Tag Archives: cross media marketing

20+ years in print has provided me with a good education into what makes good and bad content. Of course this is subjective what might be great content to one is mediocre to another.

I’ve seen how customers got it very wrong and hit the spot by getting it very right.

A direct mail piece containing variable content with no relevance to the product or service, an invoice with the wrong marketing message, often a missed opportunity for suggesting to clients future products or discounts, blank spaces over a page, content that bears no relevance to what the company sells.

Giving your customer the chance to bounce from paper and join you in the digital world by offering them an incentive can be one of the most effective ways of using your content.

Content marketing is the 21st century most used catch-phrase, content is king, content is everything, content is to die for.

Good content, but not any content is a must these days for companies, organisations or brands that sell products, services and solutions.

Let’s start with a definition.

Content marketing is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos. Content marketing is focused not on selling, but on simply communicating with customers and prospects. The idea is to inspire business and loyalty from buyers by delivering “consistent, ongoing valuable information”. [Wikipedia]

Many believe content marketing is crucial to developing and nurturing new and existing relationships, unsurprisingly, few do it properly.

What do I mean by this?

When companies decide to go down the route of content marketing it is often with little or no plan. It might start with a post card style marketing proposition in an attempt to reach customers and prospects. This is then followed up with a special offer or discount on your next purchase on a social media platform like facebook or twitter.

No planning, no continuity.

Many companies don’t think about the message they are trying to convey or what they aim to get out of the campaign.

Price, quality or a service message isn’t enough to differentiate you from your competitors and so the customer gets distracted by the price and forgets what he/she really wants in terms of a solution, product or service.

In turn this results in content that offers little or no real value to the end user, leads don’t convert into customers and sales are lost even though the brand may have captured the buyer at the first touch point.

Content marketing is about engaging and educating your customers in a subliminal way.

Content marketing works on the proviso that there is a group of people out there wanting more information on your products and services, the content you showcase might be a solution to a problem they didn’t know they had.

It is providing information about the services and products that your business offers to help prospects that are wanting to purchase but are uncertain about making that final commitment. It is not blatant SELLING.

Content is about providing relevant information over time by creating a positive image of the company, brand or you, equipping customers to make the right decision and buy from you, it is not about lam-blasting public messages into the social media stratosphere hoping that some of the messages will stick. (Outbound marketing)

Why is content important and where does print fit in to the mix?

Why does content marketing suck?

It doesn’t really I just wanted you to read my post.

Joking aside, print has conveyed this message since the beginning of time. The print industry has always been at the forefront of content. We know about the value of content in a direct mail piece, a brochure or sales letter, because we’ve been talking about it with our customers for the past 30+ years.

It doesn’t matter what the print piece is it could be an invoice as I mentioned earlier or a sales letter, it’s what’s in the content that counts.

The same principle can be attributed to digital media content. Content on the web, blogs, sales articles, email newsletters.

What has changed is the media marketing mix. Up until 5 years ago print tended to be the main vehicle for conveying content and information. Print is now just one part of the social media and marketing mix or as I like to call it part of the multi-channel engagement with customers.

The whole point is to develop interaction and engagement with customers by using all of the channels including print.

Content marketing seeks to answer questions, provide solutions and the social media channels are the mode of transport that allows this conversation to take place.

Where does print fit into the social media mix?

Let’s take a company newsletter, a magazine or a direct mail piece, the chances are it will be kicked around a building way after you’ve deleted that last ‘salesy’ email.

A great example of how paper fits into the marketing mix is the way Google interacts with its prospects and customers using direct mail.

Recently, we received a highly personalised target specific direct mail mini-brochure, about the size of an A6 post card and with 8pp (printed pages). It detailed the number of site visits, adword campaigns we are running and SEO all in a digital colour printed booklet. Targeted, strategic and personalised.

