Multi-channel direct marketing uses targeted messages and timely results to maximize ROI
In today’s difficult economic climate, where unemployment rates continue to rise and consumer spending power continues to fall, a company’s marketing efforts can be the difference between keeping its ship afloat or watching it sink under the crashing waves. But with traditional mass marketing campaigns it typically takes months before you can really see if the campaign is working; which could mean months of wasted time and resources if it is not. So what’s the trick to finding marketing success without wasting all that time to test campaigns?
The answer is to move away from a mass marketing approach and look at targeted, one-to-one, multi-channel direct marketing. During challenging economic times especially, quality wins out over quantity. One-to-one direct marketing campaigns provide your customers with a personal touch that is customized to fit their needs, wants and lifestyle. Direct marketing also provides benchmarks to measure success quickly – because the effect of a direct marketing program is more easily measured. This allows you to make strategic decisions much more quickly, and provides you with the assurance that your dollars will be invested in high-return strategies.
However, many companies do not have the resources or expertise to begin a direct marketing campaign, because it is a new endeavor for them and marketing is not a core competency. In this case, it would be worth considering outsourcing marketing efforts to a marketing partner that has experience working with highly targeted consumer groups in many different markets, and utilizing the latest technologies to get messages out. While it might sound expensive, a good direct marketer can generate a high enough return on investment to actually pay for the program, and then some.
Based on your needs, a direct marketing company will come up with several solutions and channels that can deliver you the highest forecasted ROI possible. They can provide you with a full range of services to support new customer acquisition, existing customer retention (including customer care and technical support), existing customer share (upgrades, cross-sells and frequency increase), customer save strategy and customer win-back initiatives.
In addition, your partner will offer several different functional channels for contacting a customer in a one-to-one interaction, such as inbound and outbound teleservices, e-mail and internet marketing including personalized URL’s, and individually customized direct mail pieces. Your partner should also utilize business intelligence to help you target intricately selected audiences for acquisition programs and identify attributes of your existing customers through demographic overlays, predictive modeling and data enhancement.
The end result is that your customers and potential customers will get your personalized message the way they prefer to receive it at the time that is best for them – drastically increasing the chance of a favorable response.
While navigating your marketing efforts through this down economy can seem like sailing through rough waters, a direct marketing partner can serve as a lighthouse to guide you safely to your customers. The days of mass acquisition programs, where the entire database is marketed the same way, are coming to an end. Companies need to adapt in these changing times, or they risk being left behind.
About InfoCision
Our clients are the household names most consumers know and depend
on. As a leading provider of contact center solutions, we serve many
verticals from technology to health care to financial services to
pharmaceutical and telecommunications, as well as providing inbound and
outbound marketing for nonprofit, religious and political organizations.
No matter what market, we help establish brand, build customers, create
marketing strategies and integrate teleservices into the marketing mix.
Our customized core solutions can be deployed individually or combined
to create a multichannel strategy that includes inbound and outbound
teleservices, direct mail, fulfillment, email, Ecommerce, and business
intelligence to name a few. Founded in 1982, InfoCision employs more
than 4,000 in 35 call centers throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West
Virginia.