Many of us who are involved in online business must have heard the term "Direct Marketing", and perhaps some of us may wonder what it means, and if it can be applied online.

Direct Marketing has been called many names, all go around the relationship between the "Marketer" and the "Prospect". It is often called Relationship Marketing, One-to-one Marketing, Interactive Marketing. In essence they are all the same, so use the term you like.

In attempting to put a definition to the concept, it would be accurate to say that direct marketing occurs whenever you, the marketer, take it upon yourself to initiate and manage customer transactions at a distance, through a variety of media.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, Direct marketing is: An "interactive" system of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to create a "measurable response" and/or transaction at any location.

In other words, an auto factory in Japan would not want to send reps all over the globe, with planeloads of cars to sell to people in different countries, nor would you, the customer in this case, would want to travel to Japan to buy a car.

So, what happens is that the manufacturer would appoint local distributors and retailers in various spots worldwide, to do business directly with local residents. Those reps are the ones who practice direct marketing.

Online, the concept is slightly different, depending on what product is being sold. For physical products, like books, toys, cars or electronics, it is pretty much the same way as off-line.

Manufacturers appoint several online companies to sell their goods directly to the customer, through online stores, malls auction houses online, or any other form used to sell physical goods on the Internet.

If the product sold online is a digital product (software, info-reports, e-books..etc) the concept takes a slight twist since the manufacturer finds it impossible to reach the hundreds of thousands of potential customers, to market the product to them directly, so they appoint sales reps to do the job for them. That was the whole logic behind the new wave of affiliate programs online.

Getting back to the official definition of direct marketing, we can extract two significant features:

1. Interactive.
2. Measurable Response.

So, let us take a look at each.

1. Interactive:
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By the very nature of marketing it has to be interactive. For any activity to be called marketing, it must involve two persons; the marketer and the customer, and it does require action from both sides; the marketer does something upon which the customer acts.

Of course your direct marketing has to produce some form of interaction between you and the customer. Otherwise, you are not marketing.

However, stimulating such an action by the customer at a distance, let alone online where none of you knows the other, can be hard, so your direct marketing campaign must focus on how to get the customer to take the desired action.

2. Measurable Response:
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The logic behind this concept is that you must keep good records of what you do in direct marketing.

Finding out the cost of approaching a prospect, and what returns results from your effort is a very simple task. That means direct marketing can be based on very clear information about what you did, and what happened as a result.

With this essential information available to you, you can easily learn from your own experience. However, it is important to note that "measurable response" is not an exclusive feature of direct marketing. All marketing efforts in all forms should be measured and controlled to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness.

Even if you have little on no experience at all in direct marketing, you need to believe that any small initiative will generate enough information for you to learn how to direct market better, and in time, on a much larger scale.

The best, if not the only way to become good at direct marketing is to start doing it right away. Start with a modest program to minimize your risks, then start learning and growing from there on.

To put this in steps to follow:

1. Communicate with your prospects.
2. Gather as much information as you can.
3. Tailor a small yet well studied DM Campaign.
4. Launch your campaign.
5. Learn ... and grow.

The result: Hopefully, massive success.