Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising which allows businesses and nonprofit organizations to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques that can include cell phone text messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, database marketing, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, targeted television commercials, response-generating newspaper/magazine advertisements, and outdoor advertising. Amongst its practitioners, it is also referred to as direct response.

Direct marketing messages focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Hence, besides the actual communication, it is integral to a direct marketing campaign to create actionable segments, use pre- and post-campaign analytics, and measure results. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing from other types of marketing are:

A database of names (prospects, customers, businesses, etc.), often with certain other relevant information such as contact number/address, demographic information, purchase habits/history, and company history, is used to develop a list of targeted entities with some existing common interests, traits or characteristics. Generating such a database is often considered part of the direct marketing campaign.
Marketing messages are addressed directly to this list of customers and/or prospects. Direct marketing relies on being able to address the members of a target market directly. Addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, postal addresses, and even web browser cookies
Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific “call to action.” For example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number, mail in a response or order, or click on a link to a website.
Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses, results and costs from prospects and/or customers, regardless of medium.
Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes, from the smallest start-up to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can indicate a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in favor of messages that try to build prospects’ emotional awareness or engagement with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements can rarely prove their impact on the organization’s bottom line.