What is direct response advertising? According to business dictionaries and industry terms, direct response advertising is a promotional method in which a prospective customer is urged to respond immediately and directly to the advertiser through various devices.
The most popular form of direct response advertising is at trade shows or retail outlets in which prospective customers fill out contest or information ballets. This method of direct response advertising is also known as direct response mechanism.
Another form of direct response advertising is through coupons. Direct response advertising through coupons have taken a more recent modern turn. Gone are the days in which you cut, mailed or walked into a store in which the cashier keyed in your information. Now through e-mail newsletter signups coupons are e-mailed directly complete with a bar code. Once the customer walks into the store, depending on the information and circumstance, the bar code information is now instantly recorded. There are some retailers still utilizing the traditional form of direct response advertising, however, with e-commerce sites and retail accessibility we will be seeing more data collected through bar code encrypted coupons. If shopping on line with an e-coupon direct response advertising can be collected in the form of a coupon code recorded and redeemed during check out.
Used for customer service for e-commerce sites is the direct response advertising through data collected on a toll free number. In addition to the geographical location of where the call is coming from, other information can be gathered through key pad menu selection.
Finally the fourth of the popular forms of direct response advertising is from “Hot Spots.” Hot spots are hyperlinked icons, images and or texts. By clicking on the link, pages are being recorded of where you’re going and where you’re coming from on specific sites.