Direct Marketing
Content
DIRECT MARKETING
Direct Marketing – Meaning of the Concept Concerned with establishing individual relationship between the product/ service & the final customer Sending a promotional message directly to consumers, rather than via a mass medium Definition - The planned recording, analysis and tracking of customer behavior to develop a relational marketing strategies An interactive system of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response at any location, forming a basis for creating and further developing an ongoing relationship between an organisation and its customers. Features… Direct Marketing consists of direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain – An immediate response Cultivate lasting customer relationships Interactive system of marketing Attempts to send its messages directly to consumers - involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, and telemarketing) with consumers/businesses Focused on driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action” - involves an emphasis on tractable, measurable positive responses from consumers regardless of medium Requisites for the success of Direct Marketing Comprehensive, reliable and updated Database – The lack of a proper database is the primary reason for the failure of a DM campaign. Careful & close Targeting of Markets/ Prospects Service guarantee and product warranty Backroom logistics Details Information Sustained effort Conventional or traditional Marketing Generally termed a “push” process you are pushing your marketing material, at your target market, TV, radio, brochures, exhibitions, hospitality, direct mail, cold calling, blanket e-mails etc. Difference between Direct Marketing & Conventional Marketing DM is de-massified Marketing - is the process by which a firm approaches its customers on a one-to-one basis and markets its products directly to them DM approaches customers individually – Communicates with and offers products that are modified to suit customer requirements.
DM relies on customized production and individualized communication & distribution. The sales promotion/ marketing communication is concerned DM opts for incentives at an individual level DM targets the individual consumer and develops its offer for him Conventional Marketing basically looks at a firm approaching the customer on a mass basis & sells them indirectly. Hence the marketer sells to a multitude of customers Mass Production is used in CM along with Mass communication & Mass distribution devices. Taking sales promotion/ marketing communication in consideration – CM opts for incentives on a mass basis CM targets the average consumer of the chosen market segment Forms of Direct Marketing
Forms of Direct Marketing 1. Mail Order marketing/ Catalogue Marketing With the Internet, more and more catalogs have electronic Print catalogs still the primary medium Harder to attract new customers with Internet catalogs 2. Direct mail – Involves sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a particular address. Accounts for more than 31% of direct-marketing sales.
Permits high target-market selectivity. Personal and flexible. Easy to measure results
Challenges in Direct Marketing
Direct marketing requires careful planning, analysis and alertness in order to make it a success rather than frustrating the potential customers. There are even many people who consider direct marketing to be a marketing strategy that would work out the negative way and spoil the brand name. However, that cannot be true as there are several businesses who have succeeded by direct marketing.
There are many challenges in direct marketing that the business owner needs to handle with caution and ensure that the customers do not get frustrated or irritated by the way you approach them. This is quite common in direct marketing, as no customer would want the marketer to target him or her personally and try to market something new. The situation would be totally different if the same product or service is presented to customers who are in need of the service or to someone who is looking for them. So, the secret lies in identifying the right group that would be interested in your products or services when you talk to them about your business. In order to be successful in direct marketing, you would certainly have to spend enough time in building a database of customers who would be interested in your service or products. Any marketing strategy would be useful and would make sense only when it results in sales or improvement in business. Similarly, direct marketing would also be helpful only when it is practiced with an accurately targeted group. Blindly contacting anyone and talking about your services would spoil your reputation and would irritate the customers.
Though database generation is definitely not a simple task, a little more effort and time would help you generate a list quickly. Alternatively, you can also purchase contact lists from various database generation companies and start your direct marketing campaign. However, care needs to be taken in this regard as in many cases the database might contain contact details that are outdated. You can find the right company that has experience and reputation in database generation and purchase the list from them as cheap lists might go to waste and spoil your business’ reputation.
The approach that you use to contact your customers is also important as this would be the first meeting or discussion that your company would be having with them and this is what would help you to impress them.
