What are we telling customers about printing, digital media and digital marketing

A trusty vendor asked today; what are you telling your customers about all these changes and what to concentrate on?

We are telling our clients that now is the time to focus and fast-track growth in the two areas where we see the largest market opportunities to communicate to your customers and drive sales and that’s using print combined with digital media and digital marketing. Use your data! Mine your data! Make it work for you!

Focusing on integrating digital media and using marketing software tools and it will help you increase revenues.

In an economy that is slower-than-expected thinking about next year right now is key.

What separates us from most of the others and helps us make sure our customers succeed is a main benefit we provide...

Since we control both the hardware and software aspects of our business we can make things very proficient and cost efficient while giving our customers direct access to the most up to date tools and processes. All in one place.

You will get results.

Make the most of Digtial Print and Data.

When I look at all the new social sites that are entering the market place and I see the levels of funding committed to these endeavors; I sit back and think what does this mean for the CMO and EVP of marketing? 

The truth is that most of these interest don't have an impact on how a CMO can drive leads into the sales channels. The power of any campaign is with the data mined from you internally and this will provide you with a path forward. Today digital print actually saves money and increases response rates through personalization. Digtial Printing in concert with data is a springboard into true multi - channel campaigns. Social media is just one part of the campaign and the results are quantified in terms of views. If this is the objective then great, you did good; but really the C level suite is looking for revenue. How many qualified prospects or existing customers did you bring into the sales channel? If you can't answer that direct question in relation to the size of your marketing budget then... well you know.

I am fortunate to see so many different campaigns come through MLI but I have to say most are lacking from the standpoint of data. They take a detour from what the objective was originally designed to be. The path of data is a simple one; and being able to deliver customer personalized messages and promotions still has great impact and response rates. Check the stats for Personalized direct mail and you will see that it is still a top rated marketing investment. The problem most companies run into is; too much time is spent in the design phase and the data is almost an afterthought. Now, some of you reading