Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.

Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are:

1. Marketing messages are addressed directly to customers. Direct marketing relies on being able to address the members of a target market. Addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses, mobile phone numbers, Web browser cookies, fax numbers and United States and international postal addresses.
2. Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific "call to action." For example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number or click on a link to a website.
3. Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses from customers — regardless of medium.

Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes — from the smallest start-up to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in favor of messages that try to build prospects’ emotional awareness or engagement with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their impact on the organization’s bottom line.

Noun

direct marketing (uncountable)

1. (business, marketing) Marketing that reaches customers by communications directly addressed to the customer.

• direct mail

People — Douglas Adams • Dante Alighieri • Aristotle • Emily Brontë • Buddha • Confucius • Charles Darwin • Albert Einstein • T. S. Eliot • Richard Feynman • Mahatma Gandhi • Jesus • John Keats • Helen Keller • John F. Kennedy • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Laozi • Timothy Leary • Muhammad • Thomas Paine • William Saroyan • William Shakespeare • Percy Bysshe Shelley • Starhawk • Leo Tolstoy • Voltaire • Anonymous

Literary works — Dune • Fahrenheit 451 • Leaves of Grass • The Little Prince • The Lord of the Rings • 1984 • Principia Discordia • The Prophet • Pride and Prejudice • A Tale of Two Cities

Films — Fight Club • Groundhog Day • Harvey • The Hours • It's a Wonderful Life • Life of Brian • Looney Tunes: Back in Action • Magnolia • The Matrix • Memento • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest • Star Wars • Taxi Driver • Three Days of the Condor

TV shows — Babylon 5 • Blackadder • Buffy • The Daily Show • Gilmore Girls • M*A*S*H • Monty Python's Flying Circus • MST3K • Red Dwarf • Seinfeld • The Simpsons • Star Trek • Twin Peaks • Wonderfalls

Themes— Ability • Art • Computers • Courage • Dance • Drugs • Education • Film • Friendship • Hope • Love • Memory • Politics • Quotations • Religion • Science • Sexuality • Television • War

Miscellaneous— Epitaphs • Holidays • Last words • Misquotations • Proverbs • Slogans • Tongue twisters • Theatrical plays and musicals

Main categories

People

• Authors
• By occupation
• By nationality

Productions

• Films
• Literary works
• Television

Browse Wikiquote

• Lists
• Proverbs
• Themes

New pages

Holy Grail

Terry Gilliam

Nick Xenophon

Golden Raspberry Award

John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh‎

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Thanksgiving

Stuart Hall

Peter Franken

Barry Perowne

Dark Shadows (1991)

Ilan Halevi

Sadegh Hedayat

‎The Thick of It

Community