Since it was spoken about by the ICO and the DMA in the GDPR regulations, colleagues have been asking me about direct marketing. The DMA states:
“Did you know you can send direct mail to your customers and you don’t need their explicit consent?”
Businesses have taken this at face value and have woken up to a marketing channel which allows them the freedom to communicate with other businesses as part of their overall marketing mix.
However, the issue comes when you look for a direct marketer to help you develop this channel of opportunity.
Context of roles in the workplace today
When you look at the roles found in today’s marketing team you’re likely to come across roles such as digital account manager, digital marketing exec, digital designer, digital content manager and digital customer adoption exec.
Whereas if you’re looking for a direct marketing person you’re likely to see roles like direct marketing manager or direct marketing executive. Anyone who has had a role as a direct marketer will know your responsibility will include segmentation and selections, copy and content, creative and print and production. You effectively control everything from the idea to the delivery and in many cases the results and analysis.
As the market moved away from paper-based to digital, the need to have a direct marketing manager was lost and digital roles became more prominent. In the early days digital roles required very little in-depth marketing knowledge but more technological. There was no need to understand how Johnson Boxes, speed premiums, and long copy work in generating a greater response. And what about Bangtails? (Ask me if you don’t know.)
Let the market determine the direct marketer
Last year, UK businesses invested more than £1.5 billion into direct mail, according to Bakergoodchild. In addition to this, direct mail accounted for 13.9% of all advertising spend, and 26% of all revenue in the business mail sector – a growth of 2% from the previous year.
Charities have long been using direct mail to promote their causes and increase donations; however the latest statistics show an increase from £239 million to £294 million in spend.
The most surprising thing of all is that Google is using direct mail. Yes, despite being champions of PPC advertising and SEO, the Internet giant is using good old direct mail to target consumers and business clients. Why would they do such a thing, unless this traditional marketing method held a lot of value?
Where are today’s direct marketers?
That’s an easy one to answer. The old school direct marketers who learned the trade as it became a core marketing tool for the Banks and Catalogue companies may have retired from work or moved onto greater more general roles within business. They may even have retrained but with fewer new students training solely in direct marketing the bucket is not being refilled fast enough to fill vacancies coming along line.
The IDM does a great job in providing training for direct marketing students and those currently going through the courses will be in great demand of completion.
But let’s not forget those who retain the skill sets and knowledge of direct marketing but have moved into different areas. It’s time to brush off those books written by the masters and refresh ourselves on the tricks of the trade, long may they live!
