Direct Marketing: Genius or Just Annoying

If you've ever received junk mail or a telemarketing call, you're already familiar with direct marketing. While you might find these tactics annoying, such methods have proven quite effective in gaining positive response from consumers and ultimately driving sales. So what can it do for your business?

Literally defined, direct marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. This involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing) with consumers or businesses, usually unsolicited. The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving purchases, which can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable positive (but not negative) responses from consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.

The idea behind direct marketing is simple: to generate sales. Some popular choices that companies make to market directly to customers are:

• Coupons

• Email

• Telemarketing

• Post cards

• Search engines

Of course, you can't just put together a letter and send it to everyone in the phone book. There is careful planning and strategy that goes into this type of marketing:

Research

One must determine who their target is. If you're selling workers' compensation to folks in the construction industry, it's a good idea to find where those businesses are. Naturally, you could thumb through the yellow pages and send your brochure or post card to those businesses, but what about all the people that can't afford to spend the cash on phone book advertising? Check with your state's Division of Corporations to dig a little deeper. The more you narrow your target market, the better the chance of making a sale.

You'll also want to decide your strategy and medium. This means you'll have to determine what type of material your customers will be most interested to see and how they want to see it. In the case of workers' comp. for construction workers, I've seen businesses send a piece of wood with their company information on it. This grabs the customer's attention but also gets the message out there.

Dollars and Sense

You can think up the most creative and elaborate direct marketing plan ever, but if it's not cost effective, it's garbage. You absolutely have to make sure your efforts make sense and that you are generating a return on your investment. You can do this by simply measuring customer purchases against your marketing costs. You should be generating a return of 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 to be in the clear.

The Downfall

While direct marketing has proven to be extremely successful, people...well...hate it. They don't like being bothered during dinner with sales calls and in some cases, they'll throw what they call "junk mail" in the trash. Usually, this type of marketing is unsolicited and your target consumer will likely be annoyed when your product comes calling. That's what the "Do Not Call" list is for. If your efforts are increasing sales, that's all your business needs to be concerned with.

Direct marketing has been used for eons. It's likely the first type of marketing any business ever used after word of mouth. There's no doubt that it works, but you'll have to use research and cost analysis to make sure it makes sense for you and your product.