Google using direct mail? – a paper based product to deliver a marketing message. Google a multi-billion pound digital company specialising in internet related services using PRINT AND A DIRECT MAIL PIECE to promote themselves, ironic don’t you think. But, If it didn’t work they’d stop using it.

Understanding the value of print when considering your content delivery and more importantly the creative uses of print, can only enhance the customer experience.

Don’t rule out print as a potential first step in the engagement process with your customers.

Content helps you connect with your potential customer

Ask yourselves how you felt when you last opened a highly personalised envelope containing an individual sales message addressed to you? What did you think when you read it? If you thought wow I really like that, it’s fresh and different.

Now put yourselves into your prospects shoes, now you get the picture.

How are using print for your content marketing?

How do you see it fitting in with your marketing strategy? Please do share your thoughts, I’d love to know what you think.

Print, digital and the cross media marketing mix.

September 9, 2013 Caroline Leave a comment

The 1990’s saw the emergence of the digital print era and it was widely believed in print circles at least that the doomsday bell would toll for more traditional forms of print.

Jump forward 20+ years and print is alive and holding its own.

Before the cynics in my audience go ah yes but…

Print circulation of newspapers and magazines is down but there is good news.

More than 96% of newspapers are still read in paper format rather than on line. (City University London)

Digital print and paper can and do co-exist.

The newspaper publishing group News UK proved how by employing print and cross media marketing effectively can enhance the readers experience with on-line availability.

Readers of the printed newspaper “The Sun” collect codes from a newspaper that gives them on-going access to the Sun’s online, mobile and tablet content plus user benefits. The variable QR codes are printed inside the newspapers.

This is nothing new.

Retailers have been using variable personalisation and QR codes on printed leaflets, bus shelter advertising and even the underground advertising hoardings show variable QR codes encouraging audiences to move from one medium to the next.

Each touch point builds and promotes the experience and engagement with the consumer teasing them to move on to the next platform

In what is cross media marketing and what does it have to do with print I talked about the diversification of print and how used innovately in conjunction with a co-ordinated marketing campaign print can still hold its own within the digital on-line arena.

Most newspapers accept the fact that their printed readership circulations are on the decline.

Using innovative marketing methods News UK are encouraging their readership to buy the printed version of the newspaper and then use it interactively with a mobile device enabling their readership to enjoy both mediums rather than giving up on the physical newspaper and solely pushing the on line version.

It is a clever use of cross media marketing and if the audience doesn’t buy the printed version because the content isn’t right for them they have the option to view it on line.

Print/paper and digital work well together the difference is the ability to produce highly personalised and variable information targeting key audiences using paper and social media combined. Ink on paper will continue to remain a vital component in cross media marketing integrating print with smart devices.

Although print can be constrained by space, using an app that enables the reader to scan a page containing embedded digital watermarks lifts the consumer experience by giving them additional information about products

Print is long lasting and durable while the internet is very much a temporary medium often the messaging gets lost in cyber space.

Print is and does need to work harder to hold its audience if used in conjunction with a specifically targeted cross media campaign can be highly effective in delivering its message.

The new social media generation of 14 -15 year olds are referred to as the ‘on-line generation’ with an attention span of less than a minute so marketing messages have to be quick and subliminal to ensure the message is loud and clear.

Print on paper still has a place in the media sphere.

The media might have us believe that we want to be communicated via ipads, smart phones and tablet devices but many of us want to be talked to in different ways and through different channels.

Print and digital should not be seen in opposition to each other but rather in synchronisation with each other.

The print versus digital debate has continued unabated since the 1990’s and today the industry is still coming to terms with how to fully integrate digital, social media and print and social media channels effectively.

Developing unique highly personalised and variable codes is enabling News UK to create bespoke content and images for every newspaper copy.

Imagine a highly personalised variable printed or online newspaper tailored specifically for your reading needs?

Ink on paper is and will continue to remain a vital part of the cross media mix making it effective is a case of how well the processes are integrated to make it affordable and accessible for the consumer.

(Based on an original article that first appeared in PrintWeek)

What do you think?

