What Is Direct Marketing

Opposite to the mass marketing, where target audience is a large group of individuals, direct marketing methods deal with each individual separately.

Good examples of mass marketing means would be newspapers, radio, TV, magazines. All these media broadcast the advertising message into the clear air (or paper, if you wish) hoping that at least some part of the target audience would read it (hear it) and respond accordingly.

Direct marketing is more personal as it speaks up each and everyone individually.

The main types of direct marketing are:

• Snail mail (or direct mail) marketing. These are sales letters printed on paper containing advertisement text and sometimes accompanied with pictures. Ideally sales letters address each recipient personally.
• E-mail marketing. Spam messages that overflow your mailbox are an extreme type of direct marketing, although it is not such by the definition, because spam is against the code of conduct that is plasticized amongst serious entrepreneurs.
  
  
  However, there is nothing bad to send multiple e-mail messages to people who have allowed you to do so.
• Telemarketing - customers are contacted via a telephone. Some businesspersons still use manual telemarketing by dialing numbers of their prospective customers. However, nowadays advanced methods come into use. With auto dialer software and different voice broadcast solutions available, it has been easier than ever to send an advertising message to many recipients. Some say that telemarketing is a waste of time but that is only partly true with cold calling methods.
• Person to person direct selling. Also known as doorstep selling. This method of direct marketing involves coming to customers' homes and offering them a product or service face to face. This method is not very successful these days because people are not very keen on buying from doorstep sellers.

Which direct marketing method works best

Statistics say that the biggest response rate can be achieved using telemarketing but to make your marketing strategy worthwhile, you will have to try a bit of everything. E.g. email marketing is essential and beneficial if you are into a web based business.

Ideally, a business, big or small should plan their marketing strategy and include both mass marketing and direct marketing techniques in order to achieve their sales targets. Explore our site to learn more about the best methods around.