Direct response marketing is a type of sales technique. It is designed to trigger potential customers to take immediate action by responding to the advertiser’s offer. Direct response marketing allows a “call to action” to be made through direct or online interaction. Unlike traditional marketing, which aims to increase brand awareness and build long-term brand image, direct response is designed to show immediate ROI. Hereby, creativity can make a huge difference in the outcome of direct response campaigns. 56% of a brand’s sales lift when using high quality creative in their digital advertising campaigns. 

Nowadays mobile has become more important than desktop. Your website must be up to date to deliver the perfect customer journey online. Keep the following golden rules in mind for mobile best practices: 

• Keep it short and sweet in duration. Don’t bore us, get to the cores. Get to the point quickly and keep the intro short to reduce the chance of losing people.
• Design for sound off. Make sure that people are not necessarily listening. 
• Frame your visual story so that it will jump off the screen. 

When it comes to DR, there are multiple tests that were made by different companies. This has led to a number of best practices to succeed with your DR campaign on mobile devices. These tips and tricks are for driving action for a new product launch, increase sales, promotion and many more. 

Pare static & video up

The combination of static and dynamic formats in a single campaign results in more conversion than a single format alone. Implying the two formats may complement each other in messaging and/or attracting different target audiences. These kinds of campaigns have a 17% on average higher conversion lift compared to static images alone. Next to the lift of conversion, there is a 46% increase in the number of subscribers. 

source: Facebook

Are you stuck on how to add motion to static image assets? Here you’ll have some ways to make your imagery jump off the screen:

• Basic motion – animate 1-2 elements (logo, products, text, etc.)  in the first 3 seconds
• Brand in motion – bring the elements of the brand/logo to life in the first 3 seconds to remind you who the brand is. You can start and end with the brand elements. 
• Benefit in motion – Animate the benefit/message in the first 3 seconds. Different kinds of messages are promo, product benefit, an offer, a discount or a testimonial. It’s animated in a way why they should respond for example by mentioning till when the promotion lasts. 
• Demo in motion – Focus on the demonstration of an app, website, product or feature. In this way, customers can visualize how to get from point A to point B. You could show that the product is used and demonstrate the benefits of it. 

Highlight the brand early

Association with the brand during the first 3 seconds of the creative is crucial in order to create a positive correlation with the conversion lift. Show your logo in different kinds of formats, colours, etc. But it’s not only about bringing your logo over, there are different ways of displaying your brand associates within 3 seconds of a video’s start. 

This can be done with the use of :

• Logos and fonts 
• Recognizable spokespeople 
• Colours
• Products 

Build recognition through colours. Think about Spotify, Airbnb or other brands, if you see their colour combinations it’ll immediately remind you of the brand. Another way to create a visual identity tol help you differentiate from the competition is to create the same look & feel, and  be consistent with your visuals. This can be done by paying attention to colours, the art direction that is put into your shoots which will make a difference in your overall campaign approaches. 

Find the right balance between being consistent and adding some variety by innovating. Stay loyal to your brand’s logo, fonts and colours to build trust in the seller. You can find variety in “logo exploration”. Find an example below of the brand “Spruce”. 

source: Facebook

Showcase the product or service

Your identity is working well, same as your messaging but now we are going in-depth to showcase your products and services. There are creative ways to show off your product or service in the higher-funnel like: 

• show multiple products or variants
• show a demo or tutorial 
• or, make the product the focal point by for example letting a celebrity/influencer wear it or show it. 

Get noticed

Drawing people’s eyes to your ad and getting their attention is very important. Create noticeably, thumb-stopping creatives which correlate with lower-funnel outcomes to win from the multiple competitors within your industry. Use a poll, text captions, appeal to the customer’s emotions or use quick cuts of the details of your product. For example for shoes, show the laces, the shape, the sole, etc. to convince potential customers that your product has the best quality by showing off details.. 

Provoke and promote

There are really creative ways to show off your product or service to immerse at the top of the heat by asking that question that nobody does, show promotions and keeping the text under 280 characters are associated with higher DR lift. 

You should understand the way people’s eyes move around the frame and interact with the ad to make an impact with your ad. Firstly the eyes are naturally drawn to the images that are shown in the ad. Secondly, they read the text to know more about the product. Thirdly, the eyes go to the brand to know who the advertiser is. Lastly, they look at what to do next at the call to action of the ad to go to the website. 

source: Facebook

Play more with formats

In the beginning, it was only possible to advertise on Facebook on the right-hand side of the screen. Nowadays there are a lot of different placements or sorts of ads to test with. Try out different placements like Instagram stories, feed or Facebook feed to see which one works best for your brand and target audience.

The history of DR has changed along with the different technologies of marketing. The formula stayed the same, only the formats changed. Test with different ad formats like collection ads, carousels, link ads, stories or much more. 

Now we hear you coming: Where do we start? Well, that’s what we’re here for. Get in touch with our Dotters and start testing different creatives to push direct response marketing! 

Want to watch the webinar on your own: Here you can find the link.