Direct Marketing

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 30 June 2010

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EconomyWatch

The core Content Team our economy, industry, investing and personal finance reference articles.

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The science behind getting someone you haven’t met to send you money, or getting a quality lead to your sales people. How the Internet changed everything - the evolution of Direct Marketing from physical to digital means. How customers segment themselves through their behaviour.

Metrics Covered: Cost of Sale, Breakeven, Recency Frequency Monetary

Direct marketing is normally thought of as the opposite of brand marketing.

Brand marketing is designed to build up emotional and psychological affinity, to get the brand to be 'top-of-mind', to ensure that future decisions will go our way.

Direct marketing is all about making a sale - now.

The discipline of direct marketing developed with mail order companies who sent brochures to prospects and had to rely on the printed material alone to close the sale.

They therefore worked very hard on their creative, copy and offers to increase conversion rates, average order values and repeat purchase rates.

Today direct marketing has moved online, particularly to search engine marketing and email marketing. Although some things have changed, some things are still the same.

Direct Marketing Q&A

A discussion with Brent Sneider of the Global Direct Marketing Association.

What is the difference between traditional direct marketing and digital or online direct marketing?

If you get junk mail, it’s intrusive, so you need to work very hard just to prevent the person receiving it from throwing it out straight away. You need to reach out and grab them by the throat - it is very confrontational.

When I search for something online, and I click on a link that is either paid or organic, or indeed if i I click on a relevant display ad or advertorial, I have already showed intent. This type of direct marketing does not now need to attack me.

That doesn't mean the work is done. The landing page that I end up still needs to take me through the stages from interest through informing me of as much or as little as I want to know, building up trust and desire, and finally getting me over the hump to take action and buy or sign-up.

Online is still very immature compared to traditional direct marketing. Landing pages are not working hard enough to close the sale.

Limited time discounts or availability, words like 'new' or 'free', A-B testing/ split testing different creative and offer - these techniques are not being widely used enough.

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