Why Direct Marketing is a Success

Direct marketing, a sub-discipline of marketing is an attempt by marketing agencies to send messages directly to consumers without the use of intervening media. This form of marketing can either be as direct mail, e-mail or telemarketing. In most cases, this form of commercial communication with businesses or consumers is usually unsolicited and results in junk or spam mail. One advantage of this form of marketing is that it involves some form of measurable response variable regardless of what medium has been used.

This high ability to measure direct marketing campaigns can be explained by a consideration of how marketers send out solicitations by mail. Thousands of customers can be tracked as having responded to a promotion and thus offer confidence that the campaign is responsible for those responses. This ability to measure these campaigns sets it apart from other media that can only be measured indirectly since no direct response from consumers is possible. One fundamental element of a successful marketing campaign is the measurement of results and direct marketing is undoubtedly the best in this regard.

While this form of marketing is highly favored by many marketers, using particular media has come under criticism especially for generating unwanted solicitations. This is seen in an effort by some consumers demanding an end to direct marketing due to claims of privacy and environmental concerns.

The design and format of direct mails vary. One of common formats used is catalogs. These are multi-page bound promotions that have selected products for sale, mailed to a potential client. Self-mailers design uses a single sheet that is folded either in half or in thirds with the promotional message to the inside. The outside face contains a teaser message to lure the customer to open. Envelope mailers are designed to have the marketing material inside and envelope.

In current practice, direct marketing allows people to be alerted to a vendors sales and events thus offering a lot of convenience in trying to locate your favorite vendors merchandise. Since direct mail can more easily be personalized it can be tailored to the needs of a client based on previous transactions. This personalization can be in form of imagery or personal data like the name or address. Direct mail marketing can also be optimized to offer the best in timing, design, writing among many other factors. By use of database analysis and with the help of computing and communications technology, direct marketing is more targeted and has potentially resulted in increase response rates.