who are willing to work on a short-term basis for an hourly rate instead of a salary).

A company is nothing with out its employees...and most companies know it, but do they understand it and are they willing to do what it takes to hire and hold on to top talent? Most are and here's why: good candidates are still a challenge to find for the majority of small to medium-sized companies, so why not work with those companies to help them solve their human technology problems?

Even in today's economy, when companies are cutting costs, they still need the right employees to keep their doors open and thrive. If you can match the right contractor candidate to the right contract job order, you will make a placement more often than not.

Your job, as a virtual recruiter, will be to find the right people to present as solutions to problems. What's the problem most companies have? They either need to increase their profits or decrease their expenses to stay in business. Realizing that this statement is very broad, you can translate it to mean several things. It could mean they need to re-vamp their sales force, weeding out the non-producers, or it could mean they need to cut some positions that are overpaid and replace them with new talent at a more junior level.

What's the one key component that a recruiter can offer any company? Confidentiality. Let's say they hire you to do a search for a position in which they're replacing someone. They don't want that person to know they're going to be replaced because that will obviously detract from his/her productivity. So they hire you to do a confidential search. That way they don't have to run ads exposing their company name and taking the chance that the person they are replacing will see their ad.

Another scenario is that a company needs a special project completed that will take three to six months. They want to hire someone for just that length of time but don't know where to find them. They also don't want to bear the burden of laying off someone after the project is over. Your job will be to find them contractors with the appropriate qualifications who will work for that length of time.

As a virtual contract recruiter, you will find the contractors to fill the orders. If you don't have the money to pay the contractors you have out on assignments while you wait for your clients to pay your invoices, I suggest you get connected to a company that can do that kind of payroll funding for you. Or get hooked up with a company that lets you work from home and they take care of payroll and billing for you. In the last scenario, the company you work for will take a certain percentage for doing this. But it's still better than strapping yourself with the burden of payroll and billing.

One final note about earning residual income. It comes from having as many contractors on assignment as possible. Why? Because the difference between what the contractor makes per hour and what you bill the company per hour is profit (minus any expenses). So, if you had six contractors out (each working a 40-hour week), and your profit margin was $8.00 an hour, you would be earning $1,920 per week. I imagine that kind of residual income would be good for you, right?

Seeking for headhunters or want to become a headhunter Singapore,  visit Recruitplus today. A online marketing effort for SME Singapore by Scotts Digital.

Criticisms of Marketing

Many of the criticisms aimed supposedly at marketing are really meant for some of the excesses of hard selling-shifting the goods on to the consumer at all costs. However, there are still some criticisms which must be looked at more seriously:

The 'limited resources' critique which emphasizes that it will not prove possible in the long run to satisfy everyone's needs. Can everyone in the world be raised to the same level as the average American family?

Despite the professional approach adopted, some marketing activity is bound to misfire and attract justified criticisms. It is important to differentiate such critiques from unjustified criticisms of marketing as a whole;

Since marketing is concerned with satisfying customers' needs, there will always be the question whether it is right or desirable to satisfy those needs in the first place. Do we all need luxury or hard drugs?

Add to this the fact that one of the other important role of marketing is to anticipate customer requirements. This is bound to lead people accusing marketing activities as merely creating unnecessary needs and in the process causes people to buy things they could be perfectly happy without. During the 1970s and 1980s best-seller thinkers emerged advocating less consumption rather than more. Writers like Schumacher who in his book titles "Small is Beautiful" questioned the whole concept of constant large-scale development and he received positive reviews from many.

It is probably better to avoid this philosophical minefield and to concentrate on a rather narrower view. At the present time, most countries in the world have adopted economic systems that allocate resources mainly on the basis of a series of purchasing decisions made by individuals, followed by action taken by businesses to satisfy this 'created' demand. While some people are happy with this system and many others feel that it is not totally satisfactory, the majority still seems to support as the best system on offer. It facilitates the right price-quality mixes beneficial for both producers and consumers.

In addition, it facilitates economic growth which is an important prerequisite for national development in general generating more opportunities for the masses in terms of enterprises and jobs.

Are you a Small Business that are seeking for the good marketing strategies partner, visit Scotts Digital.