Multi-Channel Marketing
The benefit of printed, tangible marketing (especially direct mail) is that it can be addressed and with a reasonable degree of certainty will get to the person for which it was intended. The down side is there is no super-simple way to respond to a printed piece. True it might be a short 10 digit phone number; it could be a reply card that just has to be torn off and dropped in the mail; it could even be a web site that is easy to type into your browser.
At the end of the day, its at least one more step.
Email marketing allows for very quick and easy response mechanisms but it has its own issues. Spam and junk mail filters grow ever tighter and more restrictive. Too many complaints to your email server can restrict future ability to mail. Viruses, pornography and lude sales pitches make people skeptical at non-opted in email. Email is not a good prospecting tool by itself.
When used in coordinated combination, printed direct mail and email can be a great one-two punch. The direct mail piece warms the prospect or customer to the idea of the campaign. It can alert them that an email is coming. The email offers a super-simple way to respond. Between the two you have approached in a benign and safe manner while giving the easiest, most efficient and cost effective way to respond.
Multi-channel effort can feature printed materials with variable data printing, versioned email campaigns, and PURL’s to complete your marketing campaign. A cross channel effort leverages the strength of each element and allows you to have a very targeted reach combined with a high frequency across diversified mediums.
