Direct marketing remains a powerful media channel. Yet, in today’s multimedia environment some question the value of direct marketing. The best way to pin down the truth of that sentiment is to look at the advantages and disadvantages of direct marketing vs. digital marketing.
Advantages of Marketing Direct
• Remains an effective and popular media channel. In a survey of marketers, 57% said they considered print media such as white papers and research reports effective. Besides its effectiveness, it’s also still popular. For example, 61% of marketers use white papers.
• A workhorse media channel that educates, brands, and more. The bread-and-butter of B2B marketing consists of educating potential buyers about complex products and solutions. You have research reports, brochures, and data sheets, to name a few. Marketing direct also offers a cradle-to-grave solution that includes branding, lead generation, and customer nurturing.
• Tailored content to targeted audience. Marketing content comes in various forms to address prospects’ needs in any phase of the buying cycle. So B2B marketers can easily tailor their information to a specific audience. Why is that important? It’s essential because it ensures you provide relevant, useful and timely information your prospects want and need.
Disadvantages of Marketing Direct
• Social media’s explosive growth will crush marketing direct. Trends clearly show growth in online and mobile media consumption. Meanwhile growth in marketing direct shows no growth. We may have reached an inflection point, with digital media being the preferred way to engage prospects.
• Decision makers don’t have time to read. Today’s marketing makes reading optional. Media-rich tools like blogs, micro-blogs, SlideShare, Vimeo, You Tube, photos (Pinterest) and infographics, deliver marketing messages quickly and easily, while entertaining you.
• Real-time marketing can’t be beaten. Social media’s growth in part depends on its instantaneous messaging and responsiveness. You can post a social media tweet or post and have it reach your target audience in seconds. Customer engagement with social media is unrivaled.
Go with Tried-and-True or Up-and-Coming?
In nutshell, marketing direct clearly remains a stalwart. It’s effective. It’s efficient. And it’s still highly consumable in the B2B space.
On the flip side, growth in digital marketing shows impressive growth. It’s catching on fast. Given this backdrop, rather than throwing your eggs in one basket, you can benefit from combining marketing direct and digital.
Combining them helps smooth out the ups and downs of both for maximum effectiveness. The synergies of these two offer more than either channel can deliver on its own.
That makes a strong case for continuing to exploit both. Looking at them this way, you’ll maximize your marketing spend and produce more engaging, relevant, and consumable marketing content.
