Why Choose to Affiliate Online vs. Creating Offline Direct Marketing Associations
One of the most hotly debated topics of direct marketing is the question of which is better: to affiliate online with ecommerce sites and information providers or to take the offline direct marketing approach through direct response mail, catalogs and advertisements. There are pros and cons to both approaches. Here are a few of the related issues.
Direct Mail Has Worked for More Than a Century; The Internet is less than 15 years old. J.C. Penney and Sears Roebuck were pioneers in the direct mail business, using catalogs to generate orders from small general stores in the late 1800’s, with products like gingham material or harmonicas delivered by stage coach. Copy in newspaper advertisements or catalogs described the products and created a desire to want them.