The Internet has been an integral device in changing the face of brand marketing. It shifts the burden of advertising from an outsourcing industry, where a separate company is used to target the needs of marketing a product. The Internet has taken a traditional industry, and opened it up to a new world of possibilities, adding new strategic ways to market businesses, products and services.

Web based marketing ties together the creative aspects of development and design from old school advertising techniques, with the technical aspects of the information superconductor that is the internet, to give birth to a whole new genre of marketing. The Internet has forever changed how marketing and advertising are handled.

Traditional Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing is a strategic approach that has been used for decades, and involves directly soliciting clients, repeat business and new business through a letter or postcard delivered by mail. This is an effective way to reach a large volume of people, at a fraction of the cost of a magazine, billboard or radio advertisement.

The direct mail approach also lends a personal touch to the advertising, because it reaches the person in their home. A piece of mail has the opportunity to capture a person’s attention in ways that grander scale advertising does not. Even though a recipient of a piece of direct mail knows he is not the only one to receive this notice, what direct mail marketing banks on is the few seconds a person is holding the advertisement in his hand. During this interval of time, the attention is solely on the piece of mail in hand. It may only cross a person’s consciousness for a few moments, but that opening for obtaining a person’s complete attention to the advertisement is what direct mail marketing seeks to do.

Once you have captured a person’s attention, direct mail has done its job. Now whether the marketing piece holds someone’s attention and can take that attention to the next level of interest is another matter—the matter of the subject, layout and execution of the advertisement, which will be covered separately.

Web Based Direct Mail Marketing

The principles of direct mail marketing via the internet are essentially the same—the main difference being the delivery system of email vs. a delivery by post. The intention is still to grab the attention of the consumer, and to get him to engage with your advertisement. Web based direct mail marketing is a strategic step towards gaining new business, and often more effective than an old fashioned snail-mail advertisement. With old-fashioned mail, it usually arrives during the day when people are at work. When you get home, there is often a mad rush of things to do: walk the dog, unpack groceries, make dinner, etc. Opening the day’s mail can easily get lost in this shuffle and pushed aside, and this is when the non-vital pieces of mail, like advertisements and marketing pieces may be cast off and forgotten. With direct mail marketing that goes to your email inbox, there is a larger window of opportunity that a person will register, acknowledge and actually open the advertisement. Most people check their email several times a day, if not constantly.

If one sees an advertisement that peaks their interest, but they don’t have time to read it immediately, it s likely to catch their attention again when they have more time to read emails at a later point in the day. Direct email marketing is an effective and strategic method to advertise your business, and the products and services it offers.

With the above in mind, it is critical that you utilize white hat methods of obtaining the contact information. For example opt-in email marketing lists will not only ensure that your advertisement is welcomed, but it will offer an ethical approach as well. You must maintain the integrity of your company’s image by ensuring that your tactics are welcomed and ethical. Should you avoid this approach you may be paying money to disolve your branding image rather than ehance it.