Absolute Essentials of Direct and Digital Marketing

Benefits to you and your employer

Benefits to your employer:

Direct marketing's core principles of targeting, interaction, control and continuity are always relevant but by blending in digital media we are able to deliver real-time marketing.

By the end of this one-day training course you will discover:

• Why direct and digital marketing are fundamental to marketing planning
• How to develop a fully integrated marketing plan
• How to discover 'customer insights'
• The ‘customer journey’ and its impact on communications
• The latest digital and internet marketing technologies
• How to write copy for on and offline media
• The importance of a thorough briefing
• Why to test and how to test on and offline
• How to judge and evaluate creative work
• How to set up a retention/loyalty programme
• How to develop strong customer propositions
• Tracking and measuring web analytics
• Selecting and managing digital suppliers
• Producing engaging creative that cuts through the clutter
• Building online web traffic and retaining customers online

Benefits to you:

The Absolute Essentials course will give you a comprehensive understanding of how direct and digital marketing works right now in the global marketplace.

You will learn how to combine the best of direct marketing and digital marketing in just one day.

Who should attend:

The Absolute Essentials of Direct and Digital Marketing course is designed for marketers new to direct and digital marketing.

If your role involves the acquisition or retention of customers, and you work with on and offline media, then this course is right for you.

This will include:

• Marketing executives
• Account managers
• Marketing managers
• Digital executives
• Digital managers

Previous delegates include:

• Marketing Manager (Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery Europe)
• Sales Executive (Lloyd James Group)
• Marketing Executive (Holidaybreak)
• Account Manager (Caspa Marketing)

Programme outline

The Absolute Essentials of Direct and Digital Marketing course is a one-day training course stacked with tips and hints on producing cost effective campaigns that get results. It reflects modern, integrated direct marketing and incorporates the latest digital media to make one-to-one marketing a reality for us all.

Here is the programme outline for this course:

Session 1: How digital marketing is changing marketing for good

• How modern direct and digital channels now play a vital role in marketing
• New marketplaces, new consumer power
• How companies are becoming ‘customer centric’
• Understanding the ‘customer experience’ and ‘customer journey’
• Managing customer relationships across multiple on and offline channels
• Four key principles – targeting, control, interaction and continuity
• Three different business models for success
• Examples of integrated marketing campaigns

Session 2: Planning direct and digital integrated acquisition campaigns

• Setting realistic acquisition objectives
• The importance of profiling and segmentation of your customer database
• Combining marketing research and customer data to create ‘customer insights’
• Customer value segmentation and value focused propositions
• Understanding the buying process and customer behaviour
• Understanding the six steps for acquisition – objectives, profiling/targeting, media selection, communication and evaluation
• Develop an integrated media and contact plan
• Evaluating which media works best for which task(s)
• Unique characteristics for addressable media (direct mail, email, fax, phone, SMS)
• The strengths/weaknesses of traditional media – TV, radio, posters, press
• The emerging digital media and their effectiveness
• How to evaluate multiple integrated campaigns; the key metrics
• Case histories of integrated acquisition programmes

Session 3: Retaining and developing customers on and offline

• Understanding the commercial imperative of retaining customers
• What makes a loyal customer and what doesn’t
• Ten ways to analyse your customers
• Understanding the customer journey and customer touchpoints
• Why the CRM bubble burst and what next
• Five step approach to acquisition – classification and analysing, programme streaming, communication, evaluation and testing
• The importance of up sell, cross sell, win back and renewal
• The language of loyalty – eleven reasons to contact customers
• Three ways to bond customers to your company
• The truth behind loyalty schemes
• Measuring and evaluating your success

Session 4: Digital marketing planning and the communications tools

• Consumer behaviour in the digital age
• Understanding the impact of digital marketing on your business
• Building customer relationships online and permission marketing
• Online buyer behaviour
• Planning a digital marketing plan
• Gathering and managing your digital marketing data
• Website design and usability
• Key digital marketing communications tools – online advertising, search engine marketing, email and viral marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs and podcasting
• Testing, tracking and measurement – web analytics

Session 5: Great, engaging on and offline creative

• What new opportunities does digital media present?
• Developing strong propositions through customer insights
• Evaluating the right positioning for the product/service
• Fifteen offers that increase response
• The value of preparing a comprehensive brief
• Why tone, feel and style are vital to building the brand
• When and how personalisation can be effective
• Techniques to break through the media clutter
• Designing websites to attract and retain visitors
• Writing direct mail and email letters
• The importance of testing – product, media, timing and creative
• How to judge and evaluate outstanding creative work
• Award winning examples of mail, press, TV, inserts, email, banners, online advertising, viral, SMS and interactive TV

Training course tutors

Our speakers are seasoned direct and digital marketing practitioners who between them have worked with some of the world’s biggest brands….

Mike Berry Dip DM, F IDM is an independent consultant and trainer, who draws on his extensive experience of online and offline marketing to work with a range of clients in B2B, B2C, public and charity sectors. He is also Partner at Aprais, a global agency/client relationship management consultancy.

Mike is the author of 'The New Integrated Direct Marketing, published by Gower, and writes a regular blog on marketing and technology and has over 3,600 Twitter followers. He is both passionate and knowledgeable about digital marketing and his classical marketing training and integrated background makes him ideally qualified to train marketers in digital skills.

Mike is also a training course tutor for the IDM's Complete Digital Marketing training course.

Steve Walpole M IDM, Former Executive Creative Director, Clark McKay and Walpole has worked in response marketing for 26 years, the last 19 as a Creative Director. Prior to joining CMW in 1996 he was a founding director/partner of both GGT Direct Advertising and Lowe Direct.

At GGT he was responsible for the RAC’s first web site and on-line advertising. The use of technology to help consumers interact with a brand has always been one of Steve’s passions. To this end he has also been one of the driving forces behind two UK launches that revolutionised the financial services industry – First Direct and Marbles.

Steve believes in total integration, where customers can interact with a brand at any point and that their expectations are always exceeded. Each media used should maximise its potential whether it’s purely brand building or customer account management.

He also believes that, however good a marketing or communications strategy is, creativity is still the most important part of a successful campaign. And to make sure that creative work is the best it can possibly be, we should continually look outside advertising for stimulation. Creativity breeds creativity. Steve’s clients include Porsche, Peugeot, Renault Retail, The Partnership Card from the John Lewis Partnership, Greenbee, Beneficial Finance, marbles, Flybe, Cadbury, Transport for London, Littlewoods and Axa.

Besides receiving numerous awards both here and abroad, Steve has won the overall DMA Gold twice.

Delegate testimonials

"An eye opening into digital marketing. I now feel confident to attack my customer database and how to get results."

Kathie Crane, Finance Director, Prosperon Networks

"If you would like an overview of digital marketing and direct marketing, then this is the course for you. It confirmed my existing knowledge but enhanced and gave food for thought! I now feel confident to go back and question my marketing."

Natasha Parmar, Marketing Manager, Royal Inst of RICS

"The case covered everything I needed as an introduction to all aspects of Direct and Digital marketing and certainly whetted my appetite for further in-depth courses."

Natalie Dorrington, Sales and Marketing Executive, The Cruise Portfolio

"An excellent introduction to the basics of direct and digital marketing - comprehensive and engaging."

Sophie Coleman, Assistant Product Manager, MBI

"IDM seem to know just how to make a training session enjoyable, fun and extremely beneficial."

Pip Tuttle, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association