Direct marketing: the basics

Telemarketing

Contacting consumers by telephone can offer a number of advantages over other forms of marketing. It allows you to:

• gauge the customer's interest immediately
• ask questions to assess the customer's needs
• explain technical or complex messages more effectively

But there are significant disadvantages. Many people find marketing calls an unwelcome interruption - particularly in the evenings when you're most likely to get them at home. Consider carefully whether consumer telemarketing fits your business' image and whether you're willing to risk alienating customers.

In business-to-business (B2B) marketing, telemarketing has a wider role. People are more receptive to marketing calls as part of their work than they are at home.

You probably already use telemarketing in some form - few B2B sales are made without some telephone contact with a prospective customer. In addition, a dedicated telemarketing campaign could help you to:

• build your database
• generate leads and appointments
• follow up responses to direct-mail campaigns
• keep in touch with customers and renew relationships with lapsed customers
• find out about industry developments and the activities of competitors

This kind of telemarketing can usually be carried out in-house - but training staff to do it is essential if it's to be a success. For bigger campaigns, however, you may want to enlist the services of a telemarketing bureau. You can search for telemarketing bureaux on the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) website - Opens in a new window.

You should make sure that anyone you call is not registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). You can do this by getting your call list cleaned by a list cleaning company, checking numbers online on the TPS website or by buying a licence for the area or time period you require. Find out about call list cleaning options on the TPS website - Opens in a new window. The Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) serves the same purpose as the TPS but represents corporate bodies, schools, government departments and agencies, hospitals and other public bodies. Find out about the CTPS on the TPS website - Opens in a new window.

You should also be aware that there may be other legal issues when selling or marketing by phone. For more information, see the page in this guide on legal issues and best practice.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Why use direct marketing?
• Using your database
• Direct mail
• Leaflet drops and handouts
• Telemarketing
• Email and fax marketing
• SMS/Text marketing
• Get help with a direct-marketing campaign
• Legal issues and best practice
• Here's how direct marketing improved my business

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