Is paper and print dead or can it work with its digital counterparts?

Keep up to date with our latest news by following us on twitter, facebook, Pinterest and connect with us on Linkedin and Google+.

Outsourcing

What is marketing personalisation and what does it have to do with social media?

August 5, 2013 Caroline Leave a comment

You cant have failed to notice Coca Cola’s ‘Share a coke’ summer campaign which is a great modern example of marketing personalisation.

Coke replaced the iconic brand with 250 most popular british names.

To ensure that marketing personalisation is targeted it has to be customised and personalised whether personalisation is attributed to direct mail, billing, social media personalisation is the key to engaging with your audience and customers.

We are over loaded with marketing messages subliminally and consciously but how do you cut through the ever increasing noise and get your message heard?

You personalise your product or service to suit the audience that the message is intended for.

Coke’s campaign was designed to create a huge buzz and engage its audience throughout the world and it has succeeded in doing that as people take to social media platforms with images of their personalised bottle.

What is the difference between marketing personalisation and customisation?

There are two types of one to one marketing: personalisation and customisation

Personalisation occurs when the company decides what marketing mix is required for an individual this is based on previously collected data.

A perfect example of this is Amazon.com personalised recommendations that display as pop ups when you log in showing suggestions of purchases you might like to make based on your previous purchase history.

Customisation is where the customer specifies one or more elements of his or her marketing mix. An example of this is Dell Computers giving the customer the option to customise the computer they order.

Sending out unpersonalised messages doesn’t engage your audience by personalising the campaign whether it is direct mail, email marketing, social media, billing you are more likely to engage a response from your customers.

96% of organisations believe that personalised marketing improves response rates and personalised emails improve click through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10% [Hubspot].

Irrespective of the statistics customer letters, invoices both paper and electronic, direct mail, email newsletters are being posted out unpersonalised this is a missed opportunity for further engagement with the customer.

Why is data so important?

Making your brand personalised to your audience increases customer engagement.

According to the DMA [Direct Marketing Association] consumer willingness to share data with brands has increased dramatically over the past 18 months. Over 50% of the 1,193 UK adults that took part in in a survey for the DMA/fast.map data tracking report were willing to provide basic information about themselves – name, address and email to receive marketing messages.

Equifax one of the UK’s leading data providers believes that the rise in consumer confidence in sharing data is the increased transparency in privacy policies and improving practices to secure trust.

Major brands such as Unilever are ensuring their privacy policies are communicated better so that customers understand how their data is being used and 43% state that a clear easily understood data privacy policy would encourage them to share their data compared to one in three 18 months ago. Research has also proven that the better the data privacy protection policy is worded the permission to market rate can be improved by as much as 100% with the best notices reducing opt out rates by as much as 10%.

How does personalisation add value to my marketing?

What is the point of marketing personalisation?

Engagement with customers is all about data and never has it been more important than to understand consumers habits and what drives their behaviour to buy.

Purchasing data, social media, customer service interactions and web searches are all the essential components needed to drive customers to purchase.

Ensuring that your database is kept up to date gives a valuable insight in to customers behaviour influencing how you target your specific audience and/or market.

UK Office Direct is good example of managing their customer database when orders are placed on the site it offers similar products which may be cheaper or, more expensive but the point is you are given a choice of products and associated accessories.

This form of collaborative filtering determines appropriate recommendations for
the consumer ensuring that you are made aware of all available products and accessories.

UK Office invoices which are sent electronically contain variable personalised data hi-lighting various up and coming offers, products and accessories that the consumer might be interested in the foreseeable future.

It is clever personalised and strategic marketing because each invoice they email out is highly targeted and specific to the recipient.

The more a business knows about its customer the more it can tailor the buying experience by delivering targeted and relevant content.

Like amazon, a regular visitor to a specific website starts to receive a more personalised experience because the company recommends products and services that may be of interest based on the data the customer has previously entered making the chance of click through rates significantly higher.

