Direct Marketing

Direct marketing

What is direct marketing?

The business of selling products or services directly for the public e.g. by mail, telephone or selling.

Direct mail is one of the most overlooked yet one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to dramatically increase the leads to your business.  The majority of advertising does not work, is not trackable, and is usually a waste of money.  Direct mail and direct marketing is trackable, inexpensive, and the results are easily measurable.  No matter what your business is, lead generation is vital.  Direct mail is a great way to have a predictable number of leads coming into your pipeline each and every week or month for a low cost.

Direct marketing gives you the opportunity to promote your products and services directly to the customers who most need them. A good direct marketing campaign will:

·         help you build relationships with new customers

·         test the appeal of your product or service

·         tell you which marketing approaches reach your target market

·         Increase sales.

Advantages of direct marketing?

-          The results are trackable

-          Businesses can quickly determine if this specific campaign they have created is successful

-          You are able to test consumer responses before launching a full, expensive campaign, this can save a business money

-          Brand loyalty can arise due to the fact that customers are frequently informed and they are aware of the businesses products, deals, price & offers. Customers feel valued, as they are being contacted and informed.

-          Direct marketing develops a personal relationship

-          Direct marketing allows customers to trust that business

-          Direct marketing overall allows a business to understand customer needs more.

Disadvantages?

-          Customers may get frustrated with the on- going, annoying junk mail; this could create a bad reputation for the business.

-          The distribution of flyers and street advertising if often prohibited by law in certain areas, this therefore limits the business from promoting and getting customers.

-          Time wasting going to door-to-door and extremely time consuming.

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Types of direct marketing: -

-          E-mail marketing

-          Door to door marketing

-          Catalogue and home shopping

-          SMS marketing

-          Field marketing

-          Mail marketing

Factors considered:

Cost

Businesses have too check if it’s affordable

Response rate

A business needs to be organized and has a plan of how they are going to keep track of the success of a campaign

Targeting

The business needs to be accurately target offers to consumers. It is important to know the target audience prior to composing the message you expect to dispatch to them. This is helpful when coming up with relevant information based on the needs that such people have. Business are then capable of actually being certain about deriving the most benefits if they come up with a catch message that will attract the target group.

Engagement

The business needs to consider the delivery mechanism for the offers and messages.

How successful is direct marketing?

It is quite successful using direct marketing because you can communicate

DIRECTLY with the chosen target market, this therefore should give a business a better sales success rate than communicating to the mass marketing, many of whom MAY not be interested in your products and services.

Direct marketing let’s a business adapt and respond quickly to the needs of the market, this therefore allows a business too achieve fast and flexible sales results.