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15 November 2020

4 Advantages of Direct Marketing: How to Connect with Customers

Direct marketing is one of the most powerful promotional methods where a business connects with a target audience, without using an advertising ‘middle-man.’ With direct marketing, your business creates hyper-specific marketing that provides relevant information directly to your target audience. Let’s dive right into the advantages of direct marketing, and why you need to capitalize on this powerful strategy for your business.

What is Direct Marketing?  

With direct marketing, businesses provide specific, tailored information directly to consumers. For example, teenagers subscribing to a YouTube channel might receive ads for prom dresses or acne medication, while residents of Maryland might receive promotions on TV about an upcoming state election—the information is specific to an audience and presented without a middle-man in the form of an advertising company. There are different types of direct marketing materials, such as newsletters, postcards, coupons, emails, online ads, phone calls, and social media ads. 

Direct marketing’s main goal is to persuade the recipient to take action. Whether that desired action is visiting a website, setting up a free consultation, or making a purchase, the goal is to push them to take action. 

4 Advantages of Direct Marketing

Direct marketing presents advertising specifically to those people who are likely to be interested in or in need of your company’s product or services. This group is determined based on information gathered about those people. Rather than present ads to everyone, you’re reaching a target audience that’s receptive and ready to take action. There are a few key advantages of direct marketing that will serve as valuable tools for every business owner. 

1. You Can Specifically Target Your Ideal Customers

As mentioned above, direct marketing allows you to target specific groups of people with highly tailored, relevant messaging. You’re able to identify and locate customers that are most likely to need or want your products or services. From there you can focus all of your marketing efforts on those particular individuals, where your chances of converting them to a customer are much higher. You’re also able to gather more insights for future marketing campaigns—how are people responding to the direct communications you’re providing? 

Targeted lists of customers can be a challenge to create. That’s why Exact Data puts together thousands of targeted, specific lists to take the stress out of direct marketing. These ready-made lists are full of the most useful contacts across many types of industries and niches. You can find a wide variety of accurate, verified lists that are ready for downloading which will make it easy to reach your target audience. 

2. You’re Able to Increase ROI for Advertising

ROI, which stands for “return on investment,” is the key piece of information business owners focus on when building out marketing strategies. Direct marketing still has costs, but it can be extremely profitable. ROI is a way to assess the revenue a marketing campaign creates, relative to the cost of that campaign. 

To calculate ROI, use the following formula: 

(revenue or profits  – campaign cost) / campaign cost. 

3. Segmentation is an Important Element of Success

One of the key advantages of direct marketing is effectively connecting with potential buyers who are more interested in what you have to offer. You can segment your lists to market directly to the right people at the right time, boosting the results of your campaign. Success skyrockets in direct marketing when you’re able to be specific and speak to customers on a deeper level. 

Here are six types of targeting you can try out in your direct marketing strategy: 

  1. Geographic Targeting: cities, streets, neighborhoods, addresses, and zip codes
  2. Demographic Targeting: income, education, ethnicity, age, and residence type
  3. Psychological Targeting: financial behaviors, values, hobbies, political preferences, and interests
  4. Behavioral Targeting: the way people prefer to buy, for example, online vs in person vs over the phone
  5. Media Preference Targeting: how do they interact with different forms of media, such as the internet, social media, TV, and emails? 
  6. Target previous customers, for example, different days of the week or time of the day. in a new, deeply connected way

These segmentation strategies help you create a targeted, effective strategy in your direct marketing.

4. Create Personalized Customer Communications & Track Results

Fortunately, direct marketing allows you to personalize your messaging. Recipients of direct marketing ads often feel like the message of the ad was meant just for them. This helps create a personal connection, which boosts the likelihood of someone taking action and possibly making a purchase. 80% of those who classify themselves as frequent shoppers say they only shop with brands who personalize their experience. Plus, direct marketing makes it easy to track and measure the results. There are a number of built-in ways to track the success of direct marketing campaigns with every campaign that you send out. 

With all of the amazing advantages of direct marketing, every business should focus on these personalized marketing campaigns with huge rewards. Although putting together direct marketing targeted lists can feel like a challenge, Exact Data is here to help! We thrive on helping businesses create targeted lists that allow them to reach their ideal audience. Check out our tailored lists and begin using this powerful direct marketing secret weapon to connect with the right people.