Direct marketing is a form of advertising which allows businesses and nonprofit organizations to communicate directly to customers through a variety of media including cell phone text messaging, email, websites, online adverts, database marketing, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters and targeted television, newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as outdoor advertising. Among practitioners, it is also known as direct response.

Direct marketing focuses on the customer, data, and testing. Hence, besides the actual communication, a direct marketing campaign will incorporate actionable segments and use pre- and post-campaign analytics to measure results. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing from other types of marketing are: