Direct marketing is a type of marketing. It has two main characteristics making it distinctive from other types of marketing. The two main characteristics are as follows:

1. First is the fact that in direct marketing an effort is made to send messages to consumers directly, without the use of media that intervenes. In this particular process, the channel used can be that of commercial communication like direct mail, e-mail or telemarketing. The messaging established with businesses or consumers is usually unsolicited.

2. The second attribute of direct marketing is that it drives purchases attributed to what’s called a “call to action.” This calls for emphasizing trackable and measurable positive response or feedback from consumer regardless of the type of media used in the approach.

Laster Wunderman in the year 1961 was the first person to popularize this method of marketing. Columbia Records and American Express sailed on the wave of direct marketing. The term spam was coined in 1993, while the term junk mail dated long back to 1963. The two of these were unsolicited mails that pioneered the direct marketing concept.

Attractions of Direct Marketing

As the advantages of direct marketing are simpler to measure directly, it has become the choice of many businesses. The example of this being that of a marketer sending out scores of solicitations via mail which results in 10,000 customers responding to this promotion, the marketers can easily claim with confidence that this campaign resulted in the responses directly. However, the recipients offended with the spam or junk mail aren’t measured easily. However, measurement of response through other media that is indirect can’t be measured accurately.

Disadvantages of Direct Marketing

Like everything else, direct marketing [has its demerits too.|Direct marketing, just like all other marketing approaches, has its disadvantages too.] Some companies make use of this concept to deliver unsolicited emails. In the event the mails are not useful for the recipient, they are called junk mails. These irritate the users and some even become resistant to the concept of direct marketing. No marketing strategy [should have the power of invading the privacy and irritating the users.|Any marketing strategy that has the power to invade the privacy of users and irritating them must be seriously questioned.] Provisions and features exist in the mail boxes that such unsolicited mails can permanently be removed from appearing in the mail-box, so the entire reason for direct marketing gets defeated.

The channels or mediums [used in direct marketing are as follows:|The following are two channels or mediums used in direct marketing:]

1. Direct Mailings: The mailings can be sent directly to the prospects through regular post boxes. This is one of the most widely used channel of direct marketing getting a lot of popularity among older and women customers.

2. E-mails:  Attractive offers and promotional initiatives through e-mails are other effective weapons of direct marketing. economical as no postage cost has is involved.|Since email costs nothing and uses no postage, it’s a cost-effective marketing tactic.]

 

Want To Read Other Cool Articles:

Personal Injury, Do You Deserve Benefits?, Senior Care

 

 

Tagged with: • • •

Filed under: Business Opportunities

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!