Direct Marketing

DIRECT MARKETING

Perusal Tech Pvt Ltd

26 May, 2021

DIRECT MARKETING

Direct Marketing is a method of Promotion that involves direct distribution or communication with your target customers without any kind of involvement of middlemen. It is about presenting information about your product or services without the actual involvement of 3rd party. It is much more targeted and direct as it does the work of eliminating the middlemen, like advertising media. Goals of direct marketing may include generation of brand awareness, strengthening the organization-customer relationship and generation of sales.

Direct marketing is a Business to customer i.e. B2C model with a collection of techniques that enable organisations to market products directly to customers. Direct Marketing does not involve advertisements placed on the internet, television or over the radio, rather, it's a form of promotion where physical marketing materials are provided to consumers in order to communicate information about a product or service. For eg., fliers, catalogues, mailers, etc.

FEATURES OF DIRECT MARKETING:

(1) ZERO MIDDLEMEN: As direct marketing is about all about B2C, i.e. no involvement of any 3rd party. Since there are no middlemen, no commission is taken from the customers' pocket and thus reduces extra cost, which in turn makes the product much cheaper than before.

(2) ALL ABOUT CUSTOMERS : Direct Marketing is entirely customer oriented. There is direct contact between both the networks, which gives seller the chance to provide goods and services according to customers needs, wants and desires.

(3) CHANNELS : There are a lot of channels option available to the marketers to conduct this kind of marketing. Some of them are direct mail, and catalogue marketing, telemarketing, television marketing, Internet marketing, etc.

(4) DIRECT CHANNEL : Producer can now deliver products directly to the consumer, whereas, consumers can also keep track of producers with the help of available channels. Shortage of channels leads to cost cutting for both the parties.

(5) DIRECT CONTACT : As manufacturers keep direct contact with the customers, it becomes easy to evaluate the purchasing power, wants and interest of the customers. Distribution cost also reduces due to this marketing.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DIRECT MARKETING :

(1) In direct marketing a database of relevant information about prospects, customer and business is used to develop a target market with common interests, traits or characteristics.

(2) The advertising campaign or marketing messages are directly addressed to the identified customers or prospects.

(3) The addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, postal addresses, and web browser cookies.

(4) Direct marketing always seeks to drive a precise “call to action.” For example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number, mail in a response or order, or click on a link to a website.

(5) Direct marketing emphasizes traceable, measurable responses. It also emphasizes maximizing response rates by testing while minimizing advertising expenses when engaging prospective customers, regardless of the medium used.

IMPORTANCE OF DIRECT MARKETING :

(1) IT HELPS MARKETERS REACH CUSTOMERS FAST : A direct marketing campaign makes sure to reach prospective consumers quickly. For instance, a marketer can create an email marketing campaign now, and merely two hours later, it will be in the recipients’ inbox.

(2) IT IS AN EFFICIENCT PROMOTION STRATEGY : It allows producers to create campaigns that are target specific to reach audience that are actually interested in their products or services. This centered attribute of these kind of campaigns ensures maximum efficiency when sending out promotional messages.

(3) IT CAN BE CUSTOMISED : Direct Marketing enables businesses to create personalized messages using customers' database.

(4) IT ALLOWS TO MEASURE ITS EFFICIENCY : The success of direct marketing techniques implementation can be analysed by the amount of consumers who have responded to their ads, the revenue earned, and the overall ROI. Other than that, it gives an idea to the producer to learn about consumers' spending power.

CHANNELS/TYPES OF DIRECT MARKETING :

(1) Direct Mail

(2) Personal Selling

(3) Short Message Service (SMS) Marketing

(4) Experiential Marketing

(5) Print (Flyers, Brochures, catalogs, POS displays, stationery and business cards)

(6) Social Media Direct Marketing

(7) E-mail

(8) Website

(9) TV and Other Direct Response Media

(10) Google

DIRECT MARKETING STRATEGIES :

(1) ISSUING LOYALTY CARDS : It entails giving loyal customers membership cards, which they can later use to access price discounts, free trials, and other offers.

(2) GUERILLA MARKETING : This kind of advertising includes low-cost promotional strategies that yield maximum results, for instance, outdoor installations, stickers, contextual marketing, etc.

(3) BRANDING OF CLOTHES : Companies can make customized clothes with marketing messages. These clothes can then be gifted to prospects, customers, or staff members.

(4) ISSUING COUPONS : It involves a business giving documents and tickets to targeted customers, which are then redeemed for discounts or at times rebates when purchasing a product or service.

(5) PROMOTIONAL GADGETS : In this strategy, a business sets out to market its products by giving specific devices to customers. By doing so, the company provides its customers with an opportunity to test out their products and get an idea of how they work, their benefits, and so forth.