How Direct Marketing and User Experience Are the Same

I've read several marketing books. In fact, I have an entire library of marketing books. The rooms of my home are full of these books.

Now, you might be wondering why a guy interested in usability and user experience (UX) would be so interested in marketing? The answer is very simple: direct marketing.

Before I explain that point, let me first tell you a couple of things about marketing. The average person sees marketing as a combination of advertising and sales. But, this is no better than saying that Freud or Pavlov fully explains the whole of Psychology.

There's more to marketing than most folks realize.

The fundamental purpose of marketing is to identify what people want and need, then satisfy those customers. (Sound familiar?) Marketing includes research, analysis, building relationships, establishing trust, determining pricing, distribution and much more.

Furthermore, marketing is far less “dirty” than many people are willing to give credit. Marketing has a bad name because some salespeople are wicked. They have poisoned the well through greed, including a disregard for what their customers really need. It's a shame because UX has much in common with marketing.

The vast majoring of marketers want to satisfy people just like we do. True, they focus on money and return on investment whereas we focus more on helping people. But it's fair to say that marketing and UX go together far better than most people realize.

Now let's turn to direct marketing.

By definition, direct marketers attempt to directly reach customers. It's rarely a subtle affair. Indeed, direct marketers urge customers to take action immediately. And they are not shy.

Here's why I love direct marketing. There is a serious emphasis on testing and measurement. Metrics are the law. Success is based on tangible results: number of phone calls, number of and type of brochures requested, number of email address captured, number of comments made, number of web page views and so on.

In this way, usability and UX share commonality with direct marketing. We've known for years that we cannot take action on behalf of users without first having data. Educated opinions are useful, e.g., heuristic analysis, but nothing is as powerful and useful as data from research in the lab or the wild.

If you're not convinced, consider how many of us believe that awards are silly in judging the true usability of a web site. We “know” that many award winning web sites are just plain terrible in terms of UX. Direct marketers feel exactly the same way! Award winning web sites are useless unless they provide bottom line results.

What I'm telling you is that marketing and UX are blood brothers. We share similar testing methods, if not common goals. We use metrics, they use metrics. That's the key. If we can blend UX and direct marketing everyone wins.

Think about that for a moment.

Great UX work allows us to determine if a web site is going to work for users before we ever start giving it to them. But then, direct marketing can tell us if that useful and effective web site is generating sales. Customers get what they want, users get what they want, and we get what we want.

We have a lot in common with direct marketers. In fact, you can quickly expand your UX skills by reading more about direct marketing. At the same time, you can start helping direct marketers with your knowledge of tracking, testing, and measurement. And, I think you'll be surprised at how much fun you'll have hanging out with that crowd.

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