Although direct marketing can be a smart move if carried out intelligently, there are a couple of things that do frequently go wrong with the strategy of the direct marketing companies. Such strategic errors can spell doom for the direct marketing companies and result in failure.

To start off with direct marketing, you need to identify the prospects first. Prospects are the people whom you can analyze further and drill down to find your customers. In case you miscalculate and your prospects are not the ones who are most likely to buy the concerned product, you will end up with no results.

When reaching out to your customers, you need to establish a very personal relationship. The messaging in  email sent to a prospect and the one sent to a customer is very different. If you treat your customer also as a prospect, you might diminish your brand image in the customer’s mind.

An email or flyer sent to the customer should relate to them. It should have engaging content. If you just send across generic content to your customers, the mail or catalog will end up in the trash.

Direct marketing companies need to have plan to send out direct contact mails, or mailers. It is important to send out marketing communications at the right time when there are new offers, change in prices, additional products etc. The companies sending mail out of phase can cause major mishaps.

Another mistake is focusing more on the designs and patterns than on the content. Other various mistakes include: not following up well with leads, not integrating direct marketing activities with other marketing techniques, etc.

Purba Mazumdar, Prospectr Marketing