Forum Moderators: phranque
The appointment of Bigfoot CEO Al DiGuido to the Ethics Policy Committee would seem to reflect the DMA's growing dedication to the Web, and in particular e-mail.
Okay, I am all for email marketing and I do find it effective, but I will be one of the very first to say that email is not where the money is on the internet.
I really wonder how long it will take the DMA to catch up to the internet. If indeed, they ever will.
That is email.
The DMA can't just change their whole purpose.
The DMA can't just change their whole purpose.
And you wouldn't say that commercial search engine resuts are not akin to direct mail?
How about PPC ads?
How much more direct can you get than someone typing the products you sell into a search engine?
Direct marketing is getting ads directly out to people who are looking to buy that product. Many direct marketers are missing the boat because they don't understand that the internet and search engines are essentially the ultimate direct market.
Why does this bother you anyway? I'm just wondering.
Mainly, because I work for a catalog and I know how well really paying attention to the internet can pay off for them.
The other is, because internet marketers and direct marketers could learn worlds from each other. Really, the concepts in direct marketing fit hand in hand with internet marketing. Plus, half or more of the "top" retail sites on the web are actually direct marketing companies.
It baffles me beyond belief when I see a catalog that will pay such careful attention to the copy it puts on its paper pages and then put a garbage PPC ad out for the same product. And then scratch their head as to why the PPC program is not working.
I learned how to write PPC ad copy from studying how catalog copy is written and my ads rock.
That is just one example of how the DMA gets the internet so wrong and this is just one more in a list of many. They DMA would better benifit their current members by teaching them how to do SEO than how to send an email. Even more so as the DMA is activly making pushes towards including pure play sites among their members.
To me (and this of course, may be JUST me!), the internet aspect of direct marketing is related more to search engines and decent ads, as hml points out.... especially the search engine factor: if you can't find a product through use of a search engine, you're out of luck unless you have a print catalog, right? So logic should dictate that the DMA look for ways to optimize their membership's ability to rank in search engines....
Such organisations never lead, rarely educate, often obfuscate, and always react defensively.
It is because email (especially bulk email) is moving/has moved from communication to junk that they are now showing an interest. Public Relations, period.
They do not want to be publically associated with "spam" email -
The DMA was accused at that time of watering down a set of e-mail marketing guidelines intended to address the growing problem of spam.although they do what they can to continue its use.
I agree with all of you.
I don't think the DMA is capable of shifting their focus to web based advertising or SEO. They're just like most of the big companies out there. They're set in their old marketing ways.
It will be a slow re-organization process but I guarantee it will happen sooner or later (probably later).
However, because of the fraud, porn, and other trash advertised through spam, legitimate marketers (including some of the DMA's members) must understand that and unsolicated e-mail is just spam and will do nothing but ruin the name and reputation of anyone sending it.
