DMA Forecasts Good News for Direct Marketing

With industries generally refocusing their lens on the customer, it’s no wonder the DMA reports that direct marketing is set to grow by 7% this year, at a worth of over £15bn.

Some key points:

• Digital channels are the main catalyst for the growth, with companies set to invest £2.5bn on email marketing, £2.2bn on social media marketing and £516mil on Internet search advertising.
• New EU data law could set businesses back over £76,000 just to implement, which will undoubtedly hit UK economy as it means higher expenditure and pricing on direct marketing.
• A look at the breakdown of total sales attribution reveals that UK companies intend on an increase of up to 32% in the travel and leisure sector, 30% for retail and wholesale, and 28% for the financial sector.
• The DMA report also indicated increases in employment numbers by the direct marketing industry, with the end of the year expected to have seen a rise of 23% in personnel in telecoms and utilities, 15% in businesses and professional services and 12% in financial services.

With such clear growth in expenditure and employment forecasting, it certainly seems like the direct marketing industry has broken the mould in 2012.

Coca Cola: Content Marketing is the Future

Coca-Cola is betting everything on content marketing, which is increasingly becoming a major factor in marketing strategies for companies. And even though it is gaining traction, many companies haven’t yet realized the power of content marketing for their own business. However, with a big name like Coca-Cola starting to shift their marketing strategy toward content, other slow adopters will likely follow.

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The Way of the Brand Content Ninja

photo courtesy of flickr user Andrew Broadfoot

To the naked eye, there isn’t much common ground between the concept of brand content and the ninja’s way of life. Example. While espionage, sabotage and assassination are nifty tricks in a ninja’s trade, they are not mandatory for brands. Still, it’s good to know that some guidelines that have been upheld for centuries by the ‘stealth soldiers’ are actually totally applicable for companies today.

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The Times Paywall. At last.

So the detail has finally been released. Next June, The Times (of London, for our American brethren), will be going behind a paywall. It will cost £1 per day to access the main site content, or £2 per week, with print subscribers getting free access.

There is loads of buzz about this today, so I won’t rehash the main arguments, but there are three points that I think are worth making.

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