07/12/2005 // direct marketing

Direct Marketing has come a long way from its beginnings such as direct mail and telephony. Today it has expanded to become even more personal through the use of SMS -texting and email. Technology has become more pervasive such that marketing campaigns using technology are more sophisticated, trying to establish and gain a closer, personal relationship with the target customer. Also they are normally lower cost than traditional marketing techniques such as PR or advertising.

However this in itself has advantages and disadvantages. Firstly direct marketing is usually more quantifiable or measurable in its return for every £ spent than other forms of marketing promotion. Furthermore it often solicits a more immediate response from the target market. But direct marketing is only as good as the data used.

You can buy in data lists or data bases from suppliers or use your own in house customer data. However ask your self the question – how old is the data? There is nothing like the embarrassment of sending out a direct mail campaign or calling a prospect only to find they passed away 2 years ago.

It is often thought that business to business data remains fairly static and it is consumers whose details change frequently. This is not so, according to Royal Mail business data decays at a rate of about 20% per annum, whilst according to Dun & Bradstreet about 7% of businesses move every year.

Keeping the data up to date is a task that should take paramount importance in a company’s marketing and sales departments. If 20% decays then arguably up to 20% of any marketing expenditure using decaying data is wasted. For example one of the biggest commercial databases in the UK is owned by British Gas – it has on average over 20 million households. On average such databases churn by around 11% per annum. The bigger the database, the greater the task to keep on top of it.

Accuracy is everything as it underpins your brand or company name in showing that you care, whereas using inaccurate data only serves to annoy.

A number of our clients are using a combination of well crafted and designed emails to drive attendance to conferences and seminars supported by a follow up out bound telemarketing campaign that is achieving better performance returns than by simply using direct mail. But if you are going to use direct marketing then keep the following in mind:

   Does the person or organisation you are targeting want to receive unsolicited mail from you? – check with the Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service beforehand. There are also a number of TPS and MPS service providers who will perform a check against your data so that you don’t fall foul of legislation.

   Have your data regularly list cleansed – there are a number of tactics to achieve this by either contracting an agency like Opening Doors or by undertaking the work your self. However bear in mind that it is an unending task and it needs a blend of tactics to achieve i.e. out bound and in bound email, outbound post reply paid cards, direct mail, outbound telephony, bought in new data sources, fax, newsletters, web sites and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software applications.

   Be clear in your mind as to what part of the marketing mix direct marketing is going to play, it is a valuable, effective and measurable tool but it has to be part of a plan not used merely in isolation.

   If you use an agency then undertake test or trial campaigns beforehand. Don’t commit to a large project that is poorly quantified and then be disappointed over the results. Some products or services, particularly complex ones or concept selling do not lend themselves well to aspects of direct marketing – in particular telemarketing. Limit your risk, test or trial, measure the results and if successful then roll out a campaign on a rolling monthly basis with clearly stated performance measures.

   Decide on who will handle the enquiries/responses and fulfilment. Be careful that you clearly decide as to who will do what – don’t get swamped by enquiries only to find that you can’t cope, that they are wasted plus your own image is damaged by not responding in a timely manner.

   Review, fine tune, measure and learn. This will help you justify the effort against the expenditure and always helps you show the company or firm that you are getting best value for money spent!

If you would like more information about this topic or to discuss what more could be done for your direct marketing then please get in touch. If you have any feedback or suggestions on this article or any other article then please contact us.