On This Page: Direct Marketing Effectiveness | Who Uses Direct Marketing | Direct Marketing: Right for You?
Direct marketing is an advertising program that acts as a direct line of brand communication to the core target market.
Direct Marketing Effectiveness
A large portion of advertising dollars are spent anually on reaching out to the perceived perfect customer where broader spectrum advertising might fail. Techniques for direct marketing pieces or programs include email marketing, postcards and fliers, catalog distribution to known buyers, promotional letters and offers and even outdoor advertising in specific areas or routes.
Unlike the general blanked advertising that relies on repetition as its primary tool, direct marketing is addressed directly to a customer or prospect through regular postal services, fax, email, text-messaging and web site advertising. Direct marketing also appeals more often to the addressee as it relates a solution or specific call to action that they are more likely involved in.
Consider, for example, a vitamin for horse breeding. It wouldn't make much sense to buy expensive air time and produce a TV commercial for general consumption for a narrow target market such as horse breeders - the primary consumer of this product. Through market research, it is known that there are X number of horse breeding farms that could potentially buy this vitamin. It is an expensive therapy though, so out of that a handful are selected who have the sales and reputation to want to purchase this premium product.
The perfect direct marketing campaign would then be an introductory letter and post card mailed out to the handful of horse breeding farms who meet the qualifications which encourages them through a strong call-to-action (such as a free sample or a discount) to sign up for an online newsletter or visit a specific website domain for more information. These are both highly trackable as to who responded which in turn creates a hot-leads list of interested parties and the starting point for a conversation and purchase.
Who Does It?
Direct Marketing is conducted by businesses and brands of all sizes and is an excellent way to measure interest among certain groups for a product or service. Direct Marketing is often much more impactful to an organization's bottom line simply because it can be traced back. That is why there must always be a strong call-to-action in whatever the piece is (i.e. "call now", "limited time offer" etc.). It "targets" qualified buyers rather than gradually building awarness through a carpet-bombing type of exposure via traditional advertising methods and then hoping for the best.
Your Direct Marketing Program
Like any advertising program or piece, we custom tailor the perfect concept for your brand's needs depending on who we are trying to get in front of. Learn more about getting started with your custom direct marketing campaign and find out how it fits into your overall Marketing Action Plan too. Call our office at 1-866-570-5344 for the next step in pinning down your perfect customer!
