Direct Marketing Association Blog

How Channel 4 made data sharing fun for me – no really!

Smarayda Christoforou — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:03:38 +0000

An email I got from Channel 4 the other day got me thinking about data privacy from a consumer’s perspective. I recently registered on 4oD so that I could watch stuff from the archive, which meant sharing some personal data. Like most people, I don’t do small print and always click on the ‘I agree’ button to avoid wading through pages of legalese, or what I like to call ‘porridge’.… Read more

What sales teams can tell marketers about product launches

cdougan — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:20:38 +0000

It’s the biggest argument that you will hear in the bar after every conference or product launch. The sales team will be puffing up their chests and showing their tail feathers like peacocks. The marketers will be coughing “bullsh*t” under their breath. The marketers firmly believe that they’re the reason for the success of any product in the market. They base this for good reason on some very solid foundations.… Read more

Have you heard the good news about telemarketing?

slandini — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:01:09 +0000

Probably not. That’s because the media tends to focus on the few rogue companies that operate outside the law or not within best practice (bad news travels fast).

So, are there any positive stories about telemarketing and contact centres? Yes. Definitely.

1. An economic powerhouse

Contact Babel’s research shows that one million people are employed in contact centres – that’s 3.5% of the entire UK workforce.… Read more

Could getting rid of CTPS be a wasted effort?

Graham Smith — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:54:35 +0000

Many of you will be aware of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which is essentially a ‘do not call’ list for consumer telephone numbers. But what about Corporate TPS (CTPS)?

The CTPS list currently holds 2.6m telephone numbers. Similar to TPS, it’s a list of business telephone numbers that have opted out from receiving telemarketing calls. Calling any of these numbers could – in theory – result in a fine as high as £500,000.… Read more

“All marketing is direct” says Harper Reed

Smarayda Christoforou — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:58:06 +0000

Marketers need to create genuine communities if they are going to talk with people one to one in a very real way, Harper Reed, chief technology officer of Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, told delegates at the DMA Technology Summit on 30 April 2013.

Harper sees community as our number one asset and yet we underestimate it. Businesses looking to facilitate community could learn a lot from the Obama for America campaign, which used technology, intelligence and targeting to create genuine conversations and give people the best user experience.… Read more

Navigating the treacherous waters of Big Data

David Lloyd — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:13:17 +0000

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” This quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, originated before the evolution of data-driven marketing and Big Data. Yet now, more than ever, we should reflect on what it means in the context of how our marketing decisions are made.

Steer clear of the shallow waters
The first part of the opening quote reveals one of the most inconvenient truths of analytics; that as much as we strive for a world where everything is measurable and all decisions can be based on real-time, infallible data, this is not always the case.… Read more

Conversational marketing: The art of conversation

Sam Ledger — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:16:55 +0000

In an age of the consumer, mass communication and consumption of disposable information, marketers face the challenge of offering consumers a unique, engaging dialogue. As the way we interact with each other changes, it poses the question, have we lost the art of conversation? With the proliferation of digital channels where we are swamped by volumes of ‘Big Data’, how can marketers rise over the cacophony of competitors to make their voice heard?… Read more

Have we lost sight of the value ‘human interaction’ can bring to sales?

Graham Smith — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:16:48 +0000

Recent research conducted by SCi Sales Group across a variety of companies, indicated that over 68% of buyers had some form of human interaction with a sales person prior to making their last three purchasing decisions; either a telephone conversation or a face to face meeting. These figures become more revealing when we examine the size of order. The average order value with human interaction is £68,032, but only £1,018 without.… Read more

In pursuit of creativity

Tony Spong — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:01:32 +0000

I was reminded in a recent pitch of the definition of a very important word; a word that drove me to leave the client side and venture into the agency side; a word that is at the very heart of what we are about.

That word is ‘create’. The definition of the verb is ‘to give rise, to produce, to bring into being’ and I love both the excitement and danger that this provokes.… Read more

Is ‘lean marketing’ a pipedream?

rpullan — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:18:43 +0000

You’d have to be kidnapped and isolated on a desert island or live a media reclusive life not to be aware we are living through a massive global ‘correction’. A collision of financial, supply and demand, shifting superpower and technology dynamics, occasionally exacerbated by natural disasters, plays constant havoc with accepted customer connection models and business stability.

Credit-fuelled consumption excess, stock market-driven demand for continuous growth, wholesaling complicated financial packages of dubious merit & value could never just go on and on and on.… Read more