Direct Marketing vs. Branding

This article was written by Ted Dhanik

Direct marketers have a need to sell, and a need to do so quickly. Brands concerned with awareness tend to pull value from engaging users on multiple platforms. Which of these goals fits your display advertising campaign?

Conversions

Direct marketing campaigns are decidedly concerned with conversions. In direct marketing, money is constantly spent on display advertising, necessitating a return on investment. Direct ads tend to lead directly to a landing page where the customer can buy or fill out a form to receive something. Good direct marketers focus on listing their benefits in the sales copy, and trying to close the deal as soon as possible.

Engagement

Marketers who are concerned with branding tend to view banner advertising as a means to an end. These types of campaigns may take a customer to a special interest style website set up to promote a service, or a blog post that details something new and exciting that is forthcoming. Because engagement doesn’t necessarily mean conversion, brand awareness is viewed as a long-term objective. The idea is to get the brand on as many pages as possible for the smallest cost.

Clicks versus Views

While the two goals, clicks and views, are similar,  the end results are very different. A page view can help brand awareness if what is on that page can go viral, or if the user stays engaged with the content. Retargeting can be useful to get multiple page views at a lower cost. Both direct and brand marketers are very interested in clicks, which lead to action. Clicks tend to be more valuable, and a lot more expensive. Thus, the ratio of clicks to page views must be tighter for a campaign to be considered successful.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is a sales and direct marketing professional. Ted Dhanik has worked extensively on digital marketing with big brands like MySpace.com. Find out how to increase your conversions when you visit Ted Dhanik.