Welcome to the DM for Small Businesses Blog!

I've created this blog to address the direct marketing needs and concerns of small businesses.

It's probably appropriate to state WHAT "direct marketing" actually IS.

The Direct Marketing Association (U.S.) defines direct marketing as:

"The interactive use of advertising media to stimulate an immediate behavior modification in such a way that this behavior can be tracked, recorded, analyzed, and stored on a database for future retrieval and use.

Direct/Interactive Marketing uses channels of distribution with no middlemen. It's the store or showroom where the copywriter is the salesperson. It's two-way communication.

Measurability is a key feature and advantage of direct marketing. The response can be in the form of an order (direct order), an inquiry (lead generation) or a visit to a store for purchase of a specific product(s) or service(s) (traffic generation). The database allows marketers to target their best prospects and best customers, building relationships with customers and maintaining their loyalty."

Source: Direct Marketing Association (U.S.) 2007

Direct Marketing now accounts for 50% of total advertising expenditures (http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=1015) because it works!

This is a forum for discussing how small businesses can put direct marketing to work to generate returns in an increasingly competitive and costly business environment.

I'm a direct marketing consultant based in Tucson, AZ. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to field them and try to direct you to the resource(s) you need.

GA