Everyone has received mail order catalogues, telemarketing phone calls and of course, spam mail. We're constantly being bombarded with direct marketing as we sort through the letter box or check our email. Direct marketing has two distinct characteristics. It is marketing aimed at consumers and businesses that circumvents intervening media. The second characteristic is that all direct marketing has a specific call to action that allows marketers to quantify the success of the campaign.

For most businesses, the purchasing manager receives the vast amounts of unsolicited mail (read direct marketing) from suppliers hoping to make a sale. This traditional approach is now largely unsuccessful. The electronic age we live in has seen buyers take a very different route with their acquisitions. The Internet allows businesses to effect a transaction electronically, and thus the buyer initiates a purchase or sale. Here's where the reversal in the marketing scenario is evident. Suppliers can no longer approach businesses under the presumption of direct marketing - that now is the time for them to buy. On the other hand, whenever people need their products and services they must make available for searching immediately.

Additionally, business-to-business (B2B) buyers have strict policies for ordering products and services. Most are required to have at least three competitive quotations as well as to ascertain whether the suppliers can and will deliver on time. Due increased workloads, buyers are more often unwilling to engage in a conversation and lose valuable time. These compelling reasons make search engines the most efficient medium for initiating B2B transactions. The web provides buyers with options galore. They can browse through product catalogues, find the most suitable deals and then initiate a transaction with an email or an online purchase order.

A staggering 85% of all new Web visits begin at search engines, and naturally they are the starting point for any purchase. B2B buyers typically use search engines to locate products and contact potential suppliers. There are a multitude of reasons why search marketing is better than direct mail. Most of all, it is a more cost efficient alternative to the endless expenses of stationary, design, postage, print and all those other components of direct marketing.

Search engine marketing optimises suppliers' websites for the search engine rankings. This process, known as search engine optimization or SEO, will place websites higher up the search engine results page (SERP) for certain keywords. Thus, search engine marketing is a reversal of the traditional direct marketing paradigm.