Sociální média jako nová forma přímého marketingu

The main goal of this diploma thesis is to explain and evaluate the use of social media as an alternative to email marketing in the B2B segment, where direct marketing is most used. The second goal of this work is to identify key aspects of a successful direct marketing campaign on the LinkedIn platform. The work is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part serves as a basis for further research and is focused on the direct marketing characteristics and the role of social media in common marketing and direct marketing practices. The practical part consists of two researches: a semi-structured interview with experts and a test campaign. The main goal of the interview was to describe and evaluate the possibilities of using the LinkedIn platform as an alternative to email campaign as well as the factors influencing the success of the given campaign. Test campaign was focused on implementing and testing all expert’s recommendations in order to create a successful direct marketing campaign on LinkedIn.