Direct Marketing Checklist – When to Use Direct Marketing?
Is direct marketing right for your organization? Ask yourself the following questions. If you answer yes to any one of them, then you will find direct marketing a beneficial addition to your marketing mix.
- Do you want to measure the results of your advertising?
- Do you only want to communicate your message and offer to a selected market / market segment or audience?
- Do you want to increase sales from existing customers?
- Do you want to re-establish relationships with dormant customers?
- Do you want to increase customer loyalty?
- Does the product or service require a full explanation?
- Is the message or offer too complex or detailed to be conveyed in general advertising?
- Is the message or offer targeted at a specific audience?
- Is it a unique product or service for which other distribution channels are not available, too expensive or otherwise unsatisfactory?
- Do you have to produce an immediate and identifiable order or response (inquiry)?
- Is a specific, selected market of prime prospects both definable and recognizable and are lists or media vehicles available to target them?
- Is a specific, selected market or target audience desired and can other media deliver it only with excessive waste circulation?
- Is a personal, personalized or confidential communication desired?
- Does the marketing strategy call for a format that cannot be carried in a general media buy?
- Does a specific market need to be covered with a minimum of spill-over into adjacent areas?
- Is sampling practical and highly desirable?
- Is precise timing or frequency of contact needed?
- Do you want to conduct research to measure effectiveness within certain markets; determine prospect profiles; or test price, packing or potential users within a market?
- Is a highly controlled distribution required?
- Do you need to or want to make the sale of the product directly to the prospect, without dealers or retailers?
- Do you want to secure leads which will be followed up by personal sales contacts or further direct marketing vehicles (direct mail, email)?
- Do you want to direct a specific prospect to a specific location?
- Do you want to introduce your product or service to potential prospects in a highly personal manner?
- Do you want to build and refine mailing lists?
- Do you want to follow up inquiries secured through other media vehicles?
- Do you want to turn the “short-term” responders to an offer into “long-term” customer relationships and capitalize on the lifetime potential value of those customers?