Brand Marketers Use Direct Methods

JUNE 6, 2007

Direct metrics tempt the purest of branders.

Brand and mass marketers are now using direct techniques in their campaigns, according to the Direct Marketing Association's "The Integration of DM and Brand" report.

More than half (56%) of respondents to the DMA survey used one or more direct marketing channels in conjunction with their brand awareness advertising. Specifically, 50% used Web marketing with direct response mechanisms included, 48% used trackable offers and 45% used call-to-action on Web pages.

E-mail in particular is used with a range of direct marketing tactics. For example, 52% of respondents used call-to-action in their e-mails, 50% used targeting and 47% used trackable offers and response mechanisms.

Respondents said nearly two-thirds of their marketing budgets were allocated to direct marketing, and 36% toward mass marketing.

Search marketers were especially keen on direct techniques. Search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing (SEM) were used with response mechanisms by 28% of respondents, while 31% used SEO with targeting and a quarter used search engine data for list building.

"We began this report with the hypothesis that brand and direct marketers would differ substantially in their responses," Peter Johnson of the DMA said. "But when we analyzed the data, we discovered that, for those marketers with more experience, the differences have faded away. Marketing experts are combining direct techniques into brand advertising — and in all media, too."

Eugenia Steingold of the DMA added, "The findings of our latest report show that direct marketing tactics designed to increase consumer awareness and action are ubiquitous — from URLs on all marketing materials, to 800 numbers, to calls-to-action in TV, radio and print ads — and across every other type of marketing media."

The results of the domestic DMA study echo those of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's worldwide survey conducted in December 2006. That study asked about core metrics used to measure search engine marketing effectiveness.

Nearly all the metrics mentioned linked to various direct response goals, except for brand impact, which was cited by only 21% of respondents.

Over half of search engine advertisers in the same survey said brand awareness was a top goal.

However, eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman noted, "The effectiveness of search marketing for branding is not as readily measured as direct sales or lead generation. Furthermore, a brand is often promoted by the same techniques that can be counted by direct response metrics such as site traffic."