What Does Direct Marketing Include?

Updated: May 2026

Oleksandr Honcharov, CEO at FlawlessMLM 

Direct marketing includes any promotional activity that targets specific individuals and asks for a measurable response. What does direct marketing include depends on the channel mix, but the core list covers email, mail, telemarketing, SMS, catalogs, direct response ads, and personalized digital outreach.

Activities and channels that count as direct marketing

• Email campaigns — promotional, transactional, and automated sequences.
• Direct mail — letters, postcards, catalogs, and self-mailers.
• Telemarketing — outbound and inbound calls to leads and customers.
• SMS and messaging apps — text marketing through phone and WhatsApp Business.
• Catalog marketing — printed product catalogs mailed to customer lists.
• Direct response advertising — infomercials, search ads with call extensions, lead-gen ads.
• Personalized social ads — Facebook and LinkedIn ads targeted to defined audiences.
• Retargeting — ads shown to website visitors who didn't convert.
• Database marketing — using customer data to drive segmented, personalized outreach.
• Door-to-door selling — in-person calls to residential or business addresses.

Definition: Direct marketing includes email, direct mail, telemarketing, SMS, catalogs, direct response advertising, personalized social ads, retargeting, database marketing, and door-to-door selling. The common factor is targeted, measurable communication aimed at a specific individual rather than a mass audience.

The list keeps growing as channels evolve. Direct marketing is less about a fixed set of channels and more about a mindset: target, message, measure.