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Direct marketing delivers your marketing message directly to a group consumers or businesses on a personalized level (such as a telephone call or via a personal email message). It’s a form of marketing that provides the recipient with a direct call to action. The following are the three main types of direct marketing.Mailing Lists
Direct mail is one of the most common forms of direct marketing and an essential part of an integrated marketing campaign. Companies promote their products and services with a provocative mailer. Direct mail campaigns provide your prospects with a tangible piece of mail to read at their leisure. Direct mail campaigns are extremely effective and when they are personalized and customized to a specific target audience can have great response rates.Telemarketing Lists
Telemarketing is the process of calling prospects on the phone to promote your products or services. This can be done using your own sales staff or by subcontracting out to a call center. Telemarketing is vital in creating brand recognition, building customer relationships, nurturing leads and of course, closing sales.Even with its bad reputation, telemarketing still plays an important part of any direct marketing campaign. Telemarketing is personal and interactive, and capable of providing an immediate response. As effective as telemarketing is, you need to be sensitive to your prospects’ willingness to receiving unsolicited phone calls.Telemarketing campaigns work best when the telemarketing lists are highly targeted, with accurate data that matches your current customer’s profiles.Email Lists
Email marketing is an effective way of reaching out to new prospects or following up with existing customers. Email marketing is extremely versatile, and you can easily customize your marketing messages to various market segments, or for prospects in different stages of the sales funnel.Email marketing can be used to nurture customer relationships, provide company and product information, drive website traffic and to promote direct sales. The emails can be as elaborate or as simple as needed.Most people check their emails on a daily basis, making email a very effective marketing method for your business. However, email marketing should be used responsibly, and it is extremely important to have your customers’ consent before sending emails.The most successful direct marketing campaign will use a mix of marketing methods. Repetition is very important in any type of marketing efforts. The more you can get yourself out in front of prospects, the greater the chance of being remembered. Try a direct mail campaign with a telemarketing follow-up or an email blast in conjunction with a direct mail campaign. A Multi-Channel campaign also allows your prospects multiple ways to communicate back to you.Regardless of the method, the key aspect in any direct marketing campaign is the ability to target the marketing message to a specific audience. With properly defined target market, you can deliver your message directly to those who have a greater probability of purchasing from your business. This allows businesses of all sizes focus their marketing budget and resources where they’re most likely to get results.It’s very important, before starting any direct marketing campaign, that you understand the different regulations governing each method of communication. The responsibility is yours to make sure you are compliant. Legitimate list brokers and managers should be able to confirm that the lists they are providing comply to the various rules and regulations. If you are uncertain, do not hesitate to ask.

What is Branding and How it’s Different from a Logo and MarketingWhen you think of brands you probably think of big names, and the big named products you see every day.But what exactly is a brand? What does it mean? How is your brand communicated?When talking with entrepreneurs, I get a sense there’s a lot of confusion on what exactly branding is. After reading this article, you’ll be well informed on some of the common terminologies you hear like brand positioning, why a brand is not just a logo and what to do if you suspect your brand needs a makeover.Branding DefinedA brand is more than just a logo, tagline, website or jingle. It’s the total experience of working with you.Every touch-point a customer has with you shapes your brand. Whether favourable or not, the overall perception the public has about you and your business makes up your brand.Your brand encompasses a visual look and feel through the use of colours, logos, imagery and typography. There is also verbal branding depicted through your core values, vision statement, jingle or tagline.But your brand also includes the results of experiences with you, your team and your company in general through shopping, networking, customer service, your website, and social media channels.The Difference Between Marketing and BrandingMany people think marketing and branding are the same thing but this is not the case. Here’s a story to help you understand the example:- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. He walks over to her and says “I am a great dancer.”That’s marketing. He’s sharing a message with the prospect I hopes to move her to action.- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. He walks over to her and says “Hey, I’ll dance with you for the low price of one dollar.”That’s sales. He is offering an opportunity for money to a prospect.- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. The girl walks over to him and says “those girls tell me you are a great dancer.”That’s branding. Through the girl’s experience, she formed a favourable brand impression that moved into action.What Makes a Good Brand?Many businesses try to appeal to a wide audience. But strong brands have a polarizing effect. They appeal to a smaller niche audience.Today’s customers are craving more transparency and authenticity with their favourite brands. They want to know the REAL person behind the company.Who are they?What inspires them?How did they get into business?What matters to them?What causes do they represent?What do they do in their personal time?Moreover, multimedia is shifting consumers to having more kinds of experiences with their brand. The use of interactive websites, Facebook live feeds, social media responses and live cams all help shape a brand.In fact, millions (including me) are watching April the Giraffe on a live video cam (as of March 14, 2017) as she prepares to give birth to a baby calf. The Animal Adventure Park is exponentially increasing their brand reach and awareness just through this one tactic alone.Brand RepositioningA business can be very organic and as times goes by, the original brand you started with may not fit anymore. This has happened to several of our clients where, after several years, they realize their original brand is no longer consistent with their current business model and the market they are serving.Conducting a brand assessment allows you to evaluate the strength of your brand, understand its value with customers, and how to reposition the brand, if needed, to reflect any changes.So it’s important to periodically do a check to see if your logo, website, bios, headshots, tagline, and other branding elements are still a fit. If you look back at McDonald’s, they have had numerous slogans over the years. You may remember “You deserve a break today” (1971), or “We do it all for you” (1975), or the current one “Lovin’ Beats Hatin’” (2015).As consumers changed, they updated their image and brand messaging to stay fresh and relevant with their audience.Does Your Brand Need a Makeover?Often as a business grows, a rebrand is needed to upscale messaging to fit with the newer level of success. Or a business could be changing its focus when launching a new product/service or appealing to a new target audience.