The days of captive audiences are long gone. Once, marketers could decide when consumers would receive their messages and on what media. Today, consumers have turned the tables and seized power. They choose which messages they want to see and when. They also decide the medium on which they want to view the message. This makes it increasingly important for businesses to utilize cross-media campaigns to reach their target audiences.
What you present, how you present it and when you present it can have a significant impact on the success of your marketing efforts. Cross-media campaigns reach across channels to engage customers with relevant, consistent messages that can be highly personalized for each recipient. By demonstrating an understanding of and respect for the customer's preferences, you have enhanced opportunities to build lasting relationships and improve customer loyalty.
Cross-media campaigns require a bit of special handling to obtain the best results. If you want to help ensure the maximum success from your cross-media campaigns, these tips may help.
- Build a 360-degree view of your customers. In the modern world, your customers typically interact with you through multiple touch-points. Make sure that all of these touch-points are integrated across all channels so that you will have a complete view of your customers' habits and preferences.
- Before launching a cross-media campaign, you need to make sure that your data is both plentiful and clean. You need demographics, purchase histories and a complete view of your customers to provide the personalized experience that they want. Attempting to "make do" with sub-par data can sabotage your efforts and waste your resources.
- Make the most of cross-channel analytics. Establish the right metrics to give you the insights you need when planning future campaigns or making mid-course corrections. Knowing how effective each channel is for different customer personas can help you focus your resources on the most lucrative channels.
- If you are serious about building enduring relationships with your customers, you might want to consider personalized URLs, also called PURLs. PURLs are typically created for each person receiving your message through an email or direct mail campaign. When the recipient goes to the URL, he or she will arrive at a special personalized landing page. PURLs can improve response rates, and you can choose to receive real-time tracking of each customer's activities.
- If you have not already done so, embrace marketing automation. There are various tools available that can help you plan and execute targeted campaigns. Automation can enhance your relationships with both existing and potential customers while opening up new opportunities to nurture brand loyalty.
- Variable data printing, commonly referred to as VDP, lets you personalize your direct mail material in relevant, clever ways that attract attention. VDP incorporates everything that you know about your customers, such as their hobbies, address, gender, occupation, interests, spending habits, age and more to take personalized messages to new heights.
- Personalized videos are one of the newest marketing trends. Videos have always been useful for marketing, adhering to the principle of showing rather than telling. When combined with personalization, videos can offer creative and relevant experiences for each viewer while simultaneously demonstrating your company's professionalism and forward-thinking philosophy.
Today's customers dislike the "one-size-fits-all" marketing approach. Your customers want to feel as if they are "one in a million" and not "one of a million." They want you to respect their limits, but they also want you to provide them with content that is relevant to them in terms of subject, timing and delivery method. Each customer wants to feel as if you truly understand his or her needs and preferences — and cross-media campaigns can help you accomplish this.
