Direct marketing is now a weapon of choice in numerous industries. The reason is simple: DM performs, according to a study on response rates released last month by the Direct Marketing Association.

The average response rate for the 1,122 industry-specific campaigns that the DMA studied was 2.61%.

Within sectors, nonprofit fundraisers enjoy the most success with direct response, getting rates of 5.35%. Close behind are retail stores (with 3.36%) and establishments selling services to businesses (3.34%).

Manufacturing delivers 3.17%; personal and repair services 3.07%; and travel 2.98%. The two sectors at the bottom of the list — computer/electronic products and packaged goods — still get better than 2% response.

“As the marketplace continues to change — affected by the economy, deregulation, competition and the need to offset expensive advertising campaigns — direct marketing techniques are now being used by a wider spectrum of audiences,” said DMA chief executive H. Robert Wientzen in a statement.

Telephone marketing had the superior response rates among the direct channels studied. The average rate for telephone campaigns is 7.44%, but promotion costs were also higher.

What sectors get the best telemarketing results? Nonprofit fundraisers pull a whopping 19.42%, followed by education (12.46%) and insurance carriers (8.78%).

For direct mail, the overall average response rate (considering mailings to both house and prospect files) is 2.54%. Direct mail produces the best results for packaged goods at 5.36% and store retailers at 4.35%.

The overall catalog media average of 2.41% is just below the catalog industry average of 2.52%. Membership organizations achieve the strongest results with their catalogs (3.20%), followed by retail stores (3.17%).

Overall average industry response for e-mail is 1.88%. Nevertheless, all industries that were surveyed, except real estate, use e-mail in their direct marketing mix.

What categories have the best e-mail response rates? Wholesale trade at 3.83% and manufacturing at 3.39%.

The business-to-business e-mailings get better response because spam is not as much of an issue as it is on the consumer side.