What Is Direct Marketing? Advantages and Examples

What Is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is a type of advertising campaign that gets a result from a specific target audience. It could be something like ecommerce visits or simply filling out an info request form on a landing page.

Direct marketing can come in many different formats such as physical mail, telemarketing, POS or direct email marketing (one of the most well-known options).

This marketing method is highly effective and is one of the easiest methods to measure. For example, if you create a discount for your online store and send it out via physical mail, you can figure out who has used it by using a cookie or a pixel.

How Does Direct Marketing Work?

As its name suggests, direct marketing is a two-way street of direct communication. Advertisers create a dialogue between clients (both current and potential) and companies and keep the relationship alive as long as possible or desired. Businesses can also adapt to the needs of their clients by offering them individualized discounts, among other things.

How does direct marketing work? The foundation of direct marketing is in the use of databases that include detailed information about each client or lead. By using this information, marketing agencies can adapt promotions and direct marketing communications (according to the needs of a segment) or even adapt to individual clients.

Primary Mediums of Direct Marketing

Here are some of the primary methods of direct marketing within the digital environment.

1. Email Marketing

Direct email marketing allows you to send offers, advertisements, reminders, and other messages to a person whose data has already been saved in a database (either your database or a third party's).

2. Catalogue Marketing

This method has been used for many years but with the rise of the internet, physical catalogues have migrated to the internet where they have become completely digitized.

3. Digital Marketing

Marketing on the internet has been growing nonstop in recent years. According to eMarketer, investments in online advertising beat those on TV in 2017. Furthermore, one very popular direct marketing method is the use of Social Ads by way of Custom Audiences. This allows you to upload your database(s) to your social networks in order to create personalized campaigns.

4. Social Media

Social media has changed the face of direct marketing. On social platforms, the dialogue between customers and a company is carried out publicly, which helps ensure the communication between both parties is monitored and promoted content or offers are truly interesting to the consumer.

5. Banners

This type of online advertising is one of the oldest out there. It tries to spark the interest of users by promoting interaction. The majority of banners are clickable.

Benefits of Direct Marketing

Direct marketing offers multiple ways to achieve a your goals. Marketers, such as Cyberclick, know the development of an online direct marketing strategy will bring the following advantages to our clients.

Budget optimization. With direct marketing geared towards the digital environment, you can establish realistic goals and improve sales on a tight budget. If you have identified your audience, you can optimize and properly manage the entirety of the campaign process. You will also get good results at a much lower cost compared to traditional advertising. Remember, online direct marketing is a very quick and economical way tor reaching consumers.
Potential clients. Because you contact clients taken from a data base (either your own or a third party's), you know you are directly contacting your target market when you want to advertise your company’s product or service. The efficiency of this process is much greater than that of other channels. Direct marketing also works well because each segmentation will receive a personalized and adapted message.
Increase sales among new, current, and old clients. When the time comes to carry out a direct marketing campaign, divvy up your efforts into three sections. Firstly, initiate communication with your old clients in an attempt to revive their interest through a new purchasing process. The objective is to make them into repeat buyers. Secondly, you have your new clients who you have data on but who haven't yet purchased your product or service. Send out pointed campaigns to this group. For example, “if you register for the first time, you’ll receive a discount!” Finally, there are your current clients. With these, it's best to generate some type of communication which rewards them for their loyalty. In doing so, you work toward making them repeat customers in the long term.
Improved loyalty. If you combine your digital direct marketing plan with your loyalty program, you could see improved results. If you are in direct contact with your customers, you will be able to personalize emails, promotions and offers, thus creating an immediate bond between your business and your clientele.
New business opportunities. Online direct marketing allows you to continually adapt to the needs of the market, thus reacting in a much more effective manner.
Metrics and results analysis. What is a direct marketing campaign without tangible results? You can directly measure the results, which allows companies and advertisers alike to fully take advantage of A/B testing and decision-making in real time.

Direct Marketing Examples

Let's take a look at some examples of direct marketing from major brands and organizations who have done it well.

Land Rover

When international car manufacturer Land Rover opened a new dealership, they sent out rather unique invitations to entice people to come to the opening. Guests received a box with a heart shaped helium balloon in it. When they opened the box, the balloon floated out with their invitation attached.

This made for a much more memorable interaction for the recipients. Instead of sending out a typical letter, Land Rover chose a direct marketing campaign that was a more creative method of attracting potential customers

KitKat

To promote their new Chunky candy bar, KitKat mailed out some unique 'delivery notices' to a number of lucky customers. These notices were made to look like the card you might receive if you missed a delivery. On them it said that the package couldn't be delivered because it was 'too Chunky.'

People who received these notices could take them to any store near them selling KitKats and get a free Chunky KitKat.

World Water Day

Another example of direct marketing is a campaign that was created for World Water Day and sought to show the importance of this resource. A direct mailer was sent out that could only be read when placed under water.

This unique campaign successfully raised awareness as it intrigued recipients and was shared on social media, bringing even more attention to the cause.

Nike

Nike created a simple yet effective direct marketing campaign aimed at getting kids more interested in sports. The company made limited edition shoe boxes that, when opened, looked like a stadium. Not only did Nike decorate the boxes, but they also added a chip with sound effects to imitate the roar of a crowd in a real stadium when the boxes were opened.

How We Work with Direct Marketing

At Cyberclick, we understand that internet-based direct marketing has two primary objectives:

Generating clients. We can use either our own contact lists or access lists from third party databases. We do this because we know these databases contain potential clients who fit your buyer persona but we must convert these qualified leads into actual clients. A well-executed online direct marketing campaign (which contains the right message and is posted on the right channel) will yield high conversion rates with a relatively low budget. From here, we move on to the second stage: retaining new clients and building customer loyalty.
Promoting the loyalty of our current customers. Customer loyalty can be centered around the continued purchase of one specific product or service or simply returning to purchase something different each time. Either way, it is something every brand wants to cultivate.

What Is Direct Marketing? Advantages and Examples