Advantages of direct marketing

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Steve Sellwood | 17 Aug, 2010
Direct marketing is a marketing tool which comprises activities such as direct mail, telemarketing, mail order, direct response advertising and email marketing.

Direct marketing provides a unique range of benefits because it enables you to engage directly with your audience - whether they are prospects, leads, end users or existing customers.

Other advantages of direct marketing include:

Flexible Targeting:
Direct marketing enables you to talk directly identify, isolate and communicate with well-defined target markets. This means you get a higher conversion and success rate than if you tried communicating to everyone in the mass market. And direct marketing is also far cheaper than mass market communication.

Multiple Uses:
Direct marketing doesn't just have to be used to sell - it can be used to test new markets and trial new products or customers, to reward existing customers to build loyalty, collect information for future campaigns, or segment a customer base.

Cost-Effectiveness:
The cost per acquisition of direct mail can be significantly less than other marketing methods. Plus once you've acquired a customer, you can also benefit from highly profitable repeat sales, gained once again through direct marketing methods.

Ease of Management:
Direct marketing provides greater control and accountability than other marketing methods. It is easy to measure results because you know exactly how many people you've contacted in the first place. Once you've run a direct marketing campaign and know the conversion rates involved, you can work on refining and improving your success rates. Plus it also makes it easier to plan, forecast and budget for future direct marketing campaigns.

Rapid Delivery:
Direct marketing is both swift and flexible in achieving results. This is especially true for telemarketing, one of the direct marketing tools, as the results of a conversation can be logged immediately and scripts adjusted straight away to improve results.

Testing Capability:
Direct marketing allows you to test, test and test again in order to hit upon the most successful combination of direct marketing tools. Any of these variables such as timing, list, message, mailer and offer can be adjusted, tested again, and measured to find the optimum direct marketing proposition.

Relationship Building:
Direct marketing is far more effective at initiating and developing a meaningful dialogue with new customers. From the outset you have a direct relationship with them, which can also be used as part of a push pull strategy to stimulate demand for retailers.

Targeting of Messages:
Direct marketing can enable you to target different messages to different recipients. Using technology such as digital printing, it's even possible to display different images, designs and offers in a direct mailer according to who it's being sent to, as well as personalising the mailer to the recipient to increase conversion rates.

Geographic Targeting:
Direct marketing can be used for any level of geographic targeting, whether it's the local area surrounding a shop or restaurant, regional targeting by postcode or county, national targeting and even international - when direct marketing can prove a far cheaper way of testing the market than a costly personal sales visit.

About the author: Steve Sellwood is from www.selectabase.co.uk, a UK provider of direct marketing lists and data for use in your direct mail and telemarketing campaigns to business and consumer audiences. Selectabase also provide a range of direct marketing tools including simple list cleansing and data checking services to maintain the quality of your direct marketing.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his/ her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.