Making your direct marketing spend go farther can be a challenge, especially for small health brands. However, 

As consumer preferences and marketing channels change rapidly, reaching health consumers where they are can be a complex process. Add in the “guess and check” nature of the marketing beast and you could easily waste thousands of dollars trying to “figure out” what works. 

Traditional brand awareness marketing is slow at best. Time is money. Marketing can suck up tons of cash if you’re not careful – so don’t be like t37% of companies that lost money for no good reason.

For decades, even large companies have invested in this “hurry up and wait” model of marketing with lackluster results. 

What’s masked their marketing failure is the sheer volume of consumers they can market to. But, the key should not be in getting in front of more consumers, it should be focused on getting in front of the right consumers. 

How do you make the shift?

Direct-to-Consumer Marketing.

Your customers have thousands of brands to choose from. Your goal is to cut through the marketing clutter. And you likely have to do it with a tight (and shrinking) marketing budget. If you can’t get the sales, you can’t grow. 

But, if you can’t grow your marketing spend, you can’t grow your sales. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps many businesses stuck.

But health brands that have leveraged direct response strategies have been able to get off the marketing hamster wheel and increase their marketing ROI.

There are three key reasons why you must shift from advertising to direct response. 

    1 .Better business alignment

Advertising boosts awareness. Direct response grows sales.

If your goal is to be the brand everyone knows, then advertising could be your golden ticket. However, if you want to drive sales, direct response is the most cost-effective way to achieve this end. Leveraging innovative direct-to-consumer marketing approaches like geo-targeting can be a one-two punch to get you key marketing metrics and keep you in front of consumers who are primed to buy.

Moreover, branding can come from having a great buying experience and enjoying your wellness/health products. This “experience” branding is more lasting that awareness advertising.

    2. Measurement takes top priority

Blind marketing is replaced with results-driven campaigns.

When you have a clear and accurate way to measure your marketing through sales, you are more informed to make strategic marketing decisions. Instead of taking a “let’s see what sticks” approach, you can use quantifiable data from past campaigns to craft winning strategies that will work. And, with digital marketing, you can get real-time feedback on all of your campaigns.

    3. Flexibility to pivot resources

Lower marketing risk leads to greater direct marketing creativity.

The days of waiting weeks to get results have been replaced with knowing where your marketing campaigns stand at every second. This enables you to fail fast and quickly get out or ramp up any campaign. The lower the inherent financial risk of direct-to-consumer marketing, the more experimenting you can afford to do to find out what resonates. 

Don’t Fall For the One-Size-Fits-All Marketing Trap

The direct response marketing winners are those brands who aren’t afraid to try new avenues to reach the right consumers. Take the growth of branded content in podcasts, as an example. Unlike traditional radio advertising that casts a broad demographic net, podcasts are perfect to target specific subsets of your target audience.

And that’s just one example. As direct response marketers, response rates help you find your customers, particularly online. If they’re consuming digital books, then getting on those platforms is mission-critical. If they’re on Snapchat and Instagram, you’ll see them respond better by measuring your marketing in those media platforms. The point is, you can’t rely on the “build it and they will come”, you must take a more proactive approach and insert yourself on the platforms they use, with marketing messages that speak directly to them. 

Step outside of the marketing box and you could have a whole new level of sales awaiting you. Direct response marketing is a different strategy than awareness advertising and when executed well, can save you money and generate far more sales and ROI.