Cross Media Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

By Sam Giannola

You need more business. This means spending more resources to market your goods/services. Whether you have limited marketing resources or a strong marketing program, don’t you hate to waste time and money on prospects that are not ready to buy? Statistics show that personalized marketing programs driven across print, email, Web and other interactive media are achieving higher response rates and bottom-dollar returns than one-size-fits-all campaigns.

Cross media marketing enables you to utilize the most appropriate channels for each marketing project, delivering concise, measurable campaigns that carry consistent messaging across all channels and helps you establish a dialogue with your customer, building customer loyalty. Through increased relevancy of content, imagery and wording in your cross media marketing campaign, you hone in on your ideal customer and achieve more lucrative results than you would with generic marketing pieces sent to a larger audience.

It is practical and cost-effective for organizations of all sizes to conduct sophisticated cross media marketing programs that feature personalized and relevant content. The content is delivered across all select media including direct mail, email, Web pages and advertising. These campaigns are executed without the acquisition of new marketing skill and trained employees, new hardware or software or licenses. Using cross media marketing, a large universe of prospects is automatically narrowed to a list of warm leads, improving response rates and your return on investment (ROI). The entire campaign is tracked with detailed reporting available 24/7 and includes all facets of the campaign.

Benefits of cross media marketing?

• Focus on those customers that drive your business.
• Create a list of new prospects that have characteristics you’ve identified as your “best customer” traits.
• Identify potential customers based on location, income, home-owner status and more.

Build Your Customer Base & Loyalty
The rising cost of new customer acquisition makes it imperative to grow a stronger relationship with existing customers. The number one marketing oversight made today is to ignore the most profitable prospects you already have. Cross media marketing simplifies and automates the process of maintaining contact with customers—increasing sales and strengthening brand loyalty.

What drives your prospect to respond? In the myriad of messages your prospect receives each day, there are three elements of your campaign that increase the possibility of turning their interest into a sale:

1. Message timing
2. Relevance
3. Personalization

Cross media marketing programs are tailored to match your customers’ needs with your product/services. It is important to deliver an offer when the consumer is most likely to purchase. You will have the ability to deliver an offer that responds to your prospect’s unique needs, desires and preferences. You will also have the ability to deliver an offer that is tailored to a unique recipient — astronomically increasing the possibility of engaging with you.

Monitor, Measure & Drive Success
Your cross media marketing campaign requires accessing information created by the campaign; there are a few methods to do this, one is via a dashboard. The dashboard is used to measure message response, offer effectiveness and list performance, this information can then be used to fine-tune your marketing strategy and coordinate follow-up efforts. Data captured during the campaign can be downloaded for further analysis. This data may also be imported into your CRM application.

Tracking responses in real time gives you instant notification of how the campaign is unfolding, providing insight to any needed adjustments and a timeline for when the next wave of communication should be sent. Response rates improve when there are multiple direct marketing touches. Knowing when the customer has responded allows your sales staff to continue their efforts in closing the deal. It is important to make sure that once the cross media program generates a lead, that lead is given top priority.

Remember, your lead has engaged with you on their terms, responding to messages and offers that tie-back to a specific need they expressed. The best time to close a deal is soon after they show interest in your offer. This is where real-time tracking becomes your best friend. You will know instantly when a prospect is interested — providing an opportunity for your salesperson to turn this hot lead into a customer.

In today’s business environment where information is obtained from a diverse number of sources it is the wise business owner that harnesses the power of multiple channels of communication to create a dialog between their company and their prospects.

Sam Giannola is with DBS Print and Marketing, celebrating 22 years in business. You can contact him at:
23800 W. 10 Mile Rd. Suite 205
Southfield MI 48033
o: 800.252.7345 Ext. 21
f: 248.324.5599
www.DBSPrintMarketing.com