What are the process of direct marketing?

Origin of the Term

The term “direct marketing” was first popularized by an American man named Lester Wunderman. In 1967, he identified trends in marketing and defined it using the term “direct marketing.” Thus, Wunderman is considered to be the father of contemporary direct marketing. Coincidentally, he was also responsible for the creation of the toll-free 1-800 number, an invention that is still widely in use today.

How Does Direct Marketing Work?

Under the direct marketing method, managers will employ various types of advertising media to interact directly with consumers. Considering the fact that mass advertising, such as on billboards or on the radio, reaches an unspecified number of people, it can be very inefficient. It is because most of the people viewing the ad are not even a part of the market for the product.

The major characteristics of direct advertising include the selection of merchandise via the use of a catalog and then ordering through the mail and delivery by similar means. It uses tools such as direct response radio, grassroots/community marketing, direct selling, direct response TV, couponing, voicemail marketing, email marketing, face-to-face selling, etc.

Benefits of Direct Marketing

Direct marketing allows a company to promote its product or service directly to their target audience and measure the results of the campaign quickly, even in real-time. Thus, direct marketing can bring several advantages to a brand. They include the following:

1. High segmentation and targeting

It enables the company to reach segments of the audience with personalized messages. Thus, companies that invest their time in researching and identifying the customers that are most likely to convert get a huge payoff. It is because the efficiency of where the marketing team directs its efforts is increased.

2. Optimizing the marketing budget

Setting realistic goals is the best method for a marketing manager to achieve sales growth, especially when they are on a tight budget. Proper optimization of a direct campaign enables them to achieve the same or even better results while using only a fraction of the costs usually associated with traditional methods of advertising.

3. Increasing customer loyalty

Cultivating customer loyalty is an important aspect of retention and sales growth. It enables companies to increase their sales volume with current and former clients. Digital direct marketing facilitates the sales growth by letting companies communicate with their current customers in a way that the company-client relationship is well maintained.

Thus, companies can continue to bring value to old consumers. Moreover, getting back in touch with old customers for generating new sales opportunities as a huge bonus.

Testing and Analyses of Results

Direct response campaigns always give the marketing manager the opportunity to directly measure the marketing campaign’s results. Thus, they can squeeze the most out of the tests. It enables them to tweak their strategy in real-time, and change the campaign with changing consumer preferences and values.

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Direct marketing connects your company and its products or services to your target consumers through media that invite an immediate response to your offers. Whether you air "call now" radio and TV spots, send tangible mailings or run ads in publications, your direct-response strategy involves a pitch designed to spark your prospects to contact you. With a well-formulated plan and equally well-conceived campaign materials, you increase your likelihood of success from routine to realistic.

Formulating Objectives

1. To set up your direct-response campaign, start by formulating the objective it should achieve. Just as New Year's resolutions to lose weight or eat more healthfully stand a better chance of success if you conceive them in specific terms, your direct marketing plan needs a well-quantified goal toward which you can measure your success. Simply planning to "increase sales" or "find new clients" presents too vague a condition to evaluate properly. Instead, aim to increase sales by a specific amount or percentage, to accrue a specific number of prospects or to build a subscriber or membership list of specific proportions.

Planning an Offer

1. Options such as discounts, incentives, free trials, guarantees, special payment plans and ongoing membership plans can help you move your campaign toward its goal of helping you increase revenue or enhance your access to prospective customers. Once your know what you want to offer, you can devise the creative materials that present it and engender responses. To craft a decisively effective offering, use research into and knowledge of your target customers' needs. Along with research, you can test your mailing, broadcast media or other marketing vehicle with focus groups that represent your ideal or focal prospects.

Targeting Your Mailing

1. To connect with your ideal audience, you must identify its demographics and find ways to reach people who present those characteristics. In turn, that effort relies on selecting the right media and methods to put your specific message in front of the people from whom it elicits a buying response. Targeting can involve choosing the right characteristics for a mailing list, finding the best TV or radio programming during which to air broadcast spots, finding the online venues your prospects visit and otherwise setting up the conduit through which you transmit your offer.

Measuring Results

1. Tracking methods to measure the success of your efforts range from a straightforward count of reply cards or calls to a specific phone number all the way to a sophisticated combination of coded response options that differentiate each of several concurrent direct-response options. If a medium or message offers less than the response you expected, analyze the match between offer and audience to find the reasons underlying the disconnect. Likewise, take your cues for future campaigns from the media and offerings that prompt a successful rate of return. Once you obtain the sales or prospects you set out to accrue, maintain the relationships you create through direct marketing so they become part of your ongoing revenue base.

Direct marketing is a promotional method that involves presenting information about your company, product, or service to your target customer without the use of an advertising middleman. It is a targeted form of marketing that presents information of potential interest to a consumer that has been determined to be a likely buyer.

For example, subscribers to teen magazines might be presented with Facebook ads for acne medication which, based on their age, they are likely to need. Or members of the United States Equestrian Federation might all receive an email promotion offering special pricing on horse gear. Current residents of Wilmington, Delaware might receive a flyer announcing the arrival of Wegmans supermarket to their area. Conversely, people in Wilmington, Ohio would not.

Forms of Direct Marketing

Common forms of direct marketing include:

• Brochures
• Catalogs
• Fliers
• Newsletters
• Post cards
• Coupons
• Emails
• Targeted online display ads
• Phone calls
• Text messages

The Goal

While some marketing techniques aim to increase awareness or to educate markets about a company’s products or services, direct marketing’s sole goal is to persuade the recipient to take action. While getting a sale is the ultimate goal, some customers will not be ready to buy on-the-spot. But they might:

• Visit a website
• Call for more information
• Return a postcard requesting a quote
• Enter their name and email address
• Make a purchase

Reasons it’s Successful

Unlike mass advertising, which is presented to everyone, direct marketing is presented only to people who are suspected to have an interest or need in your company’s product, based on information gathered about them.

For example, graduates of Princeton University might be sent an email announcing a new cashmere sweater now available for sale with the school’s logo on it. Only students, graduates, and their parents are likely to be interested in owning such a piece of clothing, so by limiting who receives the announcement, the manufacturer saves money on distribution costs and increases the odds of reaching people who might make a purchase.

Other reasons direct marketing is more successful are:

• You can make the message personal, making the recipient feel it is meant just for them
• It is more cost-effective to market to buyers who have been identified as likely to buy
• For that reason it also has a higher return on investment, since the likelihood of making a sale to a targeted customer list is higher to begin with.
• It is measurable. Direct marketing uses a number of built-in ways to track the success of each campaign, allowing you to improve with each mail or email cycle.