So many people are wondering, “What is direct marketing?” and this is a fair question, as it is has been mentioned more and more over the last couple of years. Some people are familiar with the term, but are not all that familiar with what it actually is. To be clear, this is a type of advertising that is focused on driving purchases through a call to action type method. The different between this sort of business promotion or advertising and all others is that it offers results that can be tracked or measured no matter what industry is involved. Many like the idea that they can track it because it allows for them to see how one type of promotion may work as opposed to the other, so they are always improving on their techniques and ensuring that their sales continue to increase as a result.
When asking “What is direct marketing?” you probably don’t know that you come in contact with this type of advertising all the time. This type of business promotion uses many different types of media including catalogs, post cards, statement inserts, card packs, magazines, door hangers, and more. Other types of advertising associated with this method include pay per click advertisements, Internet banner ads, billboards, transit ads, and more. Basically, the advertising will ask the recipient to complete some action, which is why it is often called “called to action advertising.” The recipient of the ad will usually be asked to visit a website, complete a survey, etc. If you think about it, you can probably think of advertising you have come into contact with just today that may fall into this category.
The question, “What is direct marketing?” first began in the 1960’s, as the term was first used by Lester Wunderman, who was responsible for advertising techniques with many big brands such as Colombia records and American Express. Though this is when the term first started being used, the technique is quite old, dating back to the 15th century in Europe! Catalogs and the like have been around as long as anyone living can remember, which means that this form of advertising has been around for quite some time.
This type of advertising is appealing to many because one can track their success. They can do this through taking count of how many advertisements they send out, and how many are responded to. This works online as well as offline, and that is why many are turning toward this technique.
Word count: 418