Direct Marketing Associations are national trade organizations that seek to advance all forms of direct marketing.

International Federation of Direct Marketing Associations

23 direct marketing trade associations from five continents established an International Federation of Direct Marketing Associations. Founded in 1989, the IFDMA was established to develop firm lines of communications between direct marketers around the world, and is dedicated to improving the practice and communicating the value of direct marketing; and to promoting the highest standards for ethical conduct and effective self-regulation of the direct marketing community.

The purposes of Direct Marketing Associations

The purposes are generally ..

• Promoting direct marketing techniques and companies to consumers.
• Fighting negative images of the direct marketing industry.
• Providing training and professional development opportunities to marketers.
• Conducting industry research.
• Hosting networking conferences for marketers.
• Promoting direct marketing, informing consumers of the safeguards that exist, and promoting the DMA as their protector, contact point and regulator.
• Trying to ensure that their members create consumer confidence.
• Advising how companies should use information by operating within the terms of Data Protection Acts.
• Lobbying against Data Protection Acts which protect data against redistribution.
• Lobbying against laws forbidding e-mail address harvesting.