What is Direct Marketing?
It is a marketing strategy that aims to directly promote products or services to a specific target audience using direct means of communication. These means are so-called customer or prospect relationship channels (CRM / PRM): these are web channels, such as e-mail, messaging, chats, and in-app push, and off-line channels such as mailing (mail) and telephone (SMS or telemarketing).
Direct marketing is distinct from advertising channels, which aim to reach a larger or unidentified audience on an individual basis.
Social media is both a direct marketing channel (it allows communication with brand fans) and an advertising channel (purchase of targeted advertisements).
Why do companies use direct marketing channels?
The objective is to generate an immediate response or reaction from the targeted contacts: for example, a request for information, a request for an appointment, registration, participation in an event, or a purchase (online sale , or use of an in-store promotional offer). The 1-to-1 communication context is more conducive to generating a reaction from the individuals to whom the company is addressing.
How to use the levers of direct marketing wisely?
1. Segmentation
Thanks to the exploitation of potentially rich CRM and PRM data, direct marketing allows precise targeting. It is therefore necessary to use this data to segment the campaign and increase its performance through targeting. There are many segmentation and targeting criteria: customer value (RFM segmentation), product or service typology, churn risk, geography, etc.
2.Automation
Among the data available on a prospect or customer contact, some allow scenarios to be programmed: this is called marketing automation. Direct marketing channels are particularly suitable for automating messages: communication on the customer’s birthday, on the anniversary of their date of purchase, after an exchange with customer service, after using a digital service …
3. Personalization
Writing to your client by post, email, SMS, or via messaging means doing it with as much personalization as possible. These one-to-one channels are in essence personalized communication channels. Brands must therefore strive to use the data collected on their customers to adapt the messages.
4. Limit marketing pressure
Direct marketing channels can be very effective, but their use requires consideration of the level of pressure. Because opting out is never far away. To do this, brands must set up cross-channel marketing pressure rules (from email to telephone, etc.) and for each of the channels.
5. Adapt content to each channel
An SMS limited to 160 characters, an email, a phone call or a letter, the means of expression are very different in terms of format. They are also so in the perception of users, for whom receiving an SMS, an email, a paper mailing or an in-app notification is not of the same importance. It is therefore necessary to choose the channels accurately according to the content of the messages and their importance. Very interactive and original content can be adapted to a social media context, while for a subject requiring pedagogy and argumentation, a telephone call will be recommended.
How can the Dékuple agency support you in your direct marketing strategies?
Among communication consulting agencies, Dékuple stands out for its range of multi-channel direct marketing services, in particular thanks to the capacities of the Dékuple group (formerly ADLPerformance) which is its core business and which supports companies of all sizes. in their direct marketing strategies for 50 years.
1. The Dékuple agency masters all direct marketing channels:
- email (management of newsletters, commercial emails, advertising emails, etc.)
- SMS and enriched SMS
- paper mailing
- telemarketing (with call centers located in France and offshore to manage outgoing and incoming calls, in white label)
2. Experts in data marketing, we offer many targeting possibilities
- Management of your PRM / CRM data whatever your solution (in particular, the Dékuple agency is a certified partner of Marketo, Salesforce Pardot, Hubspot, Oracle)
- Cross-channel targeting or retargeting via our DataMatch repository (30 million contacts)
- Enrichment of contact data and socio-demographic segmentation thanks to our Family Square solution
- Third-party advertising
3. Support throughout the direct marketing value chain
- Advice and strategy: targeting strategy, design of sequences (customer journeys), of the animation plan, choice of channels, etc.
- Creation: design of communication charters, design and writing of messages, artistic direction, research of visuals or production
- Campaign management: implementation of customer journeys, campaign programming, integration of templates and personalization logic, routing, etc.
- Modeling of performance and measurement of results: definition of KPIs, benchmark, projection of results, tests, measurement of return on investment (R.O.I.).
Our commitments for direct marketing campaigns
- Ability to manage campaigns with very large volumes of contacts, with proven reliability with major companies in a B2C context.
- Guarantee of full compliance with the GDPR and the specific requirements of our advertising customers in terms of personal data protection.
- Ability to carry out a carbon assessment of your campaigns.
