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Direct Mail Marketing

by Zachary Lingh, Zac

The Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA) has been conducting Media, Marketing and Advertising research for over forty years. They have found that Direct Marketing is growing at a rate of 17% per year and represents over half of all media expenditure. That is a whopping $16 Billion spent on advertising media!

Why is Direct Mail Marketing booming?

A recent Panorama study showed that almost 6 million adult Australians have indicated that they like to receive special offers through Direct Mail. Also, there is evidence that over 50% of them have bought a product or service from a Direct Mail offer.

As the world gets smaller, it is easy to reach millions of households in which people are interested to get offers but who are unable to locate good offers on purchases they may wish to make. Direct Marketing gives them the chance to look through a variety of exciting offers from which they can choose what they need.

The advertising industry relies on the data from research and information services in order to find the right routes to the Direct Mail Marketing avenues. The internet has confused most consumers with its overloaded websites which move people from link to link every few seconds. Most people who browse the web to find information are usually unable to find what they need. The advantage of Direct Mail is that it allows easy access to each person with the strength and focus of one-on-one discussion.

Direct Mail includes advertising circulars, catalogues, Compact Discs (CDs), Digital Video Disc, mock credit cards with applications, sample merchandise, coupons, flyers, newsletters, etc.

Direct Mail can captivate the receiver's imagination like none other. The two dimensional pictures and advertising on the Internet fails to tantalize the viewer and hold their attention. However, the three dimensional beauty of direct mail package that the user can hold, feel, hear, smell, read, enjoy and save could be a beauty to behold. Many of the receivers keep these packs, especially if they are in postcard format, as bookmarks to enjoy forever.

Direct Mail is perfect for a country like Australia where there is a lot of rural towns and isolated areas from which people find it difficult to travel to the city and shop for what they need.

What are the steps to the Direct Mail system?

The most important step of the setup is the Customer database. This database may be created from telephone directories, private associations, one you rent from a trade group, a professional organization or a list broker. Lists of addresses can also be obtained from Direct Marketing businesses that cater to this work. You can delineate the results by age, income, occupation, gender, area, education or other interests. The more targeted the mailing list is to your product or products, the more successful your results.

After a directory is obtained, the next step is the message. The right message at the right time will enable you to get the buy-in. The easiest way to create the message is to use the pre-formatted sales flyers in the Microsoft word processor. There are many applications devoted to the creation of attractive and professionally designed inserts. People love to see flashy picture postcards, newsletters on the neighbourhood, videos of vacation spots and samples of products to try.

Personalization is the way to get to the heart of the consumer. By using their name and sending those offers on the items that they may need, Direct mail can easily persuade them to buy the item. Marketers and list sources usually note the psychographic and demographic profiles of the people who are matched to the product criteria.
Direct Mail is an efficient use of advertising dollars and the highly selective and targeted marketing has been proved to be very successful with more than 50% of the customers buying the product. The main benefits mentioned by these consumers were the value and the convenience of buying from home.

Direct mail marketing has become more and more popular over the past couple of years. Companies have been searching for direct marketing solutions that help to grow their business for the cheapest amount of money possible. Direct mail marketing has stepped to the forefront in this arena, which is obvious by all of the direct marketing solutions firms that are being formed every year.

A simple internet search will give you results for thousands of direct mail marketing firms. After checking out some of the sites you will realize that while most of them are generally the same, their prices and quality of information can vary greatly.

By this point you are probably wondering what some of the benefits and features of direct mail marketing are. Some people may even be wondering what direct mail marketing consists of. Direct mail marketing means basically what it says. It is a way for companies to market their products and services to potential clients through mail sent directly to them.

You may be wondering where the company secures the names of potential clients. Most companies that are advertising themselves as direct marketing solutions firms have mailing lists that they will sell to you. Depending on the quality of the list, and the number of names the price will vary. You can buy a list for your direct mail marketing efforts that target only people in your field of interest. In other words if you own or work for an accounting firm, you can buy a list that is specialized to get you in touch with accounting professionals, or someone who may need accounting assistance.

Some other lists that direct mail marketing companies can provide include: lists broken down by profession (doctors, etc.), zip code, state, new homeowners in an area, library, and even lists for particular ethnic groups. In other words, if you are looking for a particular list for your direct mail marketing efforts you will more than likely be able to find it in one place or the next.

But mailing lists are not the only direct marketing solutions available. Another direct marketing technique that is used on a consistent basis is telemarketing. Telemarketing has lost some of its steam over the past few years because of all the fuss over the ?do-not-call? lists that are available. This has forced many companies to go the direct mail marketing route because they do not want to deal with possible lawsuits brought forth by calling the wrong people, etc. Though telemarketing is not as popular as it once was, it can still be very effective. It costs less than direct mail marketing, and you can reach thousands of people in a very short amount of time.

If you are looking for a direct marketing solutions firm be sure to check out all of their services and prices before signing on. Remember, all of them offer the same services but you will be most interested in obtaining quality work for your money.

Article Source : Sales And Marketing Job

About Author

Both Zachary Lingh & Kevin Dark are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Zachary Lingh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Advertising Guide and Hemorrhoids Treatment. DMO offers a full range of direct mail marketing, bulk mail and mail processing services for Australian business. Visit us today.. Zachary Lingh's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.

Kevin Dark has sinced written about articles on various topics from Debts Loans, Car Loans and Mazda. Kevin Dark is an online marketer. Find more about at his new project.. Kevin Dark's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.