What are we talking about here?
The response mechanism is the way we evaluate how many people are picking up the leaflets about your company and actually doing something about it. There are numerous different methods that you can make available to these potential customers, but because there are so many different options it makes things a little more complicated for us. Which one should we use? Should we use more than one? How can we monitor these responses?
Years ago this was all a great deal easier. You delivered a leaflet with a great deal or discount. The customer brought the leaflet into the store and hey presto! You knew exactly how successful the campaign was. But with the increased opportunities that the internet offers us, monitoring this is considerably more difficult. But I am getting ahead of myself. First let’s discuss what options are available to us.
Response mechanisms can be landlines, mobile phones, websites or social media sites. It is up to the company what communication methods they put on their leaflets, but in most cases, the more options the better the responses. But this brings its own set of problems. The more options you give your customers, the harder it is to keep track of responses. To evaluate the success of a marketing campaign, understanding the number of responses is very important.
One method that many high street and online retailers are using is social media incentives. If you Like our Facebook page we’ll give you 10% off, for example. This is an effective method of enticing customers to take action, while monitoring the success rate. The more Likes a page receives, the more prestige it gets. It is a win-win solution.
So what about those customers who don’t use social media? It doesn’t seem fair that they should miss out on a discount just because they don’t have a Facebook account. Offering multiple options is about more than simply covering all bases. By offering a landline option in addition to social media, your customers won’t feel alienated if they don’t want to Like your page. Personally, if I can’t receive a great deal because I’m not a member of some new social site, I begin to resent that company for cutting me out. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.
So, what is the best approach? Consider who your target market is and what methods of communication they will use. Out of the options available, which one is the easiest? You want to make life as easy as possible for your customer, so choose options that require minimum effort. If you want them to complete a survey make it short and sweet and offer an incentive, for example. Your leaflet should be a positive thing, so make sure that is how your customers feel about it.
