Direct marketing is a consolidated strategy in which a seller uses various methods to reach out to an identified market to effect the exchange of products and services. These methods could include direct mail, catalog selling, direct-action advertising, direct selling, cable TV selling, and telemarketing.

The aim is to solicit a reply through telephone or mail and a personal visit by a prospect or customer. In short, the organizations contact directly the target customers to trigger a response or transaction. Seeing as how most of the medium used involves sending printed materials to customers and prospects, it's important to keep abreast with direct mail services pricing.

Approach

Direct selling is a type of direct marketing involving the personal presentation, demonstration, and sales of merchandise and services to buyers in their homes. In direct marketing, the intermediaries are removed and the product is directly sold to the end users or consumers, whereas personal selling is a one-on-one selling the sales person visiting a prospect and able to close a sale.

More on direct marketing and selling:

Pros and Cons of Direct Marketing

1. Direct mail strategy is found to be very effective to reach target audience.


2. Direct mail gives highest customer response fast.


3. Magazine advertising takes month for your ad to appear, thus, it takes long to see the result or respond of market. Direct mail campaign can be seen in days.


4. In direct mailing, mailing piece can be personalized with color application, appropriate photos, and use of a different font. This is not allowed in newspaper ads. They have a set of standards. Graphics is crucial in direct mail marketing piece. You can check out a company offering direct mail service to find out more.


5. Existing customers give a better response unlike than addressee who has never heard about the company and its product or service before. The existing customers are the best customers.


6. An offer of something free gets a better response than a discount offer.


7. Direct mail when received by prospects either ends up as follows - opened to find out what's inside, while some discard them out. Direct mail is more popularly known as junk mail.


8. Some cons of direct mail are the rising cost of postage and promotional materials. It is also time-consuming writing down addresses or even pasting the labels.

Direct Marketing and Selling: Strengths and Weaknesses

Strength

Direct selling is an advantage for a business. It sends a commission-earning salesperson directly to the qualified leads instead of waiting for the client to call or contact the company. A good salesperson, during his home-visit presentation creates a need for a product and fills the need. Customers feel more in-charge of a transaction if done at home or office than at the store.

Weakness

One thing that customers get disgusted is the pressure put on them to buy. Commission-based sales person are being complained of doing this leading to dissatisfaction and lost customers. Other offices or exclusive communities are not allowing direct selling, thus resulting in a smaller customer base. Some still prefer to hold on their decision to buy, until after they have done rounds of store to compare prices. At any rate, it's always a good idea to use business services to make it easier for you to reach goals and metrics for your business.