A more customised experience determined by consumer habits will drive conversion rates and encourage visitors to spend more. By being able to have instant access to the products they like with little effort they will respond by spending more money or by returning to the website.

The more personalised their experience is the more they are likely to share it.

Content is king

The more relevant the page the visitor lands on the more likely it will convert in to a sale. By understanding who is visiting the website, mobile site or app will ensure companies can be target specific and retarget customers with offers that make the whole buying experience relevant.

What next?

The new wave of inbound marketing is focussed on ‘personalisation’ and it is not just B2C but will focus on B2B.

By creating a more personalised experience for prospects and customers that delivers solutions to their individual problems, interests, needs and wants will positively reinforce people coming back.

How does marketing personalisation fit in with print?

Variable data printing lead the way with personalisation and the concept of personalisation is not new.

Printing variable data invoices, statements, council tax books and bills were some of the original paper based applications that were highly personalised and customised to the individual.

This form of personalisation has tripped over into the cross media marketing mix. [Cross media marketing] where marketing campaigns can include a PURL, in lay mans terms the PURL is a link that takes you to a website via a QR code or barcode that you scan with your smart phone.

Good content = increased web traffic = more sales

Content and personalisation has always and will always be king. Good content coupled with a unique and personal buying experience will drive customers to visit your website which is ultimately what we want.

What do you think?

How do you use personalisation in your marketing strategy?

What has worked for you and what didn’t?

Share with us your experience.

You can follow us on twitter, facebook and pinterest and connect with us on linkedin and google+ for updates. Please do because we like to share.

Document Management, Featured Posts, Print Management

What is cross media marketing and how does it fit in with paper?

July 29, 2013 Caroline 2 Comments

Cross media marketing what is it and where does it fit in with social media and print?

What is cross media marketing and what does it means for businesses seeking new customers and a greater audience?

“Cross-media marketing refers to the use of two or more media types print, email, mobile and/or social in an orchestrated campaign targeting demographic and/or psychgraphic segment. These campaigns can be retention programs targeted at existing customers or acquisition programs targeted at prospective customers. A cross media campaign delivers relevant content and a call to action through multiple media simultaneously as an integrated campaign”[Source: Infotrends]

At first hand there is an assumption that cross media means simply sending the same marketing message across all types of media from social media, multi-media platforms and the ubiquitous bit of paper.

But it is really much more than that. In fact arguably paper as a medium has been at the forefront of this cross media revolution for longer than you might think.

Think of direct mail marketing and the various calls to action that can be found on the piece.

Leaflets distributed in magazines and newspapers.

TV, radio and print ads, the focal point of this is cross media marketing or a form of communication with the buyer.

Cross media seeks to establish an interaction between the various types of media elements, to engage, to interact and to encourage the customer to interact with you and the company.

Communications have changed in the last decade and print is no longer the overriding medium used to communicate with the customer but it still has an integral role to play in the process of marketing your services and products.

What makes cross media distinct from its other siblings is its ability to “interact” on line.

Unlike paper, which is intrinsically valuable to hold and touch, you can’t interact with paper in the same way as you can on social media platforms.

Paper still offers value and in a co-ordinated marketing campaign can be used very effectively with social media channels.

There are more channels of communication through to the customer than there were five to seven years ago – the internet, mobiles, smartphones, tablets, email, social media all are instant and results can be measured to provide a deeper understanding of the customer making the interaction highly personalised and specific.

In contrast a direct mail piece arrives on your doorstep and the consumer might read it if the headline is captivating and the call to action is convincing enough for him to take the next step – make a free phone call, fill in and send back, whatever the call to action is at that moment, the customer interaction may well become irrelevant in a matter of minutes, unlike social media where interaction is here, now and very relevant.

Having a dialogue on line with a customer or prospect produces results that are defined and measurable.

What makes a campaign become a cross media campaign is how the responses are funnelled into a single data collection point which in turn iniates the first step in dialogue with the customer.

