First and foremost, it is important to understand that people have a certain bias towards, or against, the various media. Many people today will completely ignore any of the advertisements that are placed in the traditional print media, such as newspapers or magazines. Additionally, there are recent studies that indicate that banner ads are losing their impact. There was a study published in 2004 by “The Chartered Institute of Marketing” that determined that we are exposed to over 1,500 advertising messages every day. Is there any reason for us to assume that number is lower today? We think not! We have all developed a mental screening of these ads now and their effectiveness is declining accordingly. Determining how to be the “One” that gets through is the tricky part.

There are two key elements in any integrated marketing strategy: 1) Recognize that the goal is now to develop a “pull’ strategy instead of a “push” strategy. This means that it is important to incent the consumer to WANT to interact with you and not just shove the message into their face from every direction for the goal of developing brand awareness. This is where social media is becoming increasingly used; 2) Develop a workflow that makes it easy and quick for the consumer to interact and communicate during the response phase of the process. These two strategies recognize that people don’t have enough time, or attention span, and different people will use different media in the process. Some like email, others will only interact using the telephone, and still others will only use the internet as their response mechanism of choice. Therefore, your strategy should be developed using multiple media for both deploying the message and the response to the call to action. You must make the messaging more relevant to the individual to incent them to take the time. Once you include these elements in your strategy, you have a much better chance of succeeding at your goals.

Remember, recognize that people have many options to choose from when communicating and that their time is valuable, so the communications must be relevant and add value to their lives. The options have become almost endless, but a careful evaluation and definition of how your target market communicates will increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and help you meet the goals that you set…You do set goals, don’t you? But, that is a discussion for another day!

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante

Print is still a viable solution for many marketing requirements, but we all have to think differently when we consider using it. A workflow, or shall we say strategy, that many use today is based on a more database driven implementation for both the print and web components. You probably have heard about personalized urls (pURLs), but you may not have leveraged this technology yet. Just to recap, a pURl is a microsite that is connected to a database and allows for the web pages to be dynamically reconfigured based on what is in the database or how the responder interacts with the microsite. Therefore, many campaigns are using variable data print (VDP) that includes a pURL for the recipient to go to as a response mechanism.  The internet will provide the responder the “immediate” interaction that a printed product can’t provide. According to the DMA, over 30% of people respond to direct mail by going online. And I could argue that this number will increase as more people use an integrated marketing strategy.

Bottom line is that direct mail is still viable and becomes a stronger solution when integrated with the internet. Both are here to stay, we just need understand the best way to use them together and how  consumers ultimately want to get their information and interact with your company. The two provide more value when used together than each can when they are used by themselves. I leave you with this thought…”Integrated marketing strategies are the ONLY strategies to use to grow your business opportunities!” To use any media as a standalone solution is short sighted and will limit your opportunities. It all becomes very simple when you start thinking like this. So, go forth, integrate and grow!

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante