THE LINES BETWEEN online and offline direct marketing are blurring, according to a new survey by the Direct Marketing Association.
Of 700 companies contacted for the report, 64% cross-sell by targeting online customers offline and vice versa.
In addition, direct marketers are using a combination of offline and online techniques to drive traffic to their Web sites. The most frequently used methods are direct mail (58%); e-mail marketing (56%); print ads (43%); and search engine optimization (41%).
When targeting customers using an online method, 77% of respondents said a Web site was their vehicle of choice, followed by online promotions such as banner ads (44%) and online affiliates (30%).
Other findings included:
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Catalogs and print promotions are the most effective cross-selling tools for luring online customers to an offline channel.
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The channels that drove the most net sales were direct mail (27.8%); catalogs (27.3%); and Web sites (24%).
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For consumer marketers, catalogs contributed 43.6% of direct response net sales, followed by Web sites (27.5%) and direct mail (23.8%).
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Business-to-business marketers said that the most net sales came from telephone marketing (25.9%), Web sites (24%) and direct mail (22.2%).
The report was conducted by the DMA and the Association for Interactive Marketing during the fourth quarter of 2001.
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