CHARACTERISTIC OF DIRECT MARKETING

While direct marketing objectives and strategies come in all shapes and sizes, there are several characteristics of direct marketing that every plan must include to ensure success.

A main characteristic of direct marketing are what marketers call the “3 C’s” of direct marketing. The 3 C’s of direct marketing required to maximize the chances for direct mail success are that the direct mail campaign needs to be clear, concise and compelling. Every piece of information that you send, whether a physical piece of mail or an e-mail, needs to contain information that is present in a clear and concise manner. After all, confusion is never a good sales strategy, yet one of the main characteristic of direct marketing that you find in your mailbox and inbox is anything but clear or concise.

If you are using language that contains jargon and unfamiliar industry language, it is most certain that your mail will be tossed in the trash or deleted.

The third characteristic of direct marketing, the third “C”, is that each piece of mail sent needs to be compelling. This simply means that the customer needs to be prompted to read the direct mail piece and ultimately take immediate action. Whether it involves making that call, placing a sticker on a card or checking a few boxes on a postcard and dropping it in the mail, your customer must feel a sense of urgency. Compelling direct mail can accomplish this.

Another characteristic of direct marketing is that the information should be honest. Make sure that you are going to be able to deliver the product or service that you are promising the customer. If you develop a reputation for dishonest dealings, the word will quickly spread and you will have a difficult time selling to customers in the future. With the advent of the Internet, negative word-of-mouth spreads quickly about a product or service offering that doesn’t like up to the hype from the direct marketing. In fact, there are many websites whose sole existence is based on exposing dishonest marketing offers and techniques.

Another one of the characteristics of direct marketing is the ability to accurately measure effectiveness. One of the greatest characteristics of direct marketing is that you can measure the results and effectiveness of the direct mail campaign by calculating the response rate. Effective direct marketing pieces should include some type of response mechanism. By the number of response phone calls, website traffic or postcards returned requesting information, for example, you can examine and assess how effective your direct marketing is.

Another way to assess how effective your direct marketing will be is through testing, which is another great characteristic of direct marketing. Suppose your direct marketing plan involves a mailing to 100,000 prospective customers. You can send out a sample mailing to 1000 of these prospective customers to assist you in estimating what the overall response will be.

All of these characteristic of direct marketing are the reasons why many companies depend and successfully use direct marketing on a daily basis.