Direct marketing "...Consists of direct connections with selected individual consumers in order to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting relationships with customers," according to authors Kotler and Armstrong.

That is, creating communication channels that do not include intermediaries, with direct and simple messages for studied and selected audiences.

Currently, marketing demands the implementation of successive and constantly changing strategies to attract potential customers.

There is a feeling that there is no time or patience to wait for a campaign to show short-term results. The immediacy of the process became a requirement.

Traditional direct marketing can be developed through a wide variety of channels:

• Paper or virtual postcards.
• Sales emails or newsletters.
• Telemarketing (phone calls to offer services).
• Discount coupons. 
• Brochures and catalogues.
• Short messages via networks or mobile phones.  
• Influencers

Many companies are already implementing a more direct strategy to reach their target audience: social media campaigns.

Marketing has changed a lot in recent years, especially since social networks emerged with their different functions to create and measure campaigns. Today you can do  launches of products or services on these platforms in an agile and fast way. 

Always on marketing campaigns 

Direct marketing is also called Always on, since it is the way to maintain direct communication with the target audience.

According to a study, 42% of marketing specialists have migrated to an always on campaign strategy.

An example of a change in strategies are B2B companies, which evolve and understand that influencer marketing increases the trust of a certain sector driven by interpersonal relationships (which requires being present on a daily basis), a community capable of being in a constant sales campaign can be achieved, without the public feeling the imposition or advertising invasion. 

This strategic approach offers the important benefit of developing long-lasting relationships with industry influencers, as they boost brands with their leadership capabilities, and even support the growth of new businesses.

The collaboration of influencers in the always on strategy

Many influencers are currently setting trends because they are people who stand out in different topics, position themselves as experts and manage to influence their audience, that is, obtain an action or reaction from them related to the content they share. 

In the world of marketing, influencers actively post on social media about topics that are relevant to their followers and useful for brand strategies.

If the consumer has a question about a product and finds a video or article of their influencer talking about that product, they recognize them as the person who has knowledge, as a seller with user experience of that product and brand.

The influencer knows his audience and knows about the consumer's experience, which is why he awakens empathy and connection every day with his audience, and they trust his opinion since it is based on a personal experience and communicated by a real person. 

There are different types of influencers that adapt to various niches or brands, with constantly updated strategies:

• Micro-influencers: they have between 5k to 50k followers.
• Meso-influencers: they have 50k to 500k followers.
• Macro-influencers: with more than 500k to millions of followers.
• Celebrity-influencers: with millions of followers for being famous.

If you want to obtain measurements, calculate results and do social testing, considering the participation percentage is essential to hire an influencer for your brand.

Associating with an influencer requires prior research, cooperation and building relationships, with clear objectives, to create content that impacts the public and helps increase the engagement of your brand.

Within direct marketing, always on is the strategy that aims to obtain quick responses from consumers, accelerating the buyer's journey, since the emotion caused by the influencer's speech creates a connection with potential customers and thus more sales are produced based on that trust.

From traditional marketing to always on marketing

Traditional marketing generates short, medium and long-term campaigns. Immediate results are not sought, because they all take time to develop and implement.

There are campaigns with branding and positioning objectives that can take months to obtain results.

There is a combination between traditional marketing and digital marketing and within these two branches, the actions can be direct or indirect, depending on the tools you use to communicate and how you communicate it.

In this article we focus on the recent  shapes  of creating campaigns on social networks, since they have reduced times and generate immediate response feedback. 

Traditional marketing is still alive and is also being incorporated into live marketing, or always on.

Think of live ecommerce as an accurate representation of influencer content, that's what consumers in certain niches are choosing today.

Not all businesses need a marketing strategy that includes influencer partners, only the sectors that stand out in this type of advertising that are always active: fashion products, health, food, among others.

To get good numbers in times of uncertainty and frequent change, it is a good idea to run shorter campaigns and become familiar with your target market.

Once you've collected and optimized enough data for maximum conversion rates, turn them into always on marketing campaigns. 

Consumers want to trust brands, so it is important for companies to invest in relationships with expert and credible influencers.

Always on marketing campaigns is a strategic approach to inclusive marketing.

Create communities of trusted experts working on relationships and content, nurtured over time through engagement and continuous updates, because they add value to buyers, the brand and influencers. 

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