Brand awareness

While the primary purpose of direct marketing is the achievement of an immediate and specific response (such as trial, purchase or inquiry), direct marketing can have other positive effects as well. It can boost awareness and interest and enhance a brand’s image. While brand building can be a positive side effect of direct marketing, it is not recommended that you make it the primary objective of your campaign or strategy.

Lead generation

When using the right strategy, direct marketing can be a very strong lead generation tool for you and your customers. The primary goal of any lead generation program is to get members of the target audience to essentially raise their hand and say “I’d like more information.” Remember, it all starts with providing recipients with a compelling reason to act and a channel for them to respond.

Successful lead generation plan implementation involves eight key steps: 1. Involving the sales force 2. Determining objectives 3. Developing a promotional strategy 4. Developing a creative strategy 5. Developing a media strategy 6. Planning capacity and lead flow 7. Developing the follow-up strategy 8. Measuring results

Customer retention and loyalty

When most people think of marketing, they think in terms of attracting and acquiring new leads, prospects and customers. While expanding your customer base is important, protecting the base is every bit as critical. We’ve all heard the statistic that it costs five times as much money to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Direct marketing is a great way to speak to existing customers in a targeted way and is effective in strengthening customer relationships, cross-selling and up-selling, and promoting new products and services.