Direct Response Agency Must Know What Successful Advertising Looks Like

By Tim Calcara

A direct response agency must know what successful advertising looks like. I have found that success looks differently to every individual so it is wrong to assume that it will be the same for every business. In fact, the most important information that your direct response agency must know is what you as the client will consider to have been a successful advertising campaign. This discussion needs to occur before the campaign begins.

Today, a successful advertising campaign can be measured in more ways than ever before. Obviously, a company must generate enough sales to continue but a forward thinking company knows that selling is a process. In most businesses, inquiries become leads, leads become prospects and prospects become customers in that order. This all happens in the context of a business relationship usually taking an average of four to five meaningful exchanges before a sale is made. But advertising can and should be measured primarily by the meaningful exchanges that must happen as a part of the selling process.

Let's assume that you sell insurance online using a website to allow the consumer to make comparisons on the web and to gather information. The effectiveness of the advertising campaign could be measured in web visit increases, lead capture quotas reached, a predetermined number of calls achieved, a predetermined number of downloads of a free offer, or even increased search inquiries for a the insurance product that you sell. All of these are measurable and good ways of measuring a successful advertising campaign.



Once data is collected, a direct response agency will assume that their job is over and rightfully so since it is their job to increase any or all of these factors leaving the closing into your hands as business owner. Successful advertising will have been accomplished if mutually agreed upon goals were reached whether or not sales were made as a result. The key in marketing is to have a tested conversion mechanism already in place before the advertising begins to turn the collected data into sales. If the selling mechanism isn't converting, you need to take a second look at the mechanism of conversion, not the advertising.



If a common understanding between the direct response agency and the buyer wasn't reached prior to starting the campaign, it is easy to see how there could be finger pointing and a potential breakdown and ending of the relationship that all could have been avoided by a very simple yet profound question that every advertising executive must ask the client. Namely, "What does success look like to you?"

Tim Calcara is a national account executive with Salem Communications specializing in direct response radio and emerging media advertising strategies. You can order his nineteen page report "Five Secrets to Six Figures" at http://www.christianradioadvertising.com This report identifies five key elements of the successful small business entrepreneur and is FREE of charge. Tim is also an accomplished public speaker specializing in motivation and business success. To inquire about his availability, call (319) 373 6039.