A Brief History of Direct Marketing and Its Application For Business Owners

Most people think they know what direct response marketing is all about. When you say the words ‘direct marketing’, most people don’t even heard the word marketing. Instead, they hear the word mail, as in direct mail, junk mail, or just plain old mail marketing. But direct marketing is much more than the tangible material used to make the marketing piece. It’s a way of marketing that’s measurable, accountable, and trackable.

Direct mail has been the workhorse of the marketing world since Montgomery Ward launched its first catalog in 1872. Back then, the idea of offering a world of goods through the U.S. Postal Service was revolutionary. To our farm dwelling ancestors, for whom shopping was a three-day trip with wooden cart and horse over rough terrain, ordering coal burning stoves, ice boxes, dresses and harnesses through the Montgomery Ward, Sears, and other catalogs was a blessing.

What helped the start of the direct mail industry? The U.S. Postal system, with its ability to reach nearly anyone, anywhere, was the catalyst for the direct mail surge. The growth of mass-produced items, America’s rapid expansion and reconstruction period after the Civil War also helped fuel the rising middle class and their appetite for newer, better and more fashionable things.

Direct mail continues to rise in prominence, supported by the famous catalogs. Direct response print ads soon joined the world of direct response. Print ads captured the imagination, attention and wallets of people for decades. Direct mail letters, with their classic Johnson boxes, postscripts, and multiple inserts also made their debut in the 20th century, followed by the ubiquitous donation requests and credit card offers of the 1980′s and 1990′s. Direct response television, in the form of infomercials and commercials for products, added demonstrations of products to the direct marketing world. With the advent of cable and satellite television, channels solely devoted to direct marketing products, such as HSN (Home Shopping Network), QVC and others bring beautiful, useful products into our homes and follow all the basics of direct response marketing.

Today, the growth is online. Although initially getting a bad rap thanks to spammers worldwide who send us such gems as advertisements for medications, drugs, and sexual enhancements, email marketing is now a respected player in the world of direct response. Display advertising, surging ahead of the older banner advertising, remains a prominent means of capturing attention and click throughs, especially when it’s placed next to relevant articles and content.

The latest tool added to our direct marketing toolkit is the use of keyword searches, both natural and paid, to enhances responses and online marketing. Measurable, accountable and trackable, keyword marketing is the latest interactive marketing technique to help businesses worldwide acquire, retain and create loyal customers.

Some marketers lump social media marketing and web 2.0 technologies in with direct response marketing. While these are valid forms of online marketing and can prove quite effective, they are not pure direct response marketing. It is difficult to quantify the exact return on investment (ROI) of Twitter, Facebook, and other social marketing campaigns. It’s also nearly impossible to track responses from each so-called campaign. Social networking is more about making connections and fostering relationships. Like trade show and event marketing, it is about reaching people and starting or cultivating relationships rather than marketing activities with measurable outcomes.

Key Takeaways

This brief history of direct marketing and its current status clarifies the changing world of direct marketing. Examining the marketing mix, managers need to ask the following questions to determine if a direct response campaign is the right tool for the job:

o Will we gain by understanding exactly where our responses come from?

o Will it benefit my company more by cultivating relationships with many, or dialogues with a few?

o How will we use customer data Secure it? Manage it?

o If we gather the data from the campaigns, will we use it?

The marketing mix is often a blend of various tactics to reach many and converse with a few. Direct marketing of one type or another is usually part of the marketing mix. Deciding how much of a part is predicated upon how much one needs to cultivate actionable, measurable transactions with customers.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct Marketing

The Term marketing basically refers to informing about the value, use, benefits and advantages of the product to the customer or buyer. Marketing is divided into 2 categories direct marketing and indirect marketing.

It is very important for every business in today’s world to know how to market a product it does not matter if you are selling a hair pin or an airplane you have to market your product. It’s not going to sell itself.

What is direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is basically a system where once the goods are manufactured and ready for use they are sold directly to the consumer by using different marketing methods that connect the buyer to the manufacturers goods directly, and there are no middle men involved.

This is done by connecting to the consumer directly using different modes such as Telemarketing, Email Marketing, SMS, Social Media marketing etc.

Advantages

From the point of view of the customer or consumer the advantage is that it does not increase the price of the product that they are buying, compared to products that are not marketed using direct marketing techniques. This would involve a price rise due to commission from retailers and wholesalers

From the point of view of the manufacturer it gives them exact and proper feedback about their product in terms of customer reviews as they are communicating with the consumers directly and do not have to depend on information from retailers or any other middlemen involved.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of direct Marketing is that most people do not like to be approached directly by people who want to sell them something. In other words people hate to be sold too, but they love buying. They feel they will find out about a product when they want to buy it.

From the point of view of the Marketing executive or Marketing Manager they prefer these Methods of direct marketing because you are not wasting any energy, time, or money as they are reaching out to the potential customers directly.

How to use Direct Marketing?

If you are interested in using direct marketing techniques for your business then here is a list of a few methods and how you can use them.

Email Marketing

In today’s world everyone uses emails to communicate thus sending out an email directly to the person is a very effective way to market, but you have to be careful of not spamming them. You should have permission from the person to email them with offers. You can do this by asking them if they are comfortable in providing their contact information so you could send them an email. But you should remember to always allow them an option to unsubscribe or stop the emails.

