Why Direct Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

If you think advertising is too expensive…
If you think most of the money you spend on advertising is wasted…
If you somehow can’t seem to connect with your best prospects…
If you worry about customers or clients disappearing and not being replaced…
Then consider direct marketing, sometimes referred to as direct response.

Direct marketing offers total flexibility in both cost and in “reach.” Want your mailing to be a simple one-page letter? Fine. Want your mailing to include a four-page letter, a brochure, additional enclosures, and an order form? Fine. Want to mail a jumbo postcard? Fine. You’re in command.

Want to mail 50 pieces? No problem. Want to mail 5,000 pieces? Sure. Want to mail 50,000 pieces? Certainly. Want to mail 5,000,000 pieces? Right on. You’re in command.
A sometimes-overlooked advantage of direct marketing is that you can pre-print your materials, saving on printing costs, then mail them at a pace enabling you to handle the responses as they come in.

Direct marketing has a huge advantage over any other medium – the ability to pinpoint your targets. That’s why list selection is crucial to the success of a direct response campaign. With the right list, you don’t have to spend a fortune on producing your message. Time and time again, direct mailers have proved the old maxim: A clear message to the right people will bring far greater response than a richly-produced message to just anybody.

In fact, sometimes overproducing your message will result in reduced response.

Pinpointing your targets gives you a major edge over other media. Of a thousand subscribers to your local newspaper, ten or fifteen may be logical prospects for you. Of a thousand television viewers, five or ten may be prospects. But, of a thousand targeted individuals to whom you’re mailing, if the list is sound, you should be reaching a thousand logical prospects!

Why not test?

Direct marketing offers yet another advantage – the advantage of being able to test. Some of the logical tests any marketer of any size can perform:

  • price
  • quantity
  • free delivery versus discount
  • letter length
  • color
  • stamp versus postal indicia
  • envelope copy
  • title or signature on the letter
  • lists and demographics

These are just a handful of the possibilities. Testing invariably provides not only an education but a key to increased response.

And remember, always: The surname of Direct Response is RESPONSE.

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