Any form of marketing that communicates or distributes with consumers directly, as opposed to indirectly through a third party like the media, is considered direct marketing.
As marketing continues to evolve in the 21st century, one of the most successful concepts has been holistic marketing, a strategy to move marketing beyond the marketing department to an enterprise-wide role in strategy for all business functions.
The goal of market segmentation—the process of dividing a target market into smaller, defined subgroups of customers with shared characteristics—is to identify the subgroups with the highest potential for profit or growth.
Sales and market share are directly impacted by a company's marketing initiatives, but these are not the only elements that affect overall performance.
Platforms for marketing automation share some basic functions, but vendors are working to set their products apart with a variety of more sophisticated features.