| name | direct-marketing-target-marketing |
| description | WHAT: Dan Kennedy's list selection and target marketing principles
WHEN: When applying direct marketing target marketing knowledge |
Direct Marketing Target Marketing
No B.S. Direct Marketing: List Selection & Target Marketing
The Principle
In direct marketing, the LIST is more important than the CREATIVE.
You can have the best-written sales letter ever created, but if you send it to the wrong list, you'll get nothing.
The right message to the wrong people = failure.
The right message to the right people = success.
List Selection Criteria
Who to Target
- Prior buyers of similar products — These people have proven they buy
- Subscribers to related content — They've shown interest in the space
- Members of relevant groups — Aligned with your market
- Referral sources — People who connect buyers to products
Who NOT to Target
- Broad "interested in X" audiences
- Cold audiences with no buying history
- People who consume but never buy
The RFM Model
| Factor | What It Measures |
|---|
| Recency | How recently did they buy? |
| Frequency | How often do they buy? |
| Monetary | How much do they spend? |
Best customers: High R, High F, High M
Target Marketing vs Mass Marketing
| Mass Marketing | Direct/Target Marketing |
|---|
| "Everyone should see this" | "Only the right people see this" |
| High waste | Low waste |
| Hard to measure | Easy to measure |
| Brand building | Direct response |
Application
- Identify who has bought similar products/services
- Build lists of people who consume related content
- Use multiple targeting criteria together
- Test small before scaling
- Double down on what works
Rule: In direct marketing, the quality of your list determines the ceiling of your results.
