With all of the media emphasis on mobile marketing and other new technologies, the tried-and-true methods of direct response marketing are often overlooked. However, direct response marketing is one of the mainstays of any successful company, whether that company is a small business, a startup or a Fortune 100 company. In order to truly have a well-rounded marketing strategy that will last the test of time, direct response must be an important aspect of it. In order to accomplish it in a cost-effective manner, you need a direct response marketing agency that knows your industry inside and out.

Here are some of the things that you need to understand about direct response marketing and how a direct response marketing agency can help you.

– What exactly is direct response marketing?

Direct response marketing is a method of marketing that allows a business to communicate directly with the customer. It cuts out the middleman, saving a great deal of time, money and effort. Although it is much easier with technologies that are direct to consumer, direct response marketing has always been an integral part of any successful marketing strategy.

– How does today’s technology facilitate direct response marketing techniques?

Whether you are talking about social media or SMS text messages, there is virtually no barrier between a business and its target market in the current marketing landscape. This is by design; however, all is not as it seems. A company cannot just begin messaging random people and hope to get sales. With a higher rate of communication possible, people have begun to cut back on the types of communication that they will tolerate. There is simply too much going on for anyone to deal with it all.

The true advantage of today’s technology is the ability to learn more about a customer than ever before. Information makes your communications more viable once you learn what your customer wants. However, gathering and properly using this information is a task that is best left to a professional agency, not the business owners or in house staff who have other things to do throughout the day.

– What are some of the pitfalls of direct response marketing?

Although it is easy than ever to get in touch with virtually anyone around the world, this does not mean that you should do it. Cold calling potential customers without any sort of lead in or introduction is a great way to get banned from virtually every social media platform on the planet. Even if a message does get through, your rate of return will be so low as to make this technique untenable for long periods of time. In order to best serve the business, direct response marketing must be combined with a targeted PR campaign that introduces the business properly into a social circle before trying to sell any products to the people within it.

Too many businesses try to mass-market using direct response marketing as well. The rate of return on this kind of marketing is extremely low to me: however, companies also lose money because of false click throughs and impressions that will be received from people who are completely outside of the target market. Even though many top officials at Google and other influential distribution channels have stated that precision marketing is the only method of marketing they will tolerate, many people continued to use underhanded techniques thinking that they will work, even in the short term.

The truth is that these techniques are completely untenable even for short programs, and the punishments that businesses receive for using them can be implemented retroactively. It is best to hone the direct response marketing technique from the beginning and build the audience organically from the ground up.

– What will a direct response marketing agency do for your business?

First and foremost, a direct response marketing agency will allow you to focus on the parts of your business that you are best suited for. The marketing agency will work on your behalf in organizing the information about your customer so that your communications can be taken seriously by them. You will also be able to understand how your customers want to be communicated with. A direct response marketing agency will be able to use an amalgamation of SMS text messaging, online display ads, interactive custom oriented websites, database marketing and email in order to talk to your customers on their terms, not yours.

You will be able to keep up with your last communications with social circle leaders and bloggers. These are the people who lead others to you without any additional marketing on your part. You will not have to worry about building a relationship with these people, a full-time job in and of itself. The right direct response marketing agency will make you a ubiquitous presence that brings value to social leaders. In return, they will naturally lead people to your business.