Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing designed to create and keep customers by developing long term, personal relationships with each other through increasingly relevant products or services. Direct marketing is designed to:* solicit and close a sale* to generate interest* and to motivate a store visit. Methods of coding and tracking can lead you back to the advertising source. The final return can be calculated to the last cent. No other activity with the exception of personal selling can be measured this thoroughly. The advantages of direct marketing are:* Accountable advertising - each rand is accountable for* Added-value advertising - increases sales, creates awareness and builds brands* Answer back advertising - feedback* Allegiance advertising - communication builds loyalty* Appropriate advertising - relevant* Action advertising - provokes an action* Automated advertising - personal or direct The most cost-effective type of direct marketing activities are:Mailshot - personalized to the client with specific items that will create a desire for the need to purchase.Statement stuffers -DL leaflets inserted with the clients' statement.Inserts - effective in magazines that have a specific target audience.Telemarketing - effective but the most expensive form of direct marketing.Internet - effective and getting better all the time as the security for credit card purchases improves. There are four variables for ultimate success:Target marketResearch is needed to determine who is the target market and what their needs are. Accurate targeting makes direct marketing powerful and effective as it ensures efficient use of the advertising budget. Should be analyzed in tradition...

How to use a data listing for a direct mail campaignYou can start your search for a list broker by looking in your local Yellow Pages. Check out their references carefully before getting involved. You're using your customers as templates for additional prospects. Depending on your product line, you might focus on postal codes, on subscribers to a particular magazine, sometimes on income (Sandton) or the youth (Schools/Technikons). List brokers have access to many thousands of lists. You'll pay up to ±R1300 per thousand names on a list, depending on the complexity of the list (i.e., if you want not only name and address but other demographic data). Brokers typically have a very thorough understanding of their lists and can give you insights into the best list for your use. The more you know about your current customers, the better use you'll be able to make of your list broker's experience. You don't buy lists – you rent them, usually for a single-time usage. If you want to send a second mailing later to the same list, that's another charge. If you know you'll be sending a series of mailings to a given list, mention this upfront for a cumulative rate. You can't simply fold these names into your database of customers. Not only would it be illegal and wrong, but you'd also get caught. Every list is "salted" with "ringers," names that aren't real but simply serve to give away any mailing done to the list. If the list broker's...