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think they want. For sellers, direct marketing is also beneficial. By offering consumers products that they want, the seller can capture more of the consumer surplus. Second, by directly contacting the consumer, the marketer does not need to build a retail presence to reach customers. Third, direct marketing allows the marketer to craft marketing offers specifically targeted to a small group or even an individual buyer.
FORMS OF DIRECT MARKETING
There are many forms of direct marketing. We take a closer look at the following:
eMaiL MaRkeTing
Email marketing, not surprisingly, entails sending messages to individuals via email. Unlike other direct marketing tactics, email marketing is strictly permission-based. In other words, the recipient has agreed beforehand to receive a message. Unsolicited email, no matter from whom, is SPAM. The open and click-through-rates are high, usually between 15 and 30 per cent, respectively. And since the cost of sending an email is virtually nil, marketers can personalize messages to different segments thereby creating closer relationships. Typically, 50 per cent of the responses to an email campaign are registered within the first 24 hours, making email marketing the most cost effective method to generate qualified leads.
The benefits of using email marketing versus other forms of direct marketing are as follows:
• Usage of metrics to determine success in near real-time.
• No printing or postage costs.
• People check their email inbox much more frequently then
their mailbox, creating a higher likelihood the message will be read.
Rss feeDs
RSS feeds, or really simple syndication feeds, are a relatively new technology that sends a notice to subscribers that the content on a