If you’re still just sticking to newspaper or TV ads, it’s time to update your marketing mentality.

Every business owner wants company marketing to grab more clients, but few companies get how modern advertising works. This explains why so many brands still try to milk outdated advertising approaches. Bad luck for them – the old strategies just don’t work anymore.

At its simplest, marketing is the act of putting your company brand out in the world so customers can find you. Just 100 years ago, the only avenues to do so were radio, print newspapers and billboards.

But what if you wanted to sell tiny leashes for pet tarantulas? Chances are, if you placed an ad in the local newspaper, you wouldn’t sell many leashes. But why? Your tarantula leash is such a niche product that only a small percentage of people who see your ad would be interested.

Today, technology has thrown advertisers a whole new set of challenges.

Some 90 percent of potential customers find products and services online while the rest encounter ads while they read a newspaper or watch TV. So as a tarantula leash seller, not only is the percentage of people interested in your product small but the percentage of people who will see your ad is even smaller!

Modern marketing isn’t just putting your brand out there so anyone can find you – you need to attract the attention of the right people. This can save a lot of time, money and effort!

Unlike a billboard visible to every passerby, direct response marketing targets a specific group of people. It gets this select group engaged by using a call to action, which we’ll learn more about in the following blinks.

Direct response marketing is harnessed using a range of online tools, allowing you to reach the right customers at the right time.

Sound exciting? Before you start, you’ll need to work out who your ideal customers are!