Direct marketing

Communicating your message to specific targets

Direct mail

Direct mail is one option to consider if you want to target disabled people. This could:

accompany benefits information
be distributed by disability organisations
be inserted into disability publications
be sent to an existing of your target audience.

You could consider face to face marketing and telephone marketing as an alternative to direct mail, however this can be expensive.

Multiple channels and alternate formats

The following campaign examples demonstrate using different channels and alternative formats to communicate directly with your target audience.

Multiple channels example - Department of Health: anti-smoking campaign

Department of Health recognised that it needed to make its anti-smoking campaign as accessible to disabled people as to the rest of the population. The campaign used a variety of media channels in order to get the message across to the widest possible audience. This was backed up by extensive research.

Publicity included:

a number of TV commercials (with subtitles for people with a hearing impairment)
a wide range of printed material including leaflets, outdoor posters, small posters and postcards targeted at different sectors of the population
material on CD-ROM so that local groups could produce their own publicity using the national branding
a website
two telephone helplines
Braille, audio and large print versions of the main booklet
three specially written and designed booklets for people with learning disabilities
an item in the Central Office of Information audio magazine ‘Sound Advice'.

The alternative format versions were well-publicised in the press, at day centres and elsewhere. This resulted in a high demand and reprints in two media were required within a few months.

Alternative formats example - Inland Revenue: tax credits

HM Revenue and Customswas keen to ensure that its campaigns for self-assessment, the Working Families Tax Credit and Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC) were accessible to disabled people and to minority language users.

They subtitled all their TV commercials on Teletext (in English and Welsh) and produced and distributed leaflets and posters in minority languages for use at post offices and other outlets. The Inland Revenue website, which won an RNIB Accessibility Award in 1999, actively encourages people to file their self-assessment return online.

Posters and factsheets about DPTC and the DPTC Fast-Track were also produced in alternative formats - the factsheets being displayed in around 4,500 doctors' surgeries.

Other initiatives included articles on DPTC and Fast-Track in the regional press with an accompanying advert for Fast-Track, and an article in the Revenue's ‘Employer's Bulletin' directing employers to the employer's helpline to order an information pack including posters, factsheets and leaflet (also available in alternative formats).

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Page last reviewed: 04 November 2010