Types of Direct Marketing Tools
There are many different direct marketing tools, including direct mail, telemarketing, couponing, direct response TV and radio, face-to-face selling, community campaigns, and grassroots campaigns.
The Internet provides extraordinary reach. Marketers can use email, along with interactive static banner ads, pop ups, video and floating unit ads. Browser cookie analysis tag special interests and push appropriate products or services on personal websites. Marketers use search engine optimization and pay for prominent placement on query result lists to bring their products to a customer’s attention. Social media reaches out to targeted consumer groups and showcases compatible goods and services.
Mobile technology direct marketing includes SMS-short message service, MMS-multi-media message service, QR Codes, applications, push notifications sent directly to users, and location based messages.
The Benefits and Shortcomings of Direct Marketing Techniques
Direct marketing response is track-able and measurable regardless of the delivery medium. It provides valuable and reliable consumer and sales data, as well as clear, quantifiable success metrics for analysis.
Direct marketing places control in the hands of the consumer, making a poorly written message strategy or improperly compiled demographic database problematic. “Opt-out” lists, variable message printing and well defined demographics help to counteract these problems.
Direct Marketing: Companies can engage in marketing outreach through direct marketing. A mailed letter is an example of direct marketing.