What is Direct marketing? - Definition from Whatis.com

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Direct marketing

Direct marketing is a type of advertising campaign that seeks to elicit an action (such as an order, a visit to a store or Web site, or a request for further information) from a selected group of consumers in response to a communication from the marketer. The communication itself may be in any of a variety of formats including postal mail, telemarketing, direct e-mail marketing, and point-of-sale (POS) interactions. Customer response should be measurable: for example, the marketer should be able to determine whether or not a customer offered a discount for online shopping takes advantage of the offer.

Related glossary terms: sales cycle, silent attrition, CRM (customer relationship management), Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), one-to-one-marketing (1:1 marketing), Hospitality Information Technology Association (HITA), chief customer officer (CCO), loyalty card program, coalition loyalty program, transactional marketing

This was last updated in December 2003

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