Time to connect (some of) the integrated marketing dots!
Posted by Niel Stender on Wed, Feb 08, 2012 @ 01:55 PM
In our last discussion, we looked at the importance of testing all available marketing channels before going whole hog into 1 or the other. Today, we’ll explore 3 of those channels and some thoughts on dropping them in to your marketing mix:
Email
Where to begin? Email has plenty of pros, plenty of cons.
Pros
Cons
How are cheap, fast and easy in both columns? Well, they can work in your favor for obvious reasons but can be detrimental in perception. If your marketing consists solely of email, customers and prospects may wonder why you can’t be bothered to showcase your wares in new and exciting ways.
Email is a critical component in any marketing strategy, as long as it’s implemented properly. Here are some tips
- Get Personal – your audience is smart and can see a generic blast coming a mile away
- Easy Does It – let’s not numb our database with broadcasts every 30 seconds
- 2 Way Talking – don’t just hammer 1 way communication, engage with surveys, landing pages and more
- Testing 1, 2, 3 – nothing worse than finding out your email is loaded with broken links!
You can setup your own, branded email marketing system like MailChimp or Constant Contact. Or you can tie your email marketing in with the rest of your marketing efforts to ensure all tracking and response data is in 1 place. At SVO, our marketing dashboard shows data for email, direct mail, mobile, social media and every other channel you can think of.
So, keep your email efforts up and running. But don’t bury your customers with it and make sure it jives with the rest of your marketing approach.
Direct Mail
Good ol’ direct mail. Old and dowdy? Or new and fancy? That depends on how you work it into your plan. For years, direct mail had little personalization and lots of blanket coverage. You can always send your flyer to the entire town, addressed to “Resident” but would you open that package? Me neither.
Time to spruce that postcard or letter package up! With personalized URLs, personal jQuery QR Codes, variable imaging and funky sizes, you can ensure your mail jumps out of the clutter sitting in your customer’s mailbox. One major benefit of direct mail is that it always has to be physically handled. Your target will look at it – make sure they KEEP looking at it!
Postage is certainly a concern as it continues to creep up in price but there are methods available to mitigate those cost. Just talk to your friendly local direct mail specialist (like SVO for instance) and find out how you can bring the unit cost down.
Think of snail mail as smart mail and change your perception. It may take some effort but with solid graphic design, multiple response channels and the ability to measure your results, this is a channel worth considering in the mix.
QR Codes
These little guys are everywhere – Best Buy in store product descriptions, restaurant table ketchup bottles, magazine ads and more. As smart phone usage increases, the mobile marketing channel is a must-do. QR codes give you the ability to talk to your target when and where they want to be talked to.
You can catch them at their mailbox, on the train, on the tube or anywhere else you can think to apply the codes.
Though you can go nuts with where to place them, try to stay on target with how they’re used. Don’t send folks to your home page if it’s not optimized for mobile. It’s no fun tapping and dragging to try and read whatever message you’ve got for the faithful code scanner.
And if you do have a mobile optimized page (you should), make sure the content is relevant and actionable. When someone scans a QR code, they’re expecting something to happen. A video of your latest innovation or a sweet coupon. But if they land on your “Contact Us” page, well, they probably won’t. At SVO, we use the jQuery platform which allows for all sorts of fun applications.
If you’re not familiar with QR codes, flip to the ads in the back of your favorite magazine or just keep an eye out the next time you’re shopping. When you do find one, scan it and see what happens. You’ll quickly notice good applications and the not so good. Keep those good ones in mind as you tack these funny looking data bytes into your marketing program.
Onward and upward! Next time we check out SMS text messages, social media and special events – woo hoo!