October is Direct Marketing Month
For marketing professionals, October means more than pumpkins and candy corn. It's the month of the DMA annual conference, one of the biggest marketing events of the year. As we prepare for the conference, 1to1 Media has focused many of our articles and resources on the topic of direct marketing. It's an industry in transition, but just as important as ever to marketing strategy.
Today's issue of 1to1 Weekly features an interview with direct marketing experts: Dave Frankland, principal analyst at Forrester Research, Lois Geller, owner of agency Lois Geller Marketing Group and author of Response! The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing, and U.S. Postal Service direct marketing gurus Cat Moriarty and Doug King. In this roundtable, they discuss how direct marketing is changing, and what marketers should pay attention to most to succeed in this new customer environment. And stay tuned next week for their take on direct marketing's future.
Not to be outdone, the fall issue of 1to1 Magazine also has a direct marketing theme. The feature article Rethinking Direct Marketing explores the renaissance time for the age-old discipline, with new approaches and measurement methods.
We also spotlight some technologies that are available to execute a successful direct marketing strategy. In the fall 1to1 In Action sponsored white paper, Alterian, Infor, and Unica demonstrate how their solutions can help companies gain insight into their customers and create value with their direct marketing communications.
It's an exciting time for marketers. Delivery platforms and customer relationships are changing. Are you ready to succeed?
Related Entries
- Catalog Overload: End the Cycle of Recycling
- The Future of Marketing: Direct
- October is Direct Marketing Month
Direct marketing is clearly at a cross road, with the recession being the tipping point. Surveys and commentary abound illustrating that marketers are moving their money into online venues. And even the DMA is consider changing its name to address the shift. However, historically (and unfortunately), direct marketers have not claimed the internet as their territory. Yet, when it comes to "targeting" and "measuring", online applications (paid or organic search, web advertising, personalized URLs, micro-site landing pages, web-based CRM and lead management functions, email, etc.) are clearly within the direct marketing skill set. As a direct marketing agency, we at DMC Advertising are moving away from using the term "direct marketing" to describe our services because people equate it with "direct mail". We are moving rapidly to encompass all forms of targeted, response forms of media applications, especially those online.