Direct marketing
Is
a communication between seller and buyer directly, no intermediary media is used.
No distractions come between hopefully. It is direct communication but with a
marketing purpose.Drayton
Bird (2000) describes it as’ an advertising activity, which creates and
exploits a direct relationship between you and your prospect or customer as an individual’. Direct
marketing as the delivery of a marketing message or proposition to a target
customer or potential customer, in a customer favorable format, put to the
customer from the seller or the seller’s agents (including call centers) without
an intermediary person or indirect media involved.
Direct response
In
direct response marketing the customer responds to the marketing message
directly. An example, of this would be media such as television, where audience
view a television presentation of a product offering, and can make a purchase
with a credit card over the telephone or internet. You can use communications
in magazines, newspapers, radio, e-mail, and direct mail to solicit a response
or receive discounts on products are techniques that have been used very
successfully in increasing sales.
Personal selling
This
is among the method of direct marketing where by sellers needed to go and meet
with consumers physically( face to face selling) As a seller, by doing so a
seller will be in a position to easily identify who are the most potential customers in your business and what
are customer needs and wants. The advantage of this method is that, as a seller
you are able to know the consumers need and complains if any and represent to
the management for changes
Direct mail
This
is one of the most commonly used methods in direct marketing. Direct mail
allows you to design marketing pieces in many different formats. This includes
envelope mailers, catalogues, self-mailers, snap mailers, dimensional mailers,
brochures, and postcards. When you write your direct mail piece make sure you
know your target market, and how you are going to appeal to their wants and
needs. Write your objective and refer to it often. You can purchase a mailing list
of businesses and services in your target market from a list company, or you
can develop your own list by gathering email addresses on your web site.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is another method of direct marketing selling technique that has
the advantage of speed in a marketing campaign. When you are a conducting a
telephone solicitation you should first introduce yourself then offer an
incentive in solving a problem that you know exists (to do this would require
you to do some research on the business or what individuals would be looking
for in your product). Do the following when applying telemarketing:
Ø Ask question that you know will lead
to a yes answer (keep prospects on phone answering yes to your questions).
Ø Describe your product or service and
how it solves the client's needs.
Ø Ask if they have any questions.
Ø You now can ask for a face to face
meeting, or to get permission to send information via mail or e-mail, or make
another brief follow-up call. If unavailable, ask what would be a good time to
call back.
..............BY SYEKEYE MATHAYO M..................
