Not all Online Marketing is Direct Marketing

Written By Ted Grigg

I grew up in the direct marketing world starting with advertising agencies then moving over to the client side where success depended upon proper application of the discipline. But with everything changing faster than ever, I think we must sit back for a few minutes and get our bearings.

Let’s revisit the definitions of what direct marketing was to the earlier practitioners of the trade. The chart below does not represent all of the definitions out there. But the authors of these definitions represent some of the best-known leaders in the business over the years. (Click the image below to enlarge)

DMCG Results

Yes, direct marketing elicits some form of response. it tracks response, applies testing as a core strategy and uses all available media to solicit a response. All of these tools characterize the direct marketing discipline.

So we are left with determining if new media fit this definition. For example, is the new “social media” concept a direct marketing strategy? Is this activity trackable or is there a “measurable response”? I submit that if this effort is not measurable, then it no longer qualifies as a direct marketing strategy.

Some online activities may require the creation of an entirely new discipline that does belong to any established marketing category. If forced to categorize it, then I would place it in the branding camp.

The measurability dilemma existed long before the advent of new media. And the explosive growth of the Internet has made the quantification challenge more complex.

Could you help expand on this idea of where these new applications Internet belongs? Clearly, some aspects of online marketing fit comfortably with the trade. But there are new ideas about how marketers should view the selling challenge that do not belong in the direct marketing camp. What is your view?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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