Direct Marketing

Advertising costs are soaring through the roof. For example, it will now cost $3 million dollars for a 30 second spot during the 2009 Superbowl. It is becoming increasingly harder and harder to get the attention of your customers and target audience. That’s why a more fine-tuned approach to marketing is more effective than the shot gun blast.

At Internet Marketing Services, we help companies build deeper connections with their customer base.

Our goal is to create programs that directly talk to your customer’s needs and preferences. Programs that encourage a personal conversation and a deeper connection with your audience and one that ultimately drives them to take action.

Direct marketing is a sometimes controversial sales method to approach potential customers directly with products or services. The most common forms of direct marketing are telephone sales, solicited or unsolicited emails, catalogs, leaflets, brochures and coupons. Successful direct marketing also involves compiling and maintaining a large database of personal information about potential customers and clients. These databases are often sold or shared with other direct marketing companies.

For many companies or service providers with a specific market, the traditional forms of advertising (radio, newspapers, television, etc.) may not be the best use of their advertising dollars. For example, a company that sells a hair loss prevention product would have to find a radio station whose format appealed to older male listeners who might be experiencing this problem.

There would be no guarantee that this group would be listening to that particular station at the exact time the company's ads were broadcast. Money spent on a radio spot (or television commercial or newspaper ad) may or may not reach the type of consumer who would be interested in a hair product.

This is what makes direct marketing very appealing. Instead of investing in a "shotgun" approach to advertising, companies with a specific type of customer can send out literature directly to a list of pre-screened individuals. Direct marketing firms may also keep email addresses of those who match a certain age group or income level or special interest.

Manufacturers of a new dog shampoo might benefit from having the phone numbers and mailing addresses of pet store owners or dog show participants. Direct marketing works best when the recipients accept the fact that their personal information might be used for this purpose. Some customers prefer to receive targeted catalogs which offer more variety than a general mailing.

There are some negatives though. Many people are unaware of how the personal information they include on an order form or survey may be used for targeted advertising later. One prevailing philosophy in direct mailing circles is the idea that if a customer orders a swimsuit from a clothing catalog, he or she might naturally be interested in swimming pool supplies or exercise equipment as well.

This can lead to direct marketing overload, as potential customers and clients become overwhelmed with catalogs, unsolicited emails and unwanted phone calls. Just like getting too many emails.

There's also the concern that personal information collected by legitimate direct marketing agencies could be purchased by unscrupulous companies for the express purpose of fraud.

Direct marketing can be a very cost-effective sales tool for specialized companies, as long as it's used properly and in the right way.

We know that measurement and tracking are important to a projects success. So we measure every program and track the bottom-line results of everything that way we know what is working and what isn’t and we can change, update or correct course immediately on every project.

Our direct marketing services include: