Yes.
I believe you should be using both. As great as Twitter and Facebook are, it is still difficult to scale. It would take me about an hour to get on the phone and have one of my database marketing friends hand me the name of every man and woman in the United States who is ever likely to buy your product or service.
For example, if I had a “stop smoking” product I could buy a list of 2,455,650 and have it at my Lettershop by end of business. (36,211 people were added to this list this month.)
Try getting that level of targeting on Twitter or Facebook. You can’t… but that’s ok because that is NOT what it is all about.
So, what is it about?
It is about conversations… finding them, joining them, adding to them, pushing them forward and helping EVERYONE out in the process.
How can Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media make your Direct Marketing Campaigns more successful?
Here’s how: Along with your direct mail (or print ad) include your social media information. The way direct mail works is that only a very small percentage of people will be ready to buy RIGHT NOW… that leaves a bunch of people who ARE interested but, for some reason, just won’t move ahead right now… and, others who aren’t interested and may never be.
Direct Response Advertising is structured to get the BUY RIGHT NOW part of that group. But… what about the WILL BUY BUT NOT NOW group? It is LARGER than the NOW group. Probably five times, maybe even ten times, larger.
This is where the social media comes in. Invite them to join you. I put the invitation OUTSIDE of the main sales pitch on another slip of paper or postcard. Appeal to their self-interest… “For more tips on curbing smoking cravings follow me on Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/Wherever”
Now, when they get ready they’ll know where to find you and your campaign becomes much, much more profitable.
Jason Bedunah
The Leader in using Social Media, Web2.0 and Traditional Direct Response to help companies sell more software.