Torrid affair with bingo cards about to end?

Business advertisers' reliance on inquiry reply cards as sales leads and as a measure of effectiveness may be coming to an end. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, the electronic era certainly brings a new perspective to bingo cards and other inquiry response mechanisms. Research reports from Penton Media and Cahners Research demonstrate a decreased reliance on inquiry reply cards and increased reliance on web sites and e-mail to respond to advertising and obtain product information.

The 1998 Industry Inquiry Trends study by Penton Media, Inc., indicated that buyers preferred to use the phone or fax rather than mail to get information from advertisers. Seven out of ten respondents indicated that they expected to respond to more ads in the next few years by visiting the advertiser's Web site or sending e-mail to the company.

A year later, a similar study by Cahners confirmed the general findings in the earlier report. In How Do Your Customers Respond to Advertising?, 56% of the respondents indicated they responded to advertisements by visiting the advertiser's web site, a doubling from two years earlier.

These studies and others suggest that major changes are continuing how buyers respond to advertising. These changes will impact how we evaluate advertising effectiveness in attracting inquiries and the processes we use to respond to inquiries. What are some of the implications for advertisers?

• Potential buyers want information now! The Cahners study shows that buyers use the phone, fax, e-mail, and web site for immediate information needs. Advertiser response mechanisms must be set-up to respond to buyer's needs in a timely fashion. The 2-3 week standard for mail inquiries is no longer acceptable.

• Bingo cards don't tell the whole story (if they ever did). If the decreasing number of gummed labels that you receive every month has you concerned, you need to take a look at your other response mechanisms: phone, fax, and e-mail, web site.

• Set-up special e-mail addresses or URL's to help you track and evaluate the source of your sales leads. Remember, you created special 800 numbers for that same purpose.

• Keep your Web site current. If you are advertising a new product and are including your Web site URL in the ad, be sure that the information is on the site when the respondent visits.

• Be sure your response mechanisms are set up to gather the information you need for evaluation. Whether you are using automation or scripts, you want to gather information as well as provide the correct information to the inquirer.

• Qualify, qualify, qualify. Regardless of the source or the means of response, you need to qualify the inquiry to provide the right information or forward to field sales if appropriate.

It's a whole new world in inquiry response for B2B advertisers. Adapting to change will keep you in the game and ahead of your competition.

 

 

 

Copyright © Marketing Resources Ltd. 2008. All rights reserved.
Marketing Resources Ltd.
12638 W. Virginia Ave, Lakewood, CO 80228-2609 USA
Phone: 303.274.1222
E.mail: mtb@mrlweb.com
Web Site: http://www.mrlweb.com