Direct marketing is a rapidly maturing industry. With increased consumer interest and use of direct marketing, the industry is becoming more competitive and is turning from a selling mode to one involving a more sophisticated marketing orientation. With this change it is necessary to better understand consumer attitudes, needs, beliefs and behavior in order to fine-tune products and services and the ways in which they are offered. This article reviews the options, methods, and effects of marketing research for the industry with emphasis on how the smaller direct marketing company can benefit. Under review is a complete range of research techniques that the direct marketer can consider, from simple qualitative research to the use of database analysis and augmentation and beyond to more sophisticated applications of segmentation analysis and expert systems drawing on actual examples as appropriate.