I spent the quieter moments of the weekend breezing through David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR.  Before I read this book I was convinced that digital content and PR are going to be increasingly vital components of the modern marketing mix.  Now that view is further reinforced.  It’s a great read, dealing not only with the transition zone between old and new marketing but also offering clear sight of what lies ahead.

Scott argues that “the old rules of marketing and PR are ineffective in the digital world” and I broadly agree. To his credit, he rightly resists the temptation to make ill-informed and poorly thought-out “advertising doesn’t work” arguments. Unlike many web commentators, he recognises that mainstream media still has an important role to play for mainstream brands, and that niche media can still work well for niche brands. So,  if you’re a beer brand then it still makes sense to advertise on TV in football games. Or if you sell deck sealant, then Professional Deck Builder Magazine is probably still right for you.

There are a couple of areas where my experience differs from David Scott’s. One is in his view that “marketing meant advertising” and that “advertising was one way: company to consumer”.  It’s true that for some companies, marketing does mean advertising, but for many companies marketing also includes direct marketing. Moreover,  two-way dialogue has been the DNA of direct marketing for decades. Lester Wunderman and others pioneered the development of response-based customer dialogue over fifty years ago, albeit from within the restrictions of static print / direct mail.

Direct marketers have a suite of skills that is incredibly well suited to marketing in the Web 2.0 era. They collect behavioural data from customers and apply it to marketing decision making. They use data to understand customers, track purchase histories, segment databases and predict future customer behaviour. They build models which can predict how likely it is that consumers who purchase product A will go on to purchase products B, C and D.  They use customer data to establish when customers buy products and the length of the purchase cycle enabling them to identify the best time to talk to prospects. They learn how to identify valuable customers and build reward programs to strengthen the relationship between buyer and seller. Most importantly,  direct marketers focus on building relationships that turn first-time customers into long-term advocates.  Direct marketing has much to offer to the data-enabled world of Web 2.0.

Nigel Sharrocks, CEO of Aegis in Europe recognised all these points when he observed that “it only takes a moment’s reflection to see that direct is a highly effective training ground for Communications 2.0.”  Whilst dealing with deluges of customer data may unsettle advertising practitioners, working out what to do with data is, according to Sharrocks,  “second nature to direct people” who are also “highly unlikely to assume that every campaign must begin with a TV ad”.

For many years direct marketers argued that they could make better use of a marketing £ or $ than an ad agency, in much the same way that web marketing specialists do now.  In my view the best return can be achieved by merging the best of web marketing - and particularly content marketing - with the best of direct marketing. Direct marketing can provide a robust platform upon which highly effective content marketing projects can be built.  To me, direct marketing and Web 2.0 communications are two things that fit together extremely well - like yin and yang, steak and chips or bread and butter.   Perhaps it’s time we started talking about Direct Marketing 2.0.