Direct Marketing & Interactive Marketing - Promotion Tools, Marketing Management | Marketing Management - B Com PDF Download

Direct marketing is as old as the written word and is a business staple. It is also widely used by those in the nonprofit arena. It is a form of advertising that allows businesses and organizations to communicate directly to customers through a variety of media such as phone calls, text messaging, emails, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters and targeted television campaigns known as infomercials. If you have ever been called at dinner time by a telemarketer you have been the target of direct marketing. You're probably also aware that laws prohibit telemarketers from making unsolicited phone calls at inappropriate times of the time whether it's five in the morning at ten in the evening.

Often considered annoying and invasive by consumers, direct marketing is an aggressive form of marketing that works to grow a client and customer base but needs to be carefully planned and implemented.

1  What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is just what it sounds like. A marketing professional is directly reaching a market base (i.e., customers and potential customers) on a personal level (such as a phone call or via a private email message) basis, or on a mass-media basis (in the form of infomercials, magazine ads, etc.).

Direct marketing (often known for its aggressive tactics that attempt to reach new customers, usually by means of unsolicited direct communications) is often used to reach out to existing, or past, customers. A key factor in the success of any direct marketing campaign is what industry experts refer to as a "call to action." What that means is that direct marketing campaigns should offer an incentive or enticing message to get consumers to respond (i.e., act). In other words, as a direct marketer you must offer the people a benefit, whether it is money off their next purchase, a limited time cost coupon, or, for a non-profit, an invitation to an event or membership reduction.

While direct marketing involves the organization attempting to locate, contact, offer, and make incentive-based information available to consumers, there also needs to be a return-on-investment. If handing out flyers to drum up business at your newly-launched pizza parlor doesn't net more customers, it's not worth the employees time. The good thing about direct marketing is that there are so many alternatives that if one approach doesn't work, you can easily switch to another. Instead of flyers, try offering a free beverage for first-time customers and post that on your web site as well as social media sites.

2  Types of Direct Marketing

While the world of direct marketing is ever-evolving (in a short time span we've gone from facebook to twitter to Instagram to snap chat), there are three main types of direct marketing include:

• Telemarketing: Direct marketing that involves calling people at home or work to ask for donations, get their opinion and support for your cause or politifal campaign, or solely for sales purposes.
• Email Direct Marketing: This form of direct marketing targets consumers through their Email accounts. Email addresses can be harvested from websites, social media outlets, industry forums, making purchases online or purchased. Some companies require you to receive announcements in order to use their websites.
• Direct Mail Marketing: Advertising material sent directly to your home or business though is more predominately used by non-profits. Other types of direct marketing include distributing flyers; door-to-door solicitations; curbside stands; FAX broadcasting; television marketing (i.e., infomercials); coupon ads in print media; and voice mail marketing.
• Other types of direct marketing include distributing flyers; television marketing (i.e., infomercials); coupon ads used by print media as well as local businesses such as restaurants, and voice mail marketing in the form of robo calls which are recorded calls.

3  Does Direct Marketing Work?

That depends on how you define "work." Direct marketing does ensure people know about your business. But aggressive, misleading, or annoying direct marketing can leave people with a bad impression about your business.

Be sure to adhere to privacy and contact laws on a federal and state level because there are stiff fines and penalties for direct marketers who violate direct marketing laws.

4  Should I Consider Direct Marketing?

Every business owner should consider direct marketing. However, the type of direct marketing that will work for your business depends on your industry, your business ethics, and your budget

What is Interactive Marketing?

In a world in which consumers have come to expect increasing responsiveness from the companies they do business with, interactive marketing is one of several methods (social media is another) in which business owners can better meet their market's needs. 

Interactive marketing involves a marketing tactic that is in direct response to something a consumer does. Sometimes called trigger-based or event-based marketing, interactive marketing relies completely on an action started by the consumer.

For example, "Do you want fries with that?" is a form of interactive marketing. It's usually asked if you order a hamburger, but not if you order a shake. The act of ordering a hamburger triggers the push towards adding another product.

Example of Interactive Marketing:

One of the biggest innovators in interactive marketing is Amazon.com. It collects and analyzes visitor behavior, then uses it to show meaningful information to the customer in the present. Amazon offers “suggested reading” selections based off previous book searches or purchases. This type of online environment makes for a personal shopping experience, leading to longer stays within a site (sometimes referred to as “site stickiness”) and more purchases (also referred to as conversions). 

Amazon not only tells you what others are browsing that are similar to your search, but also, if you buy an item, Amazon will tell you what others who have bought that item also bought.

Amazon remembers your preferences and will send you emails or highlight online new similar and related items based on your browsing and buying history.

Benefits to Interactive Marketing:

The benefits to interactive marketing can be significant. For one, it makes the consumer feel like they're heard, understood, and receiving personal service.

Other benefits to interactive marketing include:

1. Increase sales: Interactive marketing increases the odds that you'll deliver what the consumer needs thereby leading to a sale, as well as increase sales by recommending related items that result in the buyer tacking on other items that fit with their purchase. 

2. Increase consumer satisfaction: Consumers like to buy things that most closely fit what they need. Since interactive marketing is based actions by the consumer, you're more likely to match them with the right product/service.

3. Lower marketing costs: Consumers like interactive marketing because they don't have to repeat themselves. It's like having a personal shopper. Happy customers not only stay with you, but will refer you. It's cheaper to keep a customer than get a new one.

4. It can be automatic: No one sits at Amazon and watches what you do on its site. Computers track consumer actions and, based on algorithms, they suggest recommendations. Even the statement, "Do you want fries with that?" is part of a system.

Drawbacks to Interactive Marketing:

Interactive marketing requires detailed planning and implementation. While a system can execute it, you have to set the system up to understand the triggers and what to deliver.

Other cons include:

1. Some customers don't like it. Let's face it, to deliver recommendations, you have to track what consumers do, and for some, tracking their every move is a little creepy.
2. Not everyone is alike. Interactive marketing works a great deal on probabilities. But just because 99 people out of 100 bought item Y at the same time they bought item X, doesn't mean everyone who buys X also wants Y. Someone might prefer Z. When it goes wrong, it highlights that you don't know your customer.

How to Set Up Interactive Marketing:

If you'd like to use interactive marketing in your business, you'll need to spend time understanding your market, its wants and needs, as well as what actions can lead to results. 

1. Identify the triggers that can lead to an interactive marketing event. The best way to do this is through surveys and analyzing data. 

2. Determine the marketing event for the trigger. When the consumer does X, what do you want to happen? Recommend Y? Ask if they want fries? 

3. Set up your system. Online, this requires tech know-how to set up a program that will take the data input and delivers an output. Face-to-face, you can develop your "sales system" to include responses to certain questions or purchases your client/customer asks.

4. Assess. Is it working? Is your interactive marketing system it leading to more sales? Are you getting complaints? Use the data to tweak your system.