Emails, online adverts, flyers, database marketing, promotional letters, newspapers, outdoor advertising, phone text messaging, magazine adverts, coupons, phone calls, postcards, websites, and catalog distribution are some examples of direct marketing strategies.
Direct marketing allows you to generate a specific response from targeted groups of customers. It’s a particularly useful tool for small businesses because it allows you to: focus limited resources where they are most likely to produce results. measure the success of campaigns accurately by analyzing responses.
Using direct marketing allows you to target specific groups of customers with tailored messages. By taking the time to research and identify the customers who are most likely to need or want your products and services, you can focus your marketing efforts where they have the highest chance of achieving results.
Advantages Of Direct Marketing. Builds Loyalty – A direct marketing campaign can build brand loyalty by continually sharing your brand’s message on different channels. Personal – You can personalize the message for your audience. Personalized direct mail will help improve response rates
The Goal
While some marketing techniques aim to increase awareness or to educate markets about a company’s products or services, direct marketing’s sole goal is to persuade the recipient to take action. While getting a sale is the ultimate goal, some customers will not be ready to buy on-the-spot. But they might:
- Visit a website
- Call for more information
- Return a postcard requesting a quote
- Enter their name and email address
- Make a purchase
Reasons it’s Successful
Unlike mass advertising, which is presented to everyone, direct marketing is presented only to people who are suspected to have an interest or need in your company’s product, based on information gathered about them.
For example, graduates of Princeton University might be sent an email announcing a new cashmere sweater now available for sale with the school’s logo on it. Only students, graduates, and their parents are likely to be interested in owning such a piece of clothing, so by limiting who receives the announcement, the manufacturer saves money on distribution costs and increases the odds of reaching people who might make a purchase.
Other reasons direct marketing is more successful are:
- You can make the message personal, making the recipient feel it is meant just for them
- It is more cost-effective to market to buyers who have been identified as likely to buy
- For that reason it also has a higher return on investment, since the likelihood of making a sale to a targeted customer list is higher to begin with.
- It is measurable. Direct marketing uses a number of built-in ways to track the success of each campaign, allowing you to improve with each mail or email cycle.