Extending your reach with direct marketing

In the age of internet and social media, people long for genuine and direct engagement with brands. While many promotional campaigns that can achieve that, there’s one strategy specifically designed to extend your reach to your customers – it’s called direct marketing. If you want to extend your reach with your customers, then you should consider adding some direct marketing tactics into the mix.

Direct marketing is a form of advertising that aims to get specific action from a select group of customers. It’s about communicating specific information about a company, product or service directly to the customer. This means all promotional information is communicated without third parties or intermediaries.  

There are many forms of direct marketing, namely: 

• Direct mails 
• Emails 
• Couponing 
• Direct response 
• Websites 
• Online ads 
• Magazine ads 
• Outdoor advertising 
• Database marketing 
• Flyers 
• Promotional letters 
• Phone calls 
• Chatbot marketing  

Other advertising and promotional methods aim to educate potential customers and hope for engagement and action. Direct marketing, on the other hand, is about persuading the recipient of the info to take specific action (based on Call-to-Action or CTA). 

In this post, we’ll talk about four of the most commonly used and efficient direct marketing forms. 

Direct Mail

Posting information directly to your customer allows you to connect them individually, addressing them by name. Direct mail often takes the form of catalogues, newsletters, and other branded invites sent straight to the mailboxes of your customers. Be mindful of the cost, though – postage costs have skyrocketed in recent years. 

Email Marketing

This is probably the easiest and most cost-efficient way to do direct marketing. Email makes it really easy for your customers to take action, either by clicking through any links you embed in the body of the email or replying directly. 

 The challenge with email marketing, however, is spam. Most people are at least a bit wary when it comes to email. So it’s essential to learn the best practices of email marketing – like securing opt-in, using merge tags, etc. There are also tools like Mailchimp that can help mitigate the problem through campaign and audience management. 

Couponing 

Coupons may sound disadvantageous for business – you’re effectively discounting your product, right? Rest assured, the practice of couponing has been around for ages, and it’s a proven way to generate buzz and boost sales.

Coupon campaigns are best used as a short term advertisement for the business. You can’t expect to use coupons exclusively to sell your products. 

When used with direct mail, coupons can generate new sales as more people become aware of your offers. This is especially helpful if you’re trying to introduce a new product or if you have a limited-time offer.  

Direct Response

Direct Response Strategy means communicating with people who have responded to your marketing message. For example, a customer making a direct purchase using their credit card, over the internet or through the telephone, after seeing or reading your ad elsewhere.  

There are indeed lots of ways to reach your customers using direct marketing. It allows you to optimise your marketing budget and segment and target your campaigns and explore new opportunities for your tour business.