Direct marketing is a form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.
Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are:
Marketing messages are addressed directly to customers. Direct marketing
relies on being able to address the members of a target market.
Addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses,
mobile phone numbers, Web browser cookies, fax numbers and United States
and international postal addresses.
Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific "call to action." For
example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone
number or click on a link to a website.
Direct marketing emphasizes track able, measurable responses from
customers - regardless of medium.
Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes - from the smallest start-up to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in favor of messages that try to build prospects' emotional awareness or engagement with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their impact on the organization's bottom line.
Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers because its positive results can be measured directly. Measurement of results is a fundamental element in successful direct marketing. The Internet has made it easier for marketing managers to measure the results of a campaign. This is often achieved by using a specific website landing page directly relating to the promotional material. A call to action will ask the customer to visit the landing page, and the effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by taking the number of promotional messages distributed and dividing it by the number of responses. Another way to measure the results is to compare the projected sales or generated leads for a given term with the actual sales or leads after a direct advertising campaign.