There is no universal checklist for creating a successful direct marketing campaign; every campaign is different and requires an approach specific to the brand’s (and customers’) needs. Because there is so much variation in what it takes to run a successful campaign, there’s no one way to execute a direct marketing campaign.
Thanks to the diversity and variation of direct marketing campaign strategies, there’s an abundance of knowledge and information from just about every corner of the industry. While the resources available will not be a blueprint for your next campaign, they can offer insights, ideas, recommendations, advice, examples, personal experiences, and much more.
We have compiled a list of 11 resources that we believe will help guide your next direct marketing campaign:
CRMTrends: This site offers a “best practices” page for direct mail, CRM, digital marketing, and mobile marketing. Through analysis, blog posts, and case studies, this site guides a direct marketer through the steps of the offer, response rate, delivery design, customer contact strategy, site design, links to homepage, etc.- Quora: Quora keeps direct marketers in the know with its news feed, trends, and questions pages. The news feed provides readers with the most recent stories in direct marketing while the “questions” tab allows visitors to ask questions about direct marketing to which other visitors can post answers. The “trends” tab posts the most popular or widely discussed news and questions on direct marketing.
- Ads of the World: This is an archive of creative direct marketing ads from around the world for all types of brands and products. Direct marketers can use this site as a resource for creative inspiration and to determine which approaches work well with which target audience.
- My Customer: This site offers news, blogs, white paper downloads, and discussions about data, customer experience, marketing, social CRM, and technology. For CRMs and customer management professionals, this site offers topical and practical content in the realm of direct marketing.
- SRDS: Marketers, agencies, and media companies can use SRDS to connect with brands that align with their objectives; it’s like a job search page for companies looking to promote their services and connect with a brand that needs a marketing campaign. SRDS sells a database program that provides users with opportunities to access brands that fit within the marketer’s rates, data, and capabilities.
- Direct Marketing Association (DMA): By becoming a member of the DMA, marketers will receive free access to networking, training, insight, and business services that will advance their campaign initiatives. DMA focuses on data-driven marketers and their ability to successfully reach their target audience; it also offers a job search engine where marketers can browse direct marketing opportunities.
- Target Marketing: This site offers a bit of everything, including news, blogs, job searches, webinars, event announcements, research tools, and white papers. In addition to the website, Target Marketing is also distributed as a magazine to subscribers. This resource covers the sectors of CRM, B2B, e-commerce, SEO, social media, email, web design, software branding, database marketing, and more.
- Direct Marketing IQ: Think of this as an Amazon.com exclusive to direct marketers. Direct Marketing IQ is an online bookstore that sells content from editors and practitioners in the industry with topics focusing on B2B, content marketing, copywriting, CRM, direct mail, email, fundraising, market research, print production, and publishing.
- Direct Marketing Resources: This is a job placement site that focuses exclusively on the direct marketing industry. Candidates and employers can narrow down their search by choosing from different categories of direct marketing such as account management, creative services, database development, database marketing, Internet marketing, and product management.
- AdWeek: This site is a source of news and insights about the press, television, technology, advertising, and branding for marketers, media, and agencies. At AdWeek, visitors have access to the most popular stories and trends in the entire advertising industry, direct marketing included.
- Neolane: The direct marketing best practices page of the Neolane website offers analyst reports, news articles, blog posts, case studies, webinars, and white papers. These resources are aimed at helping direct marketers gain insight and knowledge about how to create a marketing strategy that effectively targets the customer.
These 11 sites and publications do not make up a complete list of direct marketing resources, but will help guide you toward sources of reliable, relevant, and helpful information when executing campaigns. In order to stay well-informed about the industry and be able to offer your clients a successful campaign, we recommend staying up to date with the content published by these resources.
If you have other tools or resources that you find useful in your direct marketing campaigns, we would love to hear your input.
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