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What is Direct Marketing?

Direct Marketing

What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is communicating with members of the public who have shown intent to buy from you, through a direct form of communication, like email, post, or telephone. This is not like advertising which targets a broader audience with high-level information. More importantly, this form of marketing targets and customizes campaigns to the recipient

An example of direct marketing is that you could launch a direct postal marketing campaign where you target potential customers who joined your email list and never bought from you. You could offer them a 10% discount to buy from your store in the next month, with the expiry date clearly outlined. After a month you should be able to report on the campaign’s success by tracking how many people used your discount code and bought from you for that period of time. 

Why is Direct Marketing Effective?

Direct marketing is effective as you target a specific audience with personalized content. This type of marketing can be cost-effective as you are not targeting a huge audience. The initial cost of rolling out these projects will be less than traditional campaigns. This is because of the personalized nature of the campaigns. Conversion rates are higher as people are interested in your product or service. 

A direct marketing example is launching a direct marketing campaign to people who have added specific products to their cart on your website but didn’t complete the purchase steps. These people are more inclined to buy additional products from you, rather than new visitors to your website. Compared this to a generalized marketing campaign where there is no indication from the recipients if they care about buying from you, and you can see how effective direct marketing can actually be.

What is a Direct Marketing Strategy?

Strategies look to increase sales for a company, or to grow a company’s brand. With this in mind, your direct marketing strategy should have a call to action. This should lead recipients of a campaign to a landing page with an enticing offer or message. Furthermore, good direct marketing strategies personalize content to each potential customer. 

Direct marketing strategy examples include;

  • adding the person’s name in the body of the text, 
  • incorporate products that the customer showed interest in purchasing, and 
  • translating the campaign into the mother tongue of the recipient. 

Including all these in a direct marketing strategy will set you on the course to success.

Direct Marketing Channels

There are many types of direct marketing channels to choose from when you decide to try this form of marketing out. Types of direct marketing include:

  • Telemarketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Direct Mail
  • Targeted Online Ads
  • Text Messaging
  • Door to Door Sales

Although there are many forms of direct marketing, you should research what type is the best for your industry. Look at what competitors are doing, and ask customers what they like. Customers in your industry might not use coupons or voucher codes. Instead, they might like receiving email marketing campaigns reminding them of items they left in their shopping cart. Or maybe they prefer hearing about new product lines to browse.  

Direct Marketing Advantages

  • Brand Loyalty

Customers who have interacted with your brand before may enjoy receiving information about upcoming offers and products. This acts as a reminder to the customer that your company cares about them. This reminder to the customer can be the difference between them doing business with you or your competition. 

  • Personalized Communication

Direct marketing campaigns are not generic, they are personalized. They include some elements of personalization that allows them to resonate with a certain segment of your audience. This could mean that you only share one product range with your recipients. Or you talk to a certain demographic of followers in a campaign. Campaign customization is the main difference between a direct and general marketing campaign.

  • Trackable Campaigns

The ability to track phone and even text forms of direct marketing make this type of campaign popular. By sharing coupon or voucher codes you can measure the increase in sales easily, making for efficient measurability of campaigns. 

  • Fly Under the Radar

As direct marketing campaigns are super customized and segmented there is less chance of competitors being send the campaigns. This means that you can have a competitive advantage over your competition through sending out these intimate communications to customers. 

What is Direct Advertising?

Direct advertising is the mass distribution of sales and promotional material through post, email, newspapers, or telephone. Due to its generalized nature, it is nearly impossible to target segments in any way for this type of advertising. Direct advertising is one of the oldest advertising forms or marketing and can be very costly to run. 

Direct advertising is very different to direct marketing. It is the mass distribution of promotional material to a general audience through direct forms of communication. 

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