Alberta Business Marketing

In January, the CMA’s Direct Marketing Council presented an updated definition of Direct Marketing here. We received a lot of excellent feedback from leaders in the marketing and direct marketing communities across Canada and a comment or two from the USA. We used this input to refine the definition so it is an even better reflection of the discipline.

The comments clearly demonstrate that Direct Marketers are still very passionate about what we do. We are more focused than ever on generating business results using both relevant messaging and offers to targeted audiences.

There were also many reminders about the importance of measurement. Goodwin Gibson summed it up very well saying, “It is really direct marketing’s measurement DNA (including analytics) that separates it from other marketing disciplines.”

As direct marketing evolves, many of our esteemed colleagues pointed out that leveraging the insights from the data is becoming more and more important for success.

Finally, we wanted to make sure the definition would be meaningful to the neophyte or sophisticated marketer who needs to explain what Direct Marketing is all about.

Here is the new definition based on the contribution of our many colleagues:

Direct Marketing generates profitable business results by using targeted communications to engage specific audiences through a combination of relevant messaging and offers that can be tracked, measured, analyzed, stored and leveraged to drive future marketing initiatives.

The DM Council is planning to communicate this revised definition as broadly as possible in the coming months. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to describe Direct Marketing, please use this definition. Please also forward to your colleagues and associates. Our goal is for this to be the accepted definition in Canada and beyond.

Rosalie McGovern, Chair of CMA’s Direct Marketing Council

Tags: Direct Marketing
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

In January, the CMA’s Direct Marketing Council presented an updated definition of Direct Marketing here. We received a lot of excellent feedback from leaders in the marketing and direct marketing communities across Canada and a comment or two from the USA. We used this input to refine the definition so it is an even better reflection of the discipline.

The comments clearly demonstrate that Direct Marketers are still very passionate about what we do. We are more focused than ever on generating business results using both relevant messaging and offers to targeted audiences.

There were also many reminders about the importance of measurement. Goodwin Gibson summed it up very well saying, “It is really direct marketing’s measurement DNA (including analytics) that separates it from other marketing disciplines.”

As direct marketing evolves, many of our esteemed colleagues pointed out that leveraging the insights from the data is becoming more and more important for success.

Finally, we wanted to make sure the definition would be meaningful to the neophyte or sophisticated marketer who needs to explain what Direct Marketing is all about.

Here is the new definition based on the contribution of our many colleagues:

Direct Marketing generates profitable business results by engaging targeted audiences through a combination of relevant messaging and offers that can be tracked, measured, analyzed, stored and leveraged to drive future marketing initiatives.

The DM Council is planning to communicate this revised definition as broadly as possible in the coming months. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to describe Direct Marketing, please use this definition. Please also forward to your colleagues and associates. Our goal is for this to be the accepted definition in Canada and beyond.

Rosalie McGovern, Chair of CMA’s Direct Marketing Council

Tags: Direct Marketing
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

The CMA Direct Marketing Council explores and responds to various issues affecting direct marketing professionals. We recently reviewed and updated our mandate to ensure that we continue to deliver value to CMA members.

The path to this mandate led to many interesting discussions on the current state of direct marketing (DM). We looked at traditional definitions of DM and agreed it was time for an update.

The traditional definition of Direct Marketing is: a marketing discipline that seeks to elicit an action (such as an order or a request for further information) from a selected group of customers in response to a communication. The communication may be in any of a variety of media and response should be measurable.

The world of the direct marketer has changed with the proliferation of online and digital media, changes in consumer preferences and access to information, and the move towards insights-based marketing. The differentiator that DM once owned – the ability to measure results – is now a requirement for most, if not all, disciplines and media.

Taking all of this into account, the council drafted a new definition: Direct Marketing is the use of media to directly engage targeted audiences to drive profitable business results.

However, while preparing this blog to invite input from the industry, I realized that the definition needs to go one step further and expand on DM’s measurability factor.

I propose an even more refined definition:

Direct Marketing is the use of media to directly engage targeted audiences to drive profitable business results that can be tracked, recorded, analyzed and stored for future retrieval and use.

So, DM Council and CMA blog readers, what do you think?

By Rosalie McGovern, General Manager, Marketing and Business Development, Direct Marketing at Canada Post Corporation and the Chair of CMA’s Direct Marketing Council

Tags: Direct Marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | | Comments Off