Telemarketing

This is one method of direct marketing that most people do not like a lot, or do not prefer as they feel they shouldn’t be disturbed anytime of the day asking them if they are interested in buying or using a service or a product. So the best option is to record a voice mail of the offer and send it out to the user and they can block or accept the call according to their wish.

SMS

Another method of direct marketing which is very useful in today’s world is sending out a bulk SMS to a list of potential customers this is better than telemarketing as the customer does not get disturbed and can check the text message later when he feels like.

According to me direct marketing is very effective and useful. But in order to do that you have to build a good relation with the customer before you start sending out any products or offers that they could purchase.

Benefits and Challenges of a Career in Direct Marketing

Internet or Direct marketing may be a new term in our dictionaries however it is not a new concept. Direct or Internet marketing is ‘the’ way to send a message to the customer directly through various channels that eliminate the middle men or indirect means to interact with the customer. This has been done since marketing began albeit in undefined ways and now with the advances in technology, Direct/Internet marketing has become the most preferred way to reach the customer directly to promote a product, a service, a company… a message.

Direct marketing is a preferred way of knowing how the intended product PR message is faring with the masses because the responses can be quite immediate. That is why with the increasing competitiveness in businesses and the need to reach out to the customers in a more effective manner, a career in direct or Internet marketing is a very rewarding. Everything depends on marketing and whether a product will sell or not and whether the masses will pay heed to a social awareness message or not, depends mainly on how well it has been marketed.

With the way the world is growing closer… not smaller… closer due to the internet and the ease of being able to find any sort of information online or through other channels like the mobile phone, emails on the internet, advertisements, and many more; sending a message to them directly is not a challenge. What could be better than actually communicating with your customers? The only challenge is that with many direct marketing strategies being used, people thinking of a career in direct marketing may have to resort to their creativity quite often and having that is definitely a plus.

Many people think that direct marketing is not an honest field to have a job in and that is mainly because many big and small companies and even individuals have misused the power of interacting with customers directly and flooded them with constant interactions. This has left a bad taste in customers’ mouths and most of them don’t like being contacted anymore. This makes the job quite difficult… but not impossible.

The thought that a career in direct marketing is not a good idea is right and wrong, based on where you’re looking at it from. If you plan to succumb to the unethical ways for short term but immediate profit by flooding the customers with constant messages and emails, then direct marketing may not be for you however, if you are creative and have a knack of creating relevant and quality communication, then direct or Internet marketing may just be the thing for you because that is what it is all about; effective communication.

With the amount of knowledge we can share today and the level of understanding we have towards various cultures, various age groups, and their demands, direct marketing is the best way to promote a product or a company and used effectively, this can be a very strong tool that may be difficult for the competition to beat.

If a person is interested in pursuing a career in direct or Internet marketing they need to find schools to make sure they learn the right tricks of the trade and understand the basics of this amazing phenomenon. Communication and a basic understanding of how the human mind gets motivated are the two very important tools for a direct marketer however a few other things that will be good to know are:

Mass media
Behavior change therapy

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is an approach to product marketing communications that doesn’t employ contemporary marketing channels. This ultimately means that deals are done directly between the manufacturers and customers without involving channel intermediaries such as distributors, retailers and wholesalers. It is a strategy commonly employed by electronic manufacturers and banks in dealing with their clients directly. Brands that employ distribution channels target marketing communications towards distributors, retailers and consumers, while directly market brands communicate directly with clients. Direct marketing may employ tools such as direct mail, mobile telemarketing services, and voicemail marketing among others.

Marketing directly has been found to be the most cost effective avenue and form of marketing. By the use of direct mail, telemarketing services, email marketing and leaflets drops, the system allows you to focus on customers with utmost accuracy unlike the majority of marketing techniques. It is distinguished in a number of ways. Firstly, direct mails are sent to clients. This comes in an array of ways including email addresses, web browser cookies and mobile messaging. Secondly, marketing directly aspires to drive a precise call to action. In this case advertisements may give free call lines to clients for information. Careful preparation prior to the approach is however necessary to achieve utmost investment, achieve adequate response rates and to avoid contacting individuals who don’t desire receiving a direct mail in direct marketing.

The process of marketing the things directly presents with an array of different approaches. They comprise of traditional methods like telemarketing services, mail shots and modern approaches that include mailing lists, mobile messaging and social media. The most appropriate of these approaches will ultimately depend on the customers targeted, the information to be passed across and the response you wish to generate.

For most companies direct mail has proved to be affordable, manageable and therefore mostly employed. These are companies that lack effective and adequate expertise and capital to utilize electronic direct marketing approaches. Direct mails are cost effective and are likely to generate more client responses unlike majority of direct marketing approaches. Direct mail focuses information directly into the hands of the customers that require it. It is therefore very effective once well planned and coupled with high quality mailing list.

It allows you to aim at a specific group of clients especially with the use of direct marketing leads. The use of these leads ensures that you focus your time and energy on the endeavors that matter to your business. They enable you to communicate adequately with clients, increase your sales and to grow your business. Leads in addition allow you to focus the right amount of resources where they are likely to produce results, gauge the success of advertisements and other campaigns, and most importantly to test your marketing. Direct marketing leads hence increases the sales of your business to existing clients, builds client loyalty, reestablishes failed customer associations and generates new business ideas.

Marketing is not always a cheap task, but with direct marketing leads where you focus your campaigns on the precise businesses and people owning them, it will definitely pay off. Once you get your leads, make sure that yo

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