What you should know about direct marketing

By now, you probably already know that marketing is a very complex subject. There are all different kinds of marketing you can explore. The marketing we are going to talk about today is direct marketing.Direct marketing is a type of marketing that sends its message straight to the consumer. This is by telemarketing, emailing, and direct mailing prospective customers. Another way you can do this is by telling your future customer to visit your website or call your toll free number.These are several ways to get your message from you to your target audience without any intervention. In other words, this is direct marketing.That’s not the only ways to direct market. There’s also those packets you sometimes get on your home door knob, the flyers left on your windshield at the super market, billboards, the banner ads on websites that you can click on, the buttons and pens and notepads companies encourage you to take one of, and even the samples you can sometimes get from your doctor or the kids’ pediatrician! I bet you didn’t realize you see direct marketing just about everywhere now!Lot of companies are big fans of this kind of marketing. It has a lot of pros. For instance, you don’t have to pay huge fees to get other advertisers to market for you this way. Therefore you save money, and you still get new customers! According to Ad Age, “In 2005, U.S. agencies generated more revenue from marketing services (which include direct marketing) than from traditional advertising and media.”Now, everything has to have a con, right? Well, the only con I can think of for this is it is the majority of the junk mail and spam you get daily are from direct marketing.You may be wondering where these companies get the information needed to send out these types of ads. Well, they make up a database of names, addresses, phone numbers, and email address of potential customers. When they want to see who may need their product or service, let’s say dog grooming, they can pull up all the contacts they have obtained from various pet shops and send their ads to them. It’s all about knowing who to send it to.You wouldn’t send a catalog full of bath soaps and candles to a man whose information you got at a sporting goods store! Instead you may send it to ladies whose information you obtained from a candle shop or a store that specializes in bath soaps. If you do not choose the right target audience you will end up with a bunch of people angry for you sending them a bunch of junk. However, if you pick the right target audience, you will have people just itching to see what your business, service, or product is all about!Think about what you have learned so far. I bet you can think of at least 3 examples of direct marketing you have seen today. Direct marketing is everywhere! You can’t help but to stumble upon it a few times a day. For instance, today i got an email from Toys-R-Us, a catalog from JCPenny, and I saw a banner ad for an online boutique. If you have gone to work you probably have seen a billboard or a sign on a bus bench. If you have been to the grocery store you may have been offered free samples or coupons. If you have been online you have probably seen ads all over the place. These are all examples of direct marketing! Now think about which ones you were actually interested in.The ones you want to know more about are the ones that are doing their job right. They have figure out what kind of person to send their ads to. They have figured out who will actually check out what they have to offer. They have figured out a direct marketing method that works for them. Now what works for one company, product, or service may very well not work for another. In fact, unless you are offering something extremely similar, chances are their target audience is not who you are looking for.Direct marketing is a technique lots of companies, products, and services swear by. A lot of people get very good results from it if they do it right. I’m sure a few have tried it and thought it wasn’t for them, but you can’t expect everyone to like the same marketing style just like you can’t expect everyone to like the same breed of dog or the same flavor ice cream. People are all different. You have to find what works for you and stick to it. If you are ready to start your adventure of direct marketing then I wish you luck. If not, keep looking for your type of marketing.