Direct Marketing
Direct Marketing, according to Wikipedia, is defined by two characteristics:
- It send its messages directly to prospects and customers, involving communication channels such as direct mail, e-mail and telemarketing.
- It aims to drive purchases through a Call-to-Action, emphasizing trackable and measurable response from prospects and customers.
Thus, there are a number of channels to win and to retain customers through Direct Marketing:
Direct Mail
In the Digital Marketing age, Direct Mail campaigns have been neglected to a certain degree. Yet, they still deliver, especially when they are integrated intelligently with Email Marketing and Internet Marketing. The key here is to be persistent, not to give up after the first few mail shots did not bring results. The magic number of absolute minimum message blasts to the target group is seven. Crucial is patience, testing & improving your messsage, you target group and the integration with other channels.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing campaigns are considered by many SME Marketing Executives as being too expensive. Indeed, they are not cheap: in the UK, hourly rates of some 25 - 40 £ (depending on the kind of process and service) excluding set up costs are normal. In Western Continental Europe, 25 - 40 € per hour are realistic. In Eastern Europe, averages of around 15 € are achievable, but project management costs rise significantly. These up and down sides are even more extreme in the so called offshore outsourcing countries that are farther away - in Asia, Africa or Latin America.
On the other hand, mail-call campaigns enable Telemarketing agents to work on "warm leads", calling people some who have responsed to the mailings and calling some people who can recall the letter which makes the conversation more effective.
This channel requires a lot of effort and money, therefore in our experience it should be focused on target prospects that are "worth it". In the B2B world one may want to make the decision making processes in target organisations clearer. In B2C one may want to focus on prospects who have already shown some interest, and on people with a high score in the internal ABC Analysis.
Email Marketing (see also Internet Marketing)
Despite academic definitions, Email Marketing is often considered being a part of Internet Marketing, or Digital Marketing as others say. Thus, we have explained it there.
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