Direct marketing is "effective" for businesses

Direct marketing is an effective way to target potential customers, according to the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM).

Ren Kapur, director of corporate development at the ISMM, says direct marketing is effective because it can be adapted according to customer trends.

"In a drastically changing market, direct marketing is able to be so much more flexible and so much more sensitive," he said.

After experimenting with marketing through telephone and email, Ms Kapur says that business owners are returning to "postal based" marketing once again, after realising that mass-mailing is the "more cost effective way" to get their company noticed.

According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing's (CIMs) 2007 Marketing Trends Survey, business owners devote a majority of their marketing budgets towards advertising; however the CIM predict that in future businesses will begin to devote more money to other types of marketing.