Direct Marketing is any sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via direct mail, direct email, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means. It is any promotional activity in which direct contact is made with the target customer. While advertising and publicity are indirect promotional methods, direct marketing--also called direct response marketing--allows you to get relatively immediate and trackable feedback from your target customers.

A direct marketer uses a variety of approaches to promote a product directly to the buyer and elicit and immediate response. Includes direct mail, direct email marketing, direct response, catalogs, telephone sales, TV, radio, or newspaper ads that usually invite consumers to call a toll-free number or fill out a coupon.

The Direct Marketing Association or DMA has a tremendous amount of resources, conferences, and literature available.

What Is the Direct Marketing Association?

The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) is the largest trade association for businesses interested in direct, database, and interactive global marketing, with about 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 foreign nations on six continents.

Founded in 1917, its members include catalog companies, direct mailers, teleservices firms, Internet marketers, and other at-distance marketers from every consumer and business-to-business segment - both commercial and nonprofit - as well as companies that provide supplies and services to marketers.

The DMA represents its members' interests in the 50 states, on Capitol Hill, and various federal agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Trade Commission. The DMA increasingly is active in international government relations, reflecting the rapid growth of transborder marketing.

The DMA also provides an array of other member services, including:

Promoting the direct and interactive marketing industry and member companies to consumers;

• Fighting negative industry perceptions;
• Offering professional development and training opportunities;
• Conducting industry research;
• Hosting dozens of networking events around the U.S., as well as 13 major conferences and exhibitions annually.

Direct Response. Please check out the Direct Response Directory for further information about Direct Response firms that provide Direct Response services such as Infomercials, Infomercial production, Direct Response TV, and Direct Response Advertising.