Promotion mix. Element 4 "Direct Marketing" in All About Marketing

Consumers believe that almost all marketing communications they encounter are “advertising”. Even in the case when the seller directly addresses the consumer with a very precise and personalized message, understanding his needs well, even in this case, the consumer considers it as an advertisement.

This illustrates two important points to note before starting the story of “direct marketing”:

Advertising is an impersonal and non-personalized appeal, built on the basis of an understanding of the average need, carried out using means and methods of communication typical for a large audience, solving the problem of mass communication with a large group of consumers;
It’s bad if a direct and immediate dialogue between the seller’s representative and the consumer in terms of content and quality, value for the consumer looks no better than impersonal advertising.
What is direct marketing
Direct marketing (direct marketing) - marketing of direct interaction with the target consumer to identify the consumer’s reaction to the seller’s offer (receiving a response or transaction)
Direct marketing is aimed at an individual consumer or a specific representative of a corporate consumer and is carried out in accordance with the list of such consumers compiled by the company itself, in which, as a rule, the appeal looks as personalized as possible, but mass means of communication are used: mail, telephone.

Reasons for the spread of direct marketing
Changing demographics and lifestyles . The accelerated pace of life, the desire to build a career, relegating everyday life to the background - people are actively buying online. This leads to the elimination of unnecessary intermediaries from the marketing channel, which, in some cases, leads the consumer and the manufacturer to direct sales.

Growing need for personalization . Direct marketing and direct high-quality communications between the consumer and the seller of the manufacturer provide the company with the opportunity to create loyal consumers. If consumers entered into a dialogue with the company, and their needs and desires were properly satisfied and consumers felt special treatment, then the desire to repeat this feeling will force them to turn to the same manufacturer again.

The growth of competition . It will be quite difficult for competitors to lure away such satisfied customers who receive a personalized treatment.

Technology change and dialogue instead of monologue . Traditional mass media offer the audience a monologue: information, propaganda, advertising. At the same time, modern media are interactive. This means that it is possible to get a direct response from the consumer, reducing the time, effort and cost of obtaining a response, processing it and responding.

Variety of media. If earlier media carriers were: static (newspapers, street advertising) or dynamic (television, dynamic outdoor advertising), today interactive media have been added to them: (parking machines, ATMs, interactive storefronts, vending machines), social networks in which people are grouped according to professional and personal interests. To this diversity, it is necessary to add various formats of devices used by people, it becomes clear that audience segmentation is taking place. If earlier with the help of one TV advertisement it was possible to reach a sufficient part of the target audience, today it is necessary to use many means of conveying information, some of which are interactive. This is an opportunity for direct marketing because the audience is fragmented into a large number of groups.

For example, email marketing is very popular now. When emails with offers are sent to potential or existing customers. To use such a marketing tool, you need a special finder that will help you find a large email database where you can send your offers. This is one of the most modern methods of marketing. And for this method, there are now a large number of tools that allow you to easily and effectively apply this type of marketing.

High costs for providing contact . Personal selling is highly skilled and comes with a high cost per contact. Mass advertising, with its high cost, loses its effectiveness. With the right organization and with the use of modern means of communication, direct marketing seems to be a good alternative. Direct marketing offers benefits not only to buyers, but also to sellers. Compared to advertising in the media, with a high cost per contact, the effectiveness of communication with consumers with direct marketing is much higher. And due to the use of technical means and information means, the cost of communication with consumers is much lower than with personal sales.

Measurability of the “digital environment” . “Digital environment” a priori implies the ability to measure what is happening in it and the results obtained. Direct response advertising and direct advertising provide measurable results that allow you to correctly assess the economic, communicative and social effectiveness of direct marketing.