Direct Marketing Campaigns, Print Advertising,
and E-mail Marketing Campaigns

What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is a discipline within marketing that is used when measurable leads, sales, or traffic (retail or web) are the objective. A direct marketing effort is undertaken to generate a specific response -- which can be tracked and measured.

Direct marketing can use any medium, including: television, magazines, newspapers, mail, email, banner ads, web sites, pay-per-click ads, radio, billboard, transit ads, package inserts, door hangers, statement inserts, card packs, etc. If the ad is asking the prospect to take a specific action -- call an 800 number, visit a web site, return a response card, place an order, complete a survey, etc. -- it is a direct marketing effort.

Advantages include the following:

• Targeting - Historically, the most important aspect of direct mail was its ability to precisely target previous customers. If a suitable list was available, it also did a good job of targeting prospects.

• Personalization - Direct mail can address the customer personally and be tailored to their needs based on previous transactions and gathered data.

• Optimization - Because of its direct accountability, direct mail can be tested to find the best list; the best offer; the best timing (and many other factors). Then the winning tests can be rolled out to a wider audience for optimal results.

• Accumulation - Responses (and non-responses) can be added to the database, allowing future mailings to be better targeted.

Print Advertising

• incentivised advertising via print and ground resources
• internet web presence and the power of search engine traffic

E-mail Marketing Campaigns

SEM ans SEO are directly related to internet marketing. SEM stand fors Search Engine Marketing. SEM is a methodology of marketing techniques which increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. SEM strategies include:

• Search engine optimization is the process of improving a web site's structure, content, and relevant backlink count in order to improve search engine rankings for websites, webpages and relevant keywords.
• Pay per click advertising uses sponsored search engine listings to drive traffic to a web site. The advertiser bids for search terms, and the search engine ranks ads based on a competitive auction as well as other factors.
• Paid inclusion feeds listings into search engines, typically comparative shopping sites like Nextag.
• Social media optimization promotes businesses and/or products by placing ideas or ads within online communities in order to spread those ideas and knowledge of products through community contact.