7 Direct Response Strategies That Will Increase Engagement and Sales

2. Leverage the Page Sidebar or Breaks to Make Offers

You might already be familiar with this strategy if you’ve been on our blog before. That’s because SMT utilizes our sidebar to make offers and promote content. 

You don’t always need to relate the offer to the particular post or page content, although you certainly could.

The point is to use that prominent space on the page to draw attention to your offer. Otherwise, visitors are more likely to leave the page without engaging any further.

3. Make an Offer with EVERY Interaction

This strategy is very similar to encouraging an action on every page of your website. Without making it crystal clear what next step you’d like your audience to make, they'll probably take none.

An example of making an offer with every interaction is by including relevant product offers within your confirmation emails or on the Thank You page after purchase.

Amazon does this with their confirmation emails. By suggesting upsells, you have the opportunity to sell more and increase that customer’s lifetime value.

4. Provide Multiple Ways to Connect

In direct response marketing, you should provide multiple ways for customers to connect with your business. For example: 

• Phone number
• Email address
• Physical address
• Website
• Live chat software

​It's vital to offer leads more than one option to take the next step. And if they’re not ready to make a purchase, make it easy for them to contact you with any questions so you don't lose that connection.

5. Gather Contact Info on Your First Interaction

Marketing expert, Dr. Jeffery Lant’s 'Rule of Seven' tells us that “You must contact your buyers a minimum of seven times in an 18-month period for them to remember you.”

However, you can’t connect with potential buyers those seven times if you never gather any information from them. But what if they don’t immediately give up that information?

If visitors fail to fill out a form to capture their information, you can still reach them by using Facebook retargeting ads to drive that traffic back to your lead magnet and get another chance to capture their information. Once you have that, you can communicate with them by email, SMS, etc.

6. Attract with Free Trial Offers

A free trial offer is an effective way to entice new customers. After the free trial period, the full amount is billed unless the customer cancels. This type of offer works the best when it's an item that doesn’t need to be shipped, such as a software subscription.

Customers are able to experience your product/service without having too much of a commitment up front, and you’re able to quickly and easily capture their information.

7. Create a Bundle or Package Deal

Sometimes, all it takes is a little extra value to make the sale.

Before visitors have a chance to leave without purchasing anything on your website, one strategy that has been proven to increase conversion rates is to offer product bundles. This works best when the products in the bundle are relevant to each other.

Adding bonuses to an offer can be enough to sweeten the deal and persuade the visitor to become a buyer. 

Turn Prospects into Customers

These are just a few ways that direct response strategies can elicit more responses from your target audience and gain customers.

Remember to think about how you’re directing visitors towards an action or offer on your website and how you plan to follow up with them, whether they fill out a form or end up leaving without taking an action.

By seizing every interaction as an opportunity, you have a much better chance of growing your business.