As I was catching up on some reading this morning, I stumbled upon an article by Scott Hornstein, President of Marketing for Hornstein Associates. The title caught my eye: “Direct marketing is the new black.” In it, Mr. Hornstein starts off by saying,
“These are the times that try marketers’ souls. On the other hand, this is not the time to hide or be timid. It is the time to be effective, and to redeploy the majority of what’s left of your marketing budget into direct marketing for one very good reason: The strategy is, at its core, measurable and ROI-driven.”
- Integrate the media mix.
- Integrate a healthy dose of customer care.
- Invest in database quality.
- Account for everything, but report only key metrics.
- Measure performance.
- Measure the ratio of expense to revenue.
I couldn’t help but think about the impact that digital marketing has on direct marketing. There’s a correlation here, yes?
With the rapid adoption of collaborative online communities for the consumer, information is being democratized, search is now a daily activity, and email is only part of the connective tissue. Seems to me that companies big and small are beginning to realize that customers remain loyal when there is a community connection point geared towards collaboration and engagement.
Mr. Hornstein definitely makes an interesting case for direct marketing, but I believe we can take that a step further by looking at the rapid adoption of digital marketing strategies.
Click here to read his article. Then peruse our library to download free, informative white papers.
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