From junk mail, to spam emails to cold calls – chances are you’ve been targeted by some form of direct marketing in recent years, and it can quickly start to irritate. Think about how much time you spend each day reading through and deleting emails that you didn’t want in the first place – or rushing to your phone only to find an automated message offering you a credit card or insurance at the other end.
So if this relentless form of marketing is getting you down, what can you do about it?
Make it stop
Here is a quick look at each form of marketing and what you can do about them:
– Postal: Contact the sender and tell them you no longer want to receive direct marketing – they are legally obliged to adhere to this. If you don’t know where they have got your information from in the first place, then they are also legally obliged to tell you – that way you can contact the company that is passing on your details and tell them to stop. In addition, you can contact the Irish Direct Marketing Association and ask to be added to its Mail Preference Service to have your name removed from direct mailing lists – registration lasts for five years.
– Email: Legally, emails for direct marketing cannot be sent without your prior consent unless it from someone you have a customer relationship with – you should always be given an option to prevent your contact details being used when you are giving them. Of course it is nearly impossible to stop spam emails from all over the world making their way to you – so just make sure you have activated the spam filter on your email inbox to try and cut out as much as possible.
– Phone: Contact your phone provider and tell it that you don’t want to receive any direct marketing phone calls – currently all phone numbers contained in public phone books are held in the National Directory Database and you can have it noted that you do not want to receive these calls on the database. Of course businesses can still contact you if you are, or were recently, a customer. The best way to avoid a company phoning you is to expressly state this whenever you give your details – and if you get a call from a company you have not had dealings with, tell the caller you do not want to be contacted by that company in the future.
What if you miss out?
Of course there is that fear that if you stop these marketing messages you might miss out on something you really would have been interested in. However, in times when we’re all looking to be financially frugal, think about how badly you needed these offers to begin with? It’s much better to look for deals as and when you need something – applying this philosophy to searching for voucher codes and daily deals will help you save on products you planned to buy anyway, which is the smart way to save.