The interaction is the key feature here how to continue and maintain that dialogue with the prospect and convert them in to a paying customer.

Cross media marketing can include variable laser/data printing, PURL’s (personalised URL’s) video web podcasts/webinars, email campaigns and social media.

Variable data print can include a direct mail piece with a printed PURL on paper which then directs the reader back to electronic communication – the internet via a QR code which can be scanned with a smartphone.

Posters, brochures, leaflets anything that can be highly personalised with the customers name, company and a content specific message make the customer interation highly personalised and individualised.

And although print media might be losing out to its social media counterpart it still retains a unique yet visible position in the cross media marketing mix.

Using paper in a strategically defined and structured cross media marketing plan – in other words being clear on the offer to the consumer, having a clear market strategy and focus and providing convincing calls to action will move the audience or customer across the various media channels enhancing their experience and encouraging them to move to the next platform.

An example might be a Pizza restaurant giving away leaflets with a QR code which when scanned takes the audience to a PURL which allows them to enter a unique and highly personalised code printed on the leaflet, which in turn offers a 2 for one pizza on the next visit and then takes them to a social media channel where they can register, like or subscribe for free cinema tickets.

Each touch point builds on the experience and engagement with the customer teasing them to move on to the next platform.

Using a PURL motivates the audience to provide more personalised information about their needs and interests because it feels personal to them.

PURL’s used in conjunction with cross media platforms provide actionable data and intelligence on the audience you are seeking to engage with. Because the message is more personalised and customer centric moving your audience to the relevant social platform where you can continue the social conversation and hopefully maintain an on-going relationship

By collecting and understanding what to do with the data determines what the next call to action should be in your on-going dialogue with the customer. More importantly it is a fundamental part in measuring your ROI (return on the investment spent in/on your media campaign)

Finally, where does cross media fit in with print?

Digital printing is helping companies to capitalise on cross media by being able to produce variable short runs at low cost where every piece of paper can be unique to the individual. Print is tactile, secure, reliable and isn’t so intrusive as social media can be.

What makes print and cross media so effective is its ability to link to electronic media successfully.

Your entire marketing mix is inter-connected and inter-related working toward driving traffic toward the website generating leads for your business with the intent to provide sales and business.

How does your cross media marketing campaign work for you? Are you doing this already? Is cross media marketing just another fancy term used for what we already do in social media?

What do you think? Please share your view with us below.

Coming next week: The Power of Personalisation

To subscribe to our updates please leave us your email address. You can find us on twitter, facebook connect with us on linkedin, google+ and Pinterest.

What do I mean by this?

Why does content marketing suck?

Where does print fit into the social media mix?

How are using print for your content marketing?

How do you see it fitting in with your marketing strategy? Please do share your thoughts, I’d love to know what you think.

Related posts:

Imagine a highly personalised variable printed or online newspaper tailored specifically for your reading needs?

What do you think?

Is paper and print dead or can it work with its digital counterparts?

Keep up to date with our latest news by following us on twitter, facebook, Pinterest and connect with us on Linkedin and Google+.

What is the difference between marketing personalisation and customisation?

Why is data so important?

What is the point of marketing personalisation?

It is clever personalised and strategic marketing because each invoice they email out is highly targeted and specific to the recipient.

Content is king

What next?

How does marketing personalisation fit in with print?

What do you think?

How do you use personalisation in your marketing strategy?

What has worked for you and what didn’t?

Share with us your experience.

You can follow us on twitter, facebook and pinterest and connect with us on linkedin and google+ for updates. Please do because we like to share.

Finally, where does cross media fit in with print?

How does your cross media marketing campaign work for you? Are you doing this already? Is cross media marketing just another fancy term used for what we already do in social media?

What do you think? Please share your view with us below.

Coming next week: The Power of Personalisation

To subscribe to our updates please leave us your email address. You can find us on twitter, facebook connect with us on linkedin, google+ and Pinterest.

Related posts: