Direct Marketing

What is direct marketing?

Direct marketing catalogues, brochures, letters, and postcards, when employed correctly, can and usually will produce some level of response, predictably and cost-effectively. Sometimes the traditional lead generation methods are the most effective, and direct marketing is a prime example. Few marketing methods are as efficient, effective, or economical. Focus should fall on attaining the best possible data so that your creative media is reaching the best target audience. Direct marketing is only effective if it reaches the correct prospects.

The purpose of Direct Marketing is to produce customers who spend substantially more money with you than your company spend on the cost of media and marketing campaigns designed to acquire them. A direct marketing budget should be based around determining what your existing customers are worth to your business, what the average customer will spend with your company over the life of the relationship and then forecast how much money you will have to acquire each customer. A comprehensive and up to date list should be cost into these considerations as the process of identifying relevant targets is paramount to the success of this type of direct marketing.

While traditional advertising like magazine ads or billboards can be helpful in introducing your company's offerings to a wide audience, tracking actual results can be difficult. Direct marketing is often an effective way to connect with potential new customers in a measurable manner. A good data provider can offer you help and advice in collating an appropriate direct marketing list for your marketing efforts. We can build a profile for you based on your existing customers, giving you an insight into the type of prospect you need to target and then provide you with a direct marketing list matching this profile.

The more categories you filter, the more targeted your direct marketing list will be, although the volume of your count will go down with numerous selections, simply because there are less companies that are likely to match such a specific criteria. The significant benefit is that filtered direct marketing lists typically provide the best return on investment, but you may need to be flexible about the criteria you use, how available the information is that you are needing and how many companies realistically meet this criteria within the geographical location you are intending to target. All of these elements need to be taken into consideration when planning any type of direct marketing, direct mailing or telemarketing campaigns. Once you determine the selections for your targeted direct marketing list, how you use it to introduce your company to new customers will depend on your overall budget, the content of your collateral and the nature of the direct marketing message you are communicating.

Today’s direct marketers are fracturing into smaller collections of mini markets. As a result, more specialised media are appearing. There is an exploding number of magazines, each designed to deliver direct marketing ads and editorial material to a specific customer group. Advances in TV, cable networks, digital technology and satellite transmission are leading to an explosion in the number of available TV channels expected to reach several thousand in the not so distant future. Not only can segments and niches be more efficiently reached through these forms of direct marketing but also individuals.

Many companies possess proprietary direct marketing databases comprising of thousands or millions of customers and prospects. These companies can sort the names in their databases to collect any subset of names that might represent a direct marketing opportunity. Since company databases contain so much data, various customer groupings would not be detectable without advanced technical analysis. The customer database represents a data warehouse which would be an ideal hive for direct marketing through database marketing, using advanced statistical and mathematical tools. Using those tools, companies are able to define their market targets better, improve their direct marketing techniques and therefore their response rates.