Direct marketing

Direct marketing or direct marketing is a form of marketing communication that uses one or more media to communicate directly with a target audience and elicit a measurable response from them..

The most common form of direct marketing is direct mail or its electronic version called cybermailing by which marketing managers send their messages to consumers in a certain area, generally extracted from a database. A variety of direct mail would be mailboxes, which consist of the introduction of brochures and other advertising items directly into the mailboxes of buildings. The second most common method of direct marketing is telemarketing in which companies call phone numbers that have been preselected or randomly selected. It is also possible to send direct marketing over the Internet -cybermail-, which, when carried out maliciously, is commonly known as spam. Finally, there is a fourth method that would consist of mass faxing, although it is less common.

Direct marketing differs from traditional methods of advertising in that it does not use an intermediate communication medium or display in public, such as at the point of sale. Rather, it is shipped directly to the consumer.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct Marketing

Advantages

• Rapidity in communication
• Personalization
• Cost normally low
• Theoretically, it is directed directly to potential customers of a product or service so its effectiveness is greater than other mass media.
• Measurement and forecast of response
• Possibility of offering complementary products
• Sealing in geographically isolated markets

Disadvantages

The most significant are:

• The Intrusion of Intimacy Space
• Reduction of communication codes to the word
• High price in case of very massive and difficult contacts
• The fear that they will sell you something that is not

Practical aspects

In most Western countries there are numerous specialized agencies, professional associations and expert consultants in the field. Most of the direct marketing is done by these companies, whose sole function is to design and execute this type of advertising. Generally, they use consumer databases and very often handle very sophisticated criteria to include or remove them from their marketing lists.

As it is an interactive communication between the company and the client, its use as a marketing and communication tool is strongly conditioned by the existing legislation in each country on the use of personal data. Hence, in societies that are not excessively restrictive with the use of personal information (USA) it is more effective than in other economies that are more jealous of the use of this type of data (Germany, Spain, etc.)

In these countries that are so jealous of the privacy of their citizens, interactive communication with a client can only take place if their personal data (name, postal address, telephone) are found in a public directory (phone book or other public directories) or an express consent for this type of communication has been obtained from them.

Usually, the objectives of direct marketing are:

• Generate new sales opportunities, known as Opportunities Generation.
• Keep track of these opportunities.
• Perform a market study.

The five main steps are: - Introduction: it has to be with a smile, enthusiasm and eye contact. - Brief history. - Product in hand. - Close. - Resha (which is two for one).

The five impulses that should not be transmitted are the following: - Greed. - Fear of losing the opportunity. - Sense of urgency. - Sheep factor. - Indifference.

In Venezuela, the Decentralized Tax Administration Service of the Sucre Municipality (SEDAT) with the support of CAF, sent emails and promoted a campaign on Facebook aimed at delinquent taxpayers, in order to collect the vehicle tax and determine the effectiveness of these tools on the probability of payment. For the study, a sample of 6,183 delinquent taxpayers was taken, who were randomly assigned to four treatment groups:

• E-mail.
• Facebook.
• Mail and Facebook.
• Control. The control group did not receive any treatment or intervention.

The results of the intervention indicate that the strategies were effective. Taxpayers who received a collection notification by email had a probability of payment 7.7 percentage points (p.p) higher than the control group. Likewise, the announcement on Facebook complemented the impact of the emails, increasing the probability of payment, this being 9.4 p.p. greater than that of the control group. Ads on Facebook independently did not have a significant impact. Lastly, the availability of a payment button positively affected the probability of paying online, with this method being used significantly more than the others.