Do's and Don'ts of Direct Marketing activities directly (no pun intended)
impact on the campaign success. The list below is by no mean exhaustive but
will provide the serious marketers with an interesting overview.
Telemarketing - Do-Not-Call-List The unpopularity of cold call
telemarketing, also known as untargeted, unsolicited ("without-permission")
cold calling, has caused the US industry authorities to take action in
attempt to curb the rampant abuse of privacy.
They created "National Do-Not-Call-Lists", which at inception in 2003 has
generated 62million opt-ins. It imposes heavy fines on telemarketers for
violations. Canada and New Zealand have continued with the tradition on the
quest for "Do Not Call" Lists.
Email Marketing - Permission Marketing Similar to direct mailing
and telemarketing, the industry has seen great discontent with the abusive,
indiscriminate mass marketing e-mailers called spam. E-mail spam, also known
as unsolicited bulk email (UBE) or unsolicited commercial email (UCE) has
grown exponentially to some 80 to 85% of all the email in the world.
Essentially, this means that about 80 - 85% of all emails are junk mail/
email or "noise" and only about 15 - 20% are legitimate.
With junk email figures climbing, pressure to make e-mail spam illegal
has been successful in some jurisdictions, but less so in others.
Most of the more legit marketing fraternity has since adopted an approach
called "Permission Marketing", which allows the respondents to click on the
unsubscribe link to "de-list".
Spamming - Avoid At All Costs!! The issue of unethical spamming
takes on many forms which modern marketers need to know and be wary of
infringing. These are namely email spam, instant messaging and chat room
spam, forum spam, mobile phone spam, online game messaging spam, spam
targeting search engines (spam-dexing), blog, wiki and guestbook spam, spam
targeting video sharing sites.
There is also the non-commercial spam by evangelists trying to propagate
their own causes; and of course, not to forget the more traditional
broadcast-fax spams.
Many spammers tend to choose to overlook the far-reaching adverse
consequences of their actions.
In exchange for a handful of responses, spammers are unwittingly
sacrificing their marketing ethics, brand image, industry reputation and the
most significant of all, sacrificing their potential customers. Once branded
as spammers, customers will avoid them at all cost. And the customer is lost
forever.
A word of caution here is for you to weigh the consequences before you
even attempt to spam. Avoid spamming databases at all costs.
Direct Response Infomercial - Window Period for Do-No-Call
restrictions Almost every one of the TV-response marketing or
infomercials include hotline numbers for potential customers to call in and
some even include email addresses to write in as well.
Yet an important point to note is that under the US Federal Do-Not-Call
List rules, should the caller purchase a product, you the marketer IS EXEMPT
from Do-No-Call restrictions over a period of time as a business
relationship has been established. You are then free to conduct
cross-selling and up-selling activities to the customer.
Postal Direct Mailing - Bulk Discount if You follow the rules You
will enjoy bulk discounts charged at special rates based on the mail volume
you commit with the postal services. However, you will be required to adhere
to certain pre-set format guidelines. Countries which provide such discounts
are the US and UK and other developed countries in Asia.
Given many industry dos and don'ts, you should note never to abuse direct
marketing "rules". Always remember that direct marketing messages when sent
rampantly and indiscriminately, only serve to put off consumers.
Consumers often dismiss junk mail as noise and your message & effort
would surely be lost in the trash bin should you attempt this route.
Yoshiko Choy is an entrepreneur and a management consultant in
business & marketing with 17 years of experience in Locals & MNCs as
well as an avid online marketer. She holds an Executive MBA from the
California State University. Read about business & marketing management
trends at her
http://www.businessfast4ward.com.
Get the latest reviews and updates on niche marketing, visit
http://www.onlinenichemarketing.org.
