Do you know why direct marketing grows?
Here is a list of six reasons why direct marketing will continue to grow while general advertising and old media suffers.
1. Marketers have tighter budgets today than ever before. Less money for image, more money for sales producing activities like direct marketing and promotion. CMOs and marketing directors want sales, not just awareness for their product or service. At the end of the day, wrong decisions may cost to the executive to lose his or her job. Now, it's not just advertising budget that companies cut.
2. The internet is build for one-to-one communication. The Information Age we are living is the time for database marketing and knowing your customer personally. Not just knowing them, but using your knowledge to provide interesting, useful and personal offers to your customers. Only direct marketing can do that.
3. "I warn you against believing that advertising is a science." said Bill Bernbach, the most celebrated adman of the previous century. Computers and automated database marketing to provide your customers with personal offers is a science, no matter how much you wish you could spend days drawing print ads, it's not going to happen. Today is the time for a paradigm shift from advertising to direct marketing.
4. Direct marketing is better service. If you visit an average consumer electronic store which has about 5.000 product titles, how do you expect the salesperson to about all of them? They don't. Trust me, I have been that salesman. When you visit a web store that uses direct marketing like Amazon.com you get every detail about the product to make your buying decision easy. Meantime, you get a few confident guesses from your local electronic store sales guy –at best. Plus, direct marketers' the selection is much wider than just one store.
5. People don't like shopping. Read the previous paragraph to get the reality of brick and mortar stores. Sometimes it is more convenient to buy directly rather than deal with a real person, loans for example. Who wants to explain their poor financial situation to the bank clerk? Just fill in an online form and you are done. No hassle or embarrassment.
6. With direct marketing you can reach the right prospects and customers more cheaper and quicker than ever before – at the right time, when they are ready to buy. This eliminates that famous '50 per cent waste' of your marketing budget. You know what works and you can leverage that knowledge to make your other marketing efforts more accountable which will also increase your sales and profits.
Here is a list of six reasons why direct marketing will continue to grow while general advertising and old media suffers.
1. Marketers have tighter budgets today than ever before. Less money for image, more money for sales producing activities like direct marketing and promotion. CMOs and marketing directors want sales, not just awareness for their product or service. At the end of the day, wrong decisions may cost to the executive to lose his or her job. Now, it's not just advertising budget that companies cut.
2. The internet is build for one-to-one communication. The Information Age we are living is the time for database marketing and knowing your customer personally. Not just knowing them, but using your knowledge to provide interesting, useful and personal offers to your customers. Only direct marketing can do that.
3. "I warn you against believing that advertising is a science." said Bill Bernbach, the most celebrated adman of the previous century. Computers and automated database marketing to provide your customers with personal offers is a science, no matter how much you wish you could spend days drawing print ads, it's not going to happen. Today is the time for a paradigm shift from advertising to direct marketing.
4. Direct marketing is better service. If you visit an average consumer electronic store which has about 5.000 product titles, how do you expect the salesperson to about all of them? They don't. Trust me, I have been that salesman. When you visit a web store that uses direct marketing like Amazon.com you get every detail about the product to make your buying decision easy. Meantime, you get a few confident guesses from your local electronic store sales guy –at best. Plus, direct marketers' the selection is much wider than just one store.
5. People don't like shopping. Read the previous paragraph to get the reality of brick and mortar stores. Sometimes it is more convenient to buy directly rather than deal with a real person, loans for example. Who wants to explain their poor financial situation to the bank clerk? Just fill in an online form and you are done. No hassle or embarrassment.
6. With direct marketing you can reach the right prospects and customers more cheaper and quicker than ever before – at the right time, when they are ready to buy. This eliminates that famous '50 per cent waste' of your marketing budget. You know what works and you can leverage that knowledge to make your other marketing efforts more accountable which will also increase your sales and profits.
Why do you think direct marketing grows? By the way, did you know that digital and direct marketing now accounts 25 per cent of WPP's income? It was 20 per cent the year before.
