Build Anticipation and Eliminate Mixed Messaging

Use Multiple Medium Campaigns

Each marketing vehicle or media has its own strengths and weaknesses. Utilizing each marketing medias?? strengths in a coordinated campaign can greatly improve a marketing campaign's effectiveness.

I am just going to focus on e-mail in this article.

Here are some of e-mail??s key strengths that can support traditional direct marketing:

? Targeted Detailed segmentation and personalization facilitates one-to-one messaging. Use these strengths to send highly targeted valid messaging in sincere, personal approach.

? Timely Most recipients will receive the message within hours of it being sent.

? Efficient and Cost Effective E-mail can touch more people more frequently at a lower cost.

? Responsive and Actionable With e-mail, a call to action can be acted on immediately. A purchase is just a click away as opposed to a printed or broadcast marketing medium, wherein the customer is highly unlikely to have the ability to take immediate action. This makes e-mail marketing very potent as a marketing vehicle. The e-mail delivers the message as well as the vehicle for taking immediate action.

The holidays are nearly upon us, here are some examples of coordinating traditional media with e-mail marketing in holiday sales campaigns.

Build Anticipation If you are sending a holiday catalog or brochure through traditional mail, they probably account for a significant percentage of your annual marketing budget. Inevitably, many will be thrown away without so much as a glance.

To rise above the noise of the flurry of printed catalogs, brochures, and other direct mail media, schedule an e-mail campaign to arrive before the first mailing, notifying people that the catalog will be arriving. Use your e-mail campaign in a way that fosters significant anticipation. That way they'll look for it to arrive with heightened awareness and greater anticipation. Customize the message with highlighted items, offers, and promotions that may be of particular interest to groups or categories of your recipients.

Responsiveness and Follow-up We've all experienced receiving offers and promotions we want to take advantage of. Inevitably, we miss our opportunity to cash in on great offers due to our modern day hectic lifestyles especially during the holiday season. Count on this to be the case with many would be customers. Schedule an e-mail soon after your printed campaigns last in-home date or shortly before your offers expiration date to encourage people to follow through on their good intentions. Use the strength of online ordering or purchasing, and enable the same offer on your e-commerce Web site. If you don??t have one, get one! And always include links in your e-mail that gives a time sensitive call to action and the resulting conversion to a sale.

Expanding Reach Maximizing your (ROI) by balancing the number and demographics of recipients with cost per piece is a well-established practice in traditional direct marketing. Integrating e-mail adds another dimension to the mix.

Broaden a campaign to a larger number of recipients using e-mail's cost-effectiveness and precision. Increase focus on key segments by combining print only, e-mail only, and print plus e-mail to further improve campaign effectiveness.

Crossover When running multiphase campaigns, enable crossover between media. Make use of user preferences. For instance, ask people which medium they prefer. Apply business rules based on behavior and implied preferences. If an e-mail address starts bouncing, switch that person to print. If she doesn't respond to print, send her e-mail.

Testing and Gradual Improvement Use e-mail to rapidly and cost-effectively test different offers and promotions. Use split testing or A-B testing to zero in on a message that gives the best results. Pay Per Click campaigns are another venue for rapid split testing to achieve the desired ROI. Over time, using these testing methods will increase your marketing effectiveness. Although short term improvements may be small, over time these small improvements result in significant improvements in your marketing campaigns. Once you have a winning e-mail campaign, use it for your print campaigns as well. However, remember that switching to another medium introduces a new variable, which can throw off test results. To minimize this outcome, use this technique for factors that are less affected by presentation. You can also use sample groups to pretest and identify variances in the response rates between print and e-mail campaigns.

Tracking Results Evaluating success requires campaign result to be tracked and analyzed. An e-mail supporting a catalog may not meet your standard response requirements on its own, but its effect on catalog sales may be significant. Similarly, a postcard to a person whose e-mail is bouncing may not produce the direct marketing return on investment normally required.

Start Planning Now! If your holiday campaigns aren't well under way yet, get started now! And as you plan your holiday campaigns, look for new ways to integrate your media. Play to the strengths of each, and respond to recipients' preferences (both explicit and implied) to improve the customer experience and maximize your overall success.

Best Regards, Oliver SEM/SEO Campaign Specialist

Targa Media Inc. www.targamedia.co