Jul 23, 2009

Marketing 101: Direct Marketing vs. Personal MarketingBy Renee O'FarrellExaminer.com

Effective marketing is leagues away from how it was thirty years ago.[i] This is primarily due to the increase of “mainstream knowledge”. While effective marketing still needs to be targeted, relevant, measurable and accountable, the literature suggest that for a business to get its message read, watched, listened to, etc., it must be targeted towards a segment of the market, whether that segment is based on demographics, usage, etc. Although marketing is more strategic today because of “mainstream knowledge”, many of those factors contributing to such knowledge can be accessed by the small business owner himself (i.e. the Internet).

With this abundance of knowledge, traditional direct marketing techniques are looking more an more like an oversaturation of an undefined market (i.e. bulk emails, pop-ups). Rather the primary change experienced is that now “the customer” is at the core, rather than “the market”. As a result, direct marketing techniques are being replaced by personal marketing techniques.

While some people, such as Lisa Guion, in her paper “Personal Marketing: A Strategy for Marketing Programs to Diverse Audiences”, define personal marketing as direct marketing[ii], there are those who would disagree. The distinction between the two is paramount.

Wikipedia describes direct marketing as: “a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. This involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing) with consumers or businesses, usually unsolicited. The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving a specific “call-to-action.” This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable positive (but not negative) responses from consumers (known simply as “response” in the industry) regardless of medium.”

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