The term marketing implies the single goal of profit. It is categorized into two, direct marketing and indirect marketing and there is a significant line of difference between the two. Direct marketing is basically business from manufacturer to consumer without the involvement of middlemen, whoever it is. This is generally done by mailing the consumer or contacting him directly, so he can know about the products. The use of media advertisements is very limited and whatever little use is made includes only the demonstration of their products with call back numbers. Direct marketing is a boon and a bane, both in some respects:
Advantages:
- Direct marketing involves direct business. So it is cost beneficial for consumers, as there is no price hike due to wholesalers or retailers.
- Marketing executives can state certainly of the exact response to their products.
- The profit or loss can be more accurately judged.
Disadvantages:
- Sometimes, direct mailing offends the customers and many do not endorse it as they say it inhibits their private lives.
But most marketing managers are in support of this kind of business. The various forms in which direct business is made are:
- Direct mailing: Here, paper mails are sent to the selected groups of people, who likely to give positive response e.g. the paper mails of latest food processor is sent to all homes where house wives are resident so that immediate response is seen. Also CDs can be used as demonstrating media.
- Email Marketing: Here, emails are sent to all the selected customer categories with repeated intervals of time. But most of these are put into trash and spams. So the effectiveness of this form cannot be predicted.
- Telemarketing: In telemarketing, calls are made directly to the consumers and the concerned product is advertised. People sit at call centers to sell products on behalf of their clients. But this form of direct business is quite unpopular and most people oppose the uninvited calls. It was initially made illegal but later on new laws were re-enforced and calls are now made only to those who don't mind them.
- Voicemail: Telemarketing created a lot of consumer opposition and consumers would abuse the ones advertising on the phones. In order to avoid this, voicemail marketing was introduced, wherein; the entire advertisement is digitally recorded and presented.
- Use of coupons: Coupons are attached to direct mails and sent to the consumers. These generally advertise and give cost benefit to the consumers. So they avail these coupons and respond fast.
- Television marketing: Advertisements are given on the television and demos are with toll-free call back numbers or certain websites for the consumer to get in touch with the manufacturers.
- Broadcast faxing: This is the least popular form of direct marketing. The ads are directly faxed to the consumers.
Direct marketing can thus become successful only if the entanglements with the consumer are good. It can be B2B or B2C. It measures exact consumer response.
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Want a digital format of the hard copy of any document? OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) technology can be the right option. Changes are taking place in the field of Data Entry service with the improvement of modern technology. Apparently, you may think OCR service as a substitute of data entry service, however, OCR services come with both advantages and disadvantages.
Overview of OCR
Optical Character Recognition is a modern technology for digital replication. OCR technology comes with software, hardware and an additional circuit in the computer to execute conversion process. OCR software can not only read the fonts but also recognize line breaks in a document. The process of OCR is quite simple and easy to manage. The entire process of converting hard copy of a document into electronic document may take only a few seconds.
Advantages of OCR
If you are looking for only converting any document into editable digital format then there is nothing better than OCR services. Optical Character Recognition process saves the time and effort of developing a digital replica of any document. No need to type characters manually on a digital file. Just place the hard copy of the document inside a scanner and get the digital format of that document with the help of OCR software.
With OCR process you can convert a document in several electronic formats like ? Microsoft Word, Excel, HTML, PDF, Text or Rich Text formats.
Documents, which are converted through OCR process, are editable and allow the user to modify the content. Compared to manual data entry service the cost of OCR service is quite less for developing electronic replica of any document. OCR service proved better than data entry service for the organizations, which are engaged in developing electronic copy of printed books.
Disadvantages of OCR Service
There are several disadvantages of OCR service regarding the cost as well as the process of recognizing the characters. Initially, the cost of developing replica through OCR process may seem lucrative but if you consider the cost of entire OCR system life cycle, the cost will be much higher than data entry service. Correcting OCR errors counts more cost than preparing a digital format of the document.
High accuracy OCR software can read more than 400 characters/second, approximately, and generates less number of OCR errors compared to any ordinary OCR software. Therefore, if you are looking for OCR process you have to maintain a separate workstation for correcting OCR errors.
OCR software is not efficient in recognizing the handwriting and the fonts, which are quite similar to handwriting. In such cases manual typing plays better role than OCR process.
Compared to ordinary OCR process, conversion life cycle cost is less in data entry service and it provides complete flexibility to data entry operators preparing digital documents from multiple formats like hard copy or audio files. Consider the service of medical transcription where you need to prepare digital documents from audio files. OCR cannot prepare digital document by scanning any audio files. In such services, data entry can prove better than OCR.
It has been found that for services like mailing list conversion or data extraction from the Internet, manual data entry services are still widely accepted across the industry. Data entry service comes with several levels ? staring from inserting raw data in a document to an error free document. OCR is efficient during the initial level of data entry service but cannot be a substitute of data entry service. However, the selection of a right service (Data Entry or OCR) depends on requirements of the job.
Both James Copper & Aravind are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
James Copper has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Mortgage and Mortgage. James Copper is a writer for http://www.capsco.co.uk. James Copper's top article generates over 1220000 views. Bookmark James Copper to your Favourites.
Aravind has sinced written about articles on various topics from Direct Marketing. Aravind Kumar, an Executive at International Commerce Alliance Corp has compiled many articles on different data entry services & other Outsourcing services. You can publish this article any where you like, with a back link to. Aravind's top article generates over 5400 views. Bookmark Aravind to your Favourites.
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