The DMA’s chief of membership and brand Robert Keitch said: “Research enables direct marketers to significantly and continuously improve the performance of their campaigns by connecting them to their target audiences in a cost-effective way which delivers actionable results.”

The association said that some direct marketers are “overlooking opportunities to add value to their offering by failing to use insight to its full potential” and that tracking studies, creative testing, price evaluation and pre- and post-awareness research should be a key part of their work.

Keitch (pictured) continued: “All too often direct marketers rely solely on prior campaign results and broad testing to make important decisions. The power of direct marketing lies in its targeted approach and to ensure that this precision is maximised it is vital that direct marketers use all the tools available to them.”

His comments follow the formation of a partnership between the DMA and direct marketing research agency fast.MAP, which will see the latter provide the association and its members with a range of consumer and business tracker reports covering topics such as sustainability and data security.