THE CLIENT - JAMES DAVEY, HEAD OF ONLINE, B&Q.
The key to understanding how to integrate email into other DM channels comes back to the basic fundamentals of direct marketing. If you have a personal medium such as email, why would you email the same piece to 3.5 million people when you are able to personalise the content?
On its own, when personalised, email is a powerful tool, but combined with other direct channels - as a precursor or successor to a statement run, for example - the results can go off the scale. This does require careful integration of the digital and offline channels so that the image and message remain consistent and the recipient recognises the link between them.
Email is brilliant at facilitating a two-way dialogue with the customer, but don't forget that customers are in control - they will decide how and when they engage with you so it is vital to identify and offer a range of response options regardless of channel. It comes down to good service, and that means making relevant communication options available to the customer at the point at which it truly matters.
THE AGENCY - DELA QUIST, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ALCHEMY WORX
If marketers are to maximise the impact of email within a multi-channel marketing strategy, they need to introduce it much earlier in the planning process. This will ensure that it can be designed, themed and executed in harmony with the more established channels, such as DM and outdoor.
If one of your aims is to create an ongoing dialogue with customers then the case for email as a central, rather than an extraneous, component strengthens; email becomes the glue which binds the channels around the customer.
Fully integrating email within a multi-channel strategy will require additional resources, particularly as email marketing is pretty labour intensive, so you may want to consider outsourcing some of the operational tasks, such as HTML coding or deployment, to a specialist email marketing agency.
Marketers should continue to use email tactically by all means, but to harness its true potential in a multi-channel environment, it needs to be introduced at the beginning of a strategic process, and not as an after-thought.
THE SUPPLIER - MIKE WESTON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SILVERPOP
As the economy tightens, buyers tend to need more reasons to make a purchase, and it is important to reach out to them in a variety of ways. Multi-channel marketing delivers a more consistent, persistent approach than delivering disparate messages in isolation. JupiterResearch reports that marketers using integrated tactics can boost revenues nearly fourfold.
For example, a Silverpop client selling branded calendars, sports schedules and notepads to businesses sent emails to notify customers about monthly direct mail flyers. The combination of the direct mail piece, which typically includes a product sample, coupled with email follow-up to prompt an order, had an immediate impact. Order volumes increased by 50 to 100 per cent immediately after the promotional emails.
No single medium exists in isolation as far as your customers and prospects are concerned, so reaching out to them with the same message through different channels helps reinforce your call to action. It's important to do everything you can to break through the clutter and be heard.
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