How can Direct Marketing Help you Improve Sales

In this internet age when all customer interactions are moving online and businesses can always stay in contact with customers some wonder if there is any value left in direct marketing. Direct marketing was popular before the arrival of internet when customers used to get number of mailings every day in the form of postcards, catalogs, and personal letters. However, the volume of such mailings has recently gone down. Even postal service is feeling the impact of this reduction posting huge losses for several years. While there is no denying that internet has made it easier to interact with customers using Smartphone and other electronic devices direct marketing can still provide value to business owners if it is done right. Customers still love to see their name on emails and printed postcards. Before we go into the benefits of direct marketing let’s answer the question –what is direct marketing?

Simply put, direct marketing is contacting your potential customers directly via any number of avenues. It can take the form of postcards, phone, email and such. The keyword here is “Direct.” You are not relying on third-party to send the advertisement of your business along with many other businesses. Instead you know which customer you are sending the marketing message to and are sending it in a more personal fashion with their name, address, phone number or email.

Direct marketing can provide number of benefits you cannot achieve with other forms of marketing.

1. You are likely to get better customer response with direct marketing. For one, your mailing is not bundled with number of other marketing messages. Besides, when customers see the mail addressed to them directly they are more likely to open and respond.
2. You are sending the marketing message to your target audience instead of randomly blasting it to everyone. You can filter the list of potential customers by the demographic you are interested in and only send to those customers.
3. Customers will like receiving your marketing message because it will be relevant to their interest.
4. Direct marketing can cost you less overall. While each individual message may be more expensive, the total cost will be less because you will not have to send as many mailings. You will only send them to your target customers who are more likely to respond.

As you can see direct marketing provides number of benefits and helps improve your customer base and overall sales. The key to success with direct marketing is having the right and accurate customer list that aligns with your target customers. There are number of companies such as List Giant that can provide these lists to suit your needs. You can filter it by number of different parameters to arrive at the specific customer list for your target customer base and also ask for specific information such as name, address, phone, email, etc. to be included.