Lessons in Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing is the industry where all of you make your living and many of you will consider yourself experts. So, you may think a lesson in Direct Marketing is unnecessary. You may consider it, if the person presenting the lesson is someone of greater standing, who has many years of experience and who is considered to be something of a guru in the field.

What would you say to receiving a lesson in direct marketing from a gardener, someone who is looking for a job and who has never had any training in the principles of direct marketing and has no more than a basic education. You may well consider it ridiculous but nonetheless, here it is.

Gift Fredrick, an unemployed Malawian looking for work as a gardener, created his own direct marketing campaign and met all the requirements.

1)He selected his medium.
He opted to produce hand-written information sheets.

2)He decided on the content of his message.
The information provided was short, concise and provided only essential details.

3)He packaged his message in an inviting manner
Each approach was placed in a sealed envelope.

4)He qualified the suitability of his offer.
He provided the name and contact details of a reference.

5) He ensured the success of delivery
He hand delivered each approach thereby giving him the ability to measure success, ROI and conversion rate.

6)He selected his market demographic
He chose an area that was easily accessible to him (he rides on a bicycle).

7)He further targeted his message
He only approached those houses that appeared to be in need of attention.

While there are many lessons to be learned from this approach taken by a simple gardener looking for employment, perhaps the most important is that you should not over-think the details of your campaign, just keep it simple.