Therefore, any mode you use, whether it be a phone call or a personal meeting or an email, it should be well organized and appealing. You should already be prepared for the discussion and should have answers for all those questions that the customers might raise during the discussion. All possible questions should be predicted and the answers for them should also be ready. Preparation of a professional script would help for personal meetings and phone calls. You can even have an email template drafted for direct marketing through emails. However, a few things that would make the email look personalized and customized should be changed before sending it across.
Contacting the customers can either be done directly by you or can be outsourced to other third party companies who have experience in direct marketing and dealing with customers without any problem. However, both the company and the sales representatives who deal with your customers should be experienced in handling direct marketing calls and with different types of customers. Their approach should be professional and they should have answers for all the questions possible. For this, you should first have these call agents educated on the various services and / or products that you sell. They should also know about your experience in the field, the quality of service or products, cost, guarantee if any and so on. The main thing in dealing with customers in direct marketing is that the information you give should be accurate and promises or assurance that you make should be true. Any fake promises and assurance would certainly spoil the reputation of your business and the customers would no longer trust you and your business. Finding the right call agents would be a great challenge and training them to talk about your company would definitely be a tough job.
Once you are prepared and finished with all these preliminary arrangements, you can start calling or mailing your targeted customers by yourself or using call agents from other companies. Whatever the case, care should be taken to see whether it is the right time to contact the customers. For example, customers would not be interested in talking to a marketing person and in receiving a marketing mail when they are on vacation or during the weekends. Therefore, such private timings can be avoided and customers contacted during the weekdays. This would reduce a lot of disorder and would help them to keep your customers cool without frustrating them. After the initial discussion, if you are asked to contact at a particular time of the day, after a week or whenever it might be, remember to do it promptly and do not disturb them before that.
Maintaining a tracking system that would remind you about the timing of returning calls would also help in building a good opinion about your punctuality and business amongst your customers. Direct marketing can generate more leads and end up as successful sales if only these few challenges in direct marketing are handled with care and thought. A professional touch in every step that you take in direct marketing would be the best way to go about it.
Conclusion
This is the direct marketing challenge to approach at the customer who is most important and also lucrative to serve
Direct Marketing – Meaning of the Concept Concerned with establishing individual relationship between the product/ service & the final customer Sending a promotional message directly to consumers, rather than via a mass medium Definition - The planned recording, analysis and tracking of customer behavior to develop a relational marketing strategies An interactive system of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response at any location, forming a basis for creating and further developing an ongoing relationship between an organisation and its customers. Features… Direct Marketing consists of direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain – An immediate response Cultivate lasting customer relationships Interactive system of marketing Attempts to send its messages directly to consumers - involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, and telemarketing) with consumers/businesses Focused on driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action” - involves an emphasis on tractable, measurable positive responses from consumers regardless of medium Requisites for the success of Direct Marketing Comprehensive, reliable and updated Database – The lack of a proper database is the primary reason for the failure of a DM campaign. Careful & close Targeting of Markets/ Prospects Service guarantee and product warranty Backroom logistics Details Information Sustained effort Conventional or traditional Marketing Generally termed a “push” process you are pushing your marketing material, at your target market, TV, radio, brochures, exhibitions, hospitality, direct mail, cold calling, blanket e-mails etc. Difference between Direct Marketing & Conventional Marketing DM is de-massified Marketing - is the process by which a firm approaches its customers on a one-to-one basis and markets its products directly to them DM approaches customers individually – Communicates with and offers products that are modified to suit customer requirements.
DM relies on customized production and individualized communication & distribution. The sales promotion/ marketing communication is concerned DM opts for incentives at an individual level DM targets the individual consumer and develops its offer for him Conventional Marketing basically looks at a firm approaching the customer on a mass basis & sells them indirectly. Hence the marketer sells to a multitude of customers Mass Production is used in CM along with Mass communication & Mass distribution devices. Taking sales promotion/ marketing communication in consideration – CM opts for incentives on a mass basis CM targets the average consumer of the chosen market segment Forms of Direct Marketing
Forms of Direct Marketing 1. Mail Order marketing/ Catalogue Marketing With the Internet, more and more catalogs have electronic Print catalogs still the primary medium Harder to attract new customers with Internet catalogs 2. Direct mail – Involves sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a particular address. Accounts for more than 31% of direct-marketing sales.
