It's no secret measurable, targeted, effective, low-cost direct response campaigns drive sales and breed profits for any advertiser. With precise planning and compelling creative, multimedia efforts are primed for a tremendous return on investment. But where to begin? The answer is simple: radio. With its ability to target consumers, create metrics and reduce costs, radio represents an attractive and inexpensive entry-level vehicle for any multimedia DR campaign.

Match the right radio creative with the right offer and media priced correctly, and you've formulated a recipe for generating a high volume of calls to your telemarketers and clicks to your website. Calls that are dropped, picked up or converted to leads and sales can then be studied to construct metrics on the front end and help determine the actual cost per call.

On the back end, advertisers can analyze how many secondary and third-party products were sold, which clubs were joined and total commissions earned based on sales made. In the outbound process, anyone not sold on the product or unhappy with the price can be given a downsell offer, in which the telemarketer lowers the price on the same quantity or sells less quantity to reduce cost to the consumer. The telemarketer also may have the option to offer the caller additional products for the same price. Metrics are then adjusted, taking the downsell offers into account.

The trend today is to create DR radio ads that utilize a soft sell or lead generation approach. These proven techniques invite targeted listeners to try a product or service risk-free. In some instances, a free brochure or free sample is offered within the call to action. To help optimize client investment in DR radio advertising, most savvy agencies will steer advertisers away from hard sell creative in which price points are mentioned. They understand the importance of presenting a mass appeal product.

Armed with these high-quality metrics from DR radio, it's easier to expand your advertising efforts to include short-form or long-form TV, internet, newspaper or print. Radio delivers an affordable and attractive start while building your metrics. With the high cost of creative development, production and media placement, why begin your campaign with TV? The amount required to create and air even a simple longform TV ad could set you back as much as $150,000 to $300,000. With radio, your direct response ad can be produced and aired on multiple stations for less than $15,000. Plus with TV, you may need to invest hundreds of thousands in testing just to determine your strategy's effectiveness. Radio testing happens much faster for much less.

So, who do you want to reach? Whose attention are you looking to capture? Where's your target audience? Well, you're more likely to reach and connect with the right people at the right time for the right cost through, you guessed it, radio. The medium is easily separated by format to better target the demographics you're after. This allows advertisers to tailor their media plans to reach the precise consumers they want based on age, gender, region, listening habits, interests and much more. In addition, listeners are generally loyal to the station they tune in to. This lends credibility to the advertisers running on the consumers' favorite station. For example, News Talk and All News format listeners tend to believe more vehemently in the advertising messages airing around the news content, leading to a better conversion to sale. The credibility built for your product or service from radio advertising running with continuity is stronger than with any other media. By precisely targeting your customers and presenting the right offer with maximum efficiency, your chances for greater ROI soar.

Multimedia DR campaigns work for brands and product categories of virtually every type. DR radio serves as a sensible and effective door opener. Advertisers, ad agencies and media buyers have developed and executed direct response campaigns for products relating to anti-acne treatments, natural cures, cruises, invention companies, work-at-home opportunities, stress and anxiety relief systems, low-testosterone improvement, debt relief, medical hair restoration, weight loss and smoking cessation. With radio you can drive listeners to call, click or head straight to retail.

To sum up, when considering all elements required for a successful direct response campaign, understand that radio delivers distinct advantages over other media when embarking on a multimedia effort. With its inherent ability to help you effectively and efficiently target consumers, develop and analyze metrics, and keep costs per call or click down, radio clearly offers an attractive and inexpensive start for virtually any multimedia DR campaign.