DMA: Direct & Interactive Marketers Report Mixed Results for Second Quarter

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reported that the last two quarters have begun to more severely separate winners from losers in the direct response marketing fields. While the average revenue increased about six percent for direct and online marketers and profit increased a little more than one percent, this hides diverging sets of businesses doing either terrible or terribly well.

While revenues and profits increased, response rates declined, indicating consumers faced more even offers that they declined. This may be in part to the fact that, with the impending National Do Not Call Registry to go into effect starting in October, many traditional direct response companies have been working their telephone lists extra hard.

A quick call to the DMA's New York office confirmed that the study does not further break out interactive direct companies versus traditional companies. The DMA's Quarterly Business Review regularly polls DMA members on business performance.