Permits high target-market selectivity. Personal and flexible. Easy to measure results
Challenges in Direct Marketing
Direct marketing requires careful planning, analysis and alertness in order to make it a success rather than frustrating the potential customers. There are even many people who consider direct marketing to be a marketing strategy that would work out the negative way and spoil the brand name. However, that cannot be true as there are several businesses who have succeeded by direct marketing.
There are many challenges in direct marketing that the business owner needs to handle with caution and ensure that the customers do not get frustrated or irritated by the way you approach them. This is quite common in direct marketing, as no customer would want the marketer to target him or her personally and try to market something new. The situation would be totally different if the same product or service is presented to customers who are in need of the service or to someone who is looking for them. So, the secret lies in identifying the right group that would be interested in your products or services when you talk to them about your business. In order to be successful in direct marketing, you would certainly have to spend enough time in building a database of customers who would be interested in your service or products. Any marketing strategy would be useful and would make sense only when it results in sales or improvement in business. Similarly, direct marketing would also be helpful only when it is practiced with an accurately targeted group. Blindly contacting anyone and talking about your services would spoil your reputation and would irritate the customers.
Though database generation is definitely not a simple task, a little more effort and time would help you generate a list quickly. Alternatively, you can also purchase contact lists from various database generation companies and start your direct marketing campaign. However, care needs to be taken in this regard as in many cases the database might contain contact details that are outdated. You can find the right company that has experience and reputation in database generation and purchase the list from them as cheap lists might go to waste and spoil your business’ reputation.
The approach that you use to contact your customers is also important as this would be the first meeting or discussion that your company would be having with them and this is what would help you to impress them.
Therefore, any mode you use, whether it be a phone call or a personal meeting or an email, it should be well organized and appealing. You should already be prepared for the discussion and should have answers for all those questions that the customers might raise during the discussion. All possible questions should be predicted and the answers for them should also be ready. Preparation of a professional script would help for personal meetings and phone calls. You can even have an email template drafted for direct marketing through emails. However, a few things that would make the email look personalized and customized should be changed before sending it across.
Contacting the customers can either be done directly by you or can be outsourced to other third party companies who have experience in direct marketing and dealing with customers without any problem. However, both the company and the sales representatives who deal with your customers should be experienced in handling direct marketing calls and with different types of customers. Their approach should be professional and they should have answers for all the questions possible. For this, you should first have these call agents educated on the various services and / or products that you sell. They should also know about your experience in the field, the quality of service or products, cost, guarantee if any and so on. The main thing in dealing with customers in direct marketing is that the information you give should be accurate and promises or assurance that you make should be true. Any fake promises and assurance would certainly spoil the reputation of your business and the customers would no longer trust you and your business. Finding the right call agents would be a great challenge and training them to talk about your company would definitely be a tough job.
Once you are prepared and finished with all these preliminary arrangements, you can start calling or mailing your targeted customers by yourself or using call agents from other companies. Whatever the case, care should be taken to see whether it is the right time to contact the customers. For example, customers would not be interested in talking to a marketing person and in receiving a marketing mail when they are on vacation or during the weekends. Therefore, such private timings can be avoided and customers contacted during the weekdays. This would reduce a lot of disorder and would help them to keep your customers cool without frustrating them. After the initial discussion, if you are asked to contact at a particular time of the day, after a week or whenever it might be, remember to do it promptly and do not disturb them before that.
Maintaining a tracking system that would remind you about the timing of returning calls would also help in building a good opinion about your punctuality and business amongst your customers. Direct marketing can generate more leads and end up as successful sales if only these few challenges in direct marketing are handled with care and thought. A professional touch in every step that you take in direct marketing would be the best way to go about it.
Conclusion
This is the direct marketing challenge to approach at the customer who is most important and also lucrative to serve
