The bottom line of direct marketing is… it works

The BBC’s excellent business programme ‘The Bottom Line‘ usually presented by Evan Davies was this week hosted by the BBCs Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders. The main topic of conversation was the power of direct marketing. The contributors were Richard Harpin, chief executive of Homeserve; Nick Wheeler, founder of shirt company Charles Tyrwhitt ; and Charles Cohen, chief executive of the mobile gaming company Probability.

Richard described direct marketing as the saviour of their business while Nick emphasised how simple techniques to personalise their direct mail such as signed letters from him as Chief Exec literally paid dividends. It was also interesting to hear them all talk openly about their response rates and what proportions of their revenues they spend on marketing, 50% in the case of Charles Tyrwhitt. Fascinating stuff. You can listen again on the BBC’s iPlayer here.