Beth holds a master's degree in integrated marketing communications, and has worked in journalism and marketing throughout her career.
It's no surprise that Starbucks is a frequent example of what to do right in marketing. That extends even into the digital arena, where their website's landing page has information about how to download their smartphone app, tips for signing up for their mobile rewards program, and a quick link for signing up for their email newsletter.
Once you're enrolled in all of Starbucks' communications channels, you also reap the benefits: news and information about new and upcoming products, special sales, discounts at their online store, rewards stars, and more.
How does Starbucks manage to stay at the top of its marketing game, reaching people with useful content wherever they are? A little marketing trick known as digital direct marketing.
Digital direct marketing is the new-fangled sibling of the traditional direct marketing you might remember from days-gone-by: when postcards, letters, and advertisements would show up at your postal address and you'd sort through them, reading some and likely tossing many more in the trash.
Just like it sounds, digital direct marketing combines the best of two worlds - direct marketing that delivers your messaging to your audience and a digital platform, so there's no postcard for a customer to address, stamp, and mail. Everything is done in the digital space; typically, this includes the mediums of email, web, and mobile. It takes addressibility (i.e. having some type of address where you receive things) and turns it into digital tactics.
Digital direct marketing is a favorite of marketers everywhere for a few reasons:
So, where can you expect to see these digital direct marketing pieces? Let's take a look at a few different options.
Digital direct marketing is a much newer field than traditional marketing, but still includes numerous options for marketers trying to diversify their strategy.
1. Emails: Regardless of whether it's delivering newsletters, sales bulletins, coupons, or other information to a consumer's inbox, email can be an effective way to target consumers with the right messaging. For example, if you own a pet store and are having a sale on cat products, you can target only cat lovers and owners with your emails. Then, you can easily measure your results by tracking metrics such as open rate (how many subscribers actually opened your email) and engagement.
2. Mobile applications: Mobile apps give marketers a quick way to reach consumers, especially since push notifications can draw a customer's attention within seconds. Push notifications alert you to new content in your apps. Consider designing your own mobile app, offering customers a reward for downloading it, and using it to push information and special offers. Since we spend a lot of a day's time on our mobile devices, mobile direct marketing presents lots of opportunities for you to get to know your customer and for them to get to know you.
3. SMS messaging: Have you ever considered a text club for a rewards or loyalty program? SMS (Short Message Service) is simply an acronym that represents the text messaging function of mobile devices. Lots of studies have been done that show most people reach a text message within just a few seconds of receiving it, so it can be a quick way to deliver a message. Some businesses also take advantage of mobile devices to implement proximity marketing, which can send marketing messages to customers within a certain geographic area (such as a five-mile radius of your store).
4. Web: The internet is great for so many things, which should be crystal clear already. For marketers, it can present numerous opportunities and tools for reaching and understanding customers, including the use of cookies, small tracking files placed on site visitors' computers, which can help identify browsing and buying behaviors. Marketers can also use web-based marketing for a variety of advertisements, offering personalized recommendations on their own website or targeting customers' search results by using keywords in a paid search campaign.
5. Video games: Why are video games on this list? Because they're a huge part of what people are doing on their mobile devices. Mobile video gaming gives game developers and, in turn, marketers an opportunity to get to know a game player's behaviors and then deliver targeted direct marketing to them.
Digital direct marketing takes the addressability of traditional direct marketing to your postal address and applies it to all the digital areas consumers touch: email, mobile devices, and websites. Digital direct marketing marries relevant and timely messages with the efficacy of digital delivery so you can track and measure the performance of your campaigns. Digital direct marketing typically relies on the mediums of email, mobile, and web, ranging from newsletter subscriptions to SMS messaging to tracking cookies, which can help you decipher browsing and buying behaviors.
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