What is direct marketing? And What Can Go Wrong?

Direct Marketing – is a type of advertising campaign that brings aims at bringing put a positive action from a selected group of prospective clients. This could be an order, a visit to your store, whether online or physical address. It could also be a means of communication to create awareness of a change in the product or a launch of a new product and therefore requesting information. This communication can be in many different formats such as telemarketing, email or postal mail. 

The most important aspect with regards to direct marketing is the quantifiable consumer response. An example is if you are advertising a discount offer for your online store. It is important to include a cookie or pixel to inform you when a customer used your discount code.

How does direct marketing work?

Let’s take a closer look at how direct marketing works, cause it is a great opportunity to expand a business. The strategy consists of an individual approach to each client.  Search for potential customers through thematic sites, blogs, forums or other places where you can get personalized information. 

Find out the name, phone number or e-mail of the right person and try to reach him out. Such contact must be as individual as possible to show the interest of collaboration. You have to explain the benefits of working with you. It all depends on your tact and ability to interest your customers. You just need to make a competitive proposal, which will be difficult to refuse. 

The purpose of direct marketing

The main purpose of direct marketing is to attract the client you would like to connect with. Your approach must convince consumer, that you are interested in cooperation and both of you will be satisfied.

Market opportunities

Nowadays, it’s hard to surprise someone by selling something or offering a specific service. Only those can stay in a market that can give something special

compared to the competitors: cheaper, better/more reliable, or faster/simpler. Market opportunities and the differential competition advantages provide the “market window”, the period in which the product is in real advantage compared to its competitors. This can be a period when the product is a novelty and others simply do not produce anything similar, or a given period of the year. Therefore, you should always keep an eye on the market and your competitors.

Types of direct marketing

The most common types of direct marketing are:

• Direct Mail – this is distribution service, which is delivering physical materials
• Telemarketing – method of sales goods and services via telephone
• Email Marketing – this is a distribution service, which is delivering electronic materials
• Broadcast Faxing – this is distribution service, which allows delivering materials through the fax
• Couponing – is the document, which offers You the discount to a particular service/products
• Direct selling – sale of consumer products or services carried out outside stationary retail outlets.
• Direct Advertising – This is textual or graphical information of an advertising nature, which is transmitted directly in direct contact.

How effective is direct marketing?

Direct marketing is one of the most effective methods of attracting new consumers. Understandably, that Your chances to involve new users are much bigger if you got acquainted with them before contact. Gather some information, make a call or send an e-mail and get wonder how effective it is. Pretty sure that results will be better than regular contacts. 

Four steps of successful direct marketing activity. The process as a company invents itself and its products assess the possibilities and measures the risk of decisions. 

Why should we use direct marketing?

If you are willing or struggle to get new customers of Your products/service, this method is exactly what you need. There are no doubts, that we should use it to grow up our businesses and get new opportunities. Tried once, You will keep using it, cause it will save your time and money, which are so valued today. 

Advantages of direct marketing

The beauty of direct marketing is that it allows you to promote your product and services to the target audience with the aim of achieving measurable results almost instantly. Below are some more reasons you should incorporate direct marketing for your brand

1. Targeting and segmentation – this is advantageous in that you can use personalized messages to reach your specific target group of future clients. In order to be successful, it is important to research and identify the customers who you can easily convert and direct your efforts to actions that generate sales
2. Market budget optimization – being specific to a particular target group allows you to set realistic goals that can improve your sales especially if you have a constricted budget. Optimization and proper direction of your campaign will yield the results you would like to see with only a small portion of the cost that is usually invested in traditional advertising.
3. Use your current and former clients to increase your sales – with direct marketing; you can easily approach your former and current clients to keep the fire burning. This brings value to your relationship and can also increase your sales opportunities.
4. Upgrade loyalty strategies – having direct contact with your clients allows you to customize your emails, promotions and other offers that will keep them attached to your company. To increase the sales and commitment, you can use loyalty programs to supplement direct marketing.
5. Generate new business opportunities – what direct marketing does for your business is that it enables you to adapt to market demands as often as possible. This will keep you on your toes and you will be able to respond to your customers’ needs more effectively.
6. Analyze and test the results – direct marketing campaigns give you the rare opportunity of directly measuring your results. This you will not find from traditional marketing. It is therefore very important to maximally exploit it and squeeze out the most from your tests. This will help you make profound decisions in real-time.

Where we should start?

First of all, you need to pick up the right strategy, which you gonna use. Check out and analyze the market, then decide which way will be better for your business. Think about the effect you want to bring to your client, then create a specific plan and stick to it. 

The first steps of the direct marketing

The following is the most important step to take to launch your direct marketing campaign to have a contact list ready. This is the most important test so you have a clear idea of who you will target. These contacts don’t have to be limited to your current and former clients. You can look up other prospective clients online depending on the sector you want to focus on and the product or service you would like to promote. 

You will not find it difficult to find people who are honestly interested in products similar to yours that you can convert to sales. To generate leads you could start with a type of inbound marketing campaign such as an eBook or have ads on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Whichever direction you choose, it is important not to forget to

segment your contact by how often they visit your site or view the products they are interested in from your company.

1. Price & Value

Of course, you want to achieve as best results as possible by spending less. Choose the right candidates, which might be interested in Your service or products. Therefore, each contact must be valued, so think twice before spend money and time to a specific person. Organize your marketing company properly, so that you do not spend a lot of money and time on each client. Come up with your business foundation and tailor it to your customers with a personalized approach.

2. How to keep the trust of your clients?

Trust is the most important aspect and value of a business. It’s so hard to earn and easy to lose, but it’s impossible to work with clients without it. Every day, people need to be convinced of your seriousness, responsibility, and honesty. Demonstrate your professionalism to arouse customer loyalty. Tell them about the products or services you are good at and always get in touch with them. Let them feel like they are working with experts and they have nothing to worry about. 

Challenges of direct marketing

Execution of all levels of direct marketing is the key to success. But of course, on the way to success, you will face challenges and problems. It is very easy to just give up and leave everything without reaching the result. Therefore, it is extremely important to meet the difficulties that may interfere with your results in the right way.

1. The problems you might face while using direct marketing

• Price. You may have to generate leads, but the price of your marketing campaign can be so expensive, that you will have no profit at all. In that case, you need to analyze the strategy and try to reduce costs. 
• Low rate response. When you are reaching out to the customers, who are not interested in your services or products the efficiency of your work will be somewhere near zero.
• Outdated methodology. The methods of your direct marketing can get stuck in one place. They might bring some results, but not those which are expected. Marketing is the sphere where the strategy campaign must always be updated.
• Intrusive. Direct marketing might work out, but at the same time, a lot of people can be annoyed when they are receiving another letter, which includes their name and other personal information. So it is important to understand that not everyone wants to use/buy your service/products and stop reaching those people again and again. They can affect your business, by leaving negative feedback or telling about you to others.
• Popularity. Your direct marketing can look good, but the consumers may not know about you and your service/products. Highly recommended to create an online platform where you can introduce yourself and what are you doing. It will increase the chances to achieve more.

2. Smart solutions that will help you get through

Each person has an individual approach you just need to find the right one. People always want attention or praise. Be creative, let them feel like you know them a very long time, write or say something that you would like to hear from someone. Ask them which problems they are facing and think about how your products/services can help them. Talking about a particular problem is a good step to get a result. In this case, you can see how helpful you are and which audience needs your service/products.

3. Analyzing the results of the campaign

Direct marketing should be always analyzed to know how successful it is. Check the results of your campaign and see how profitable you are. If you going well, keep develop and improve your strategy, cause tomorrow it could not work anymore. No worries if you have bad results, analyze your losses and make the right conclusions. Do not try the same steps, which brought you zero results, there are a lot of smart solutions. You just need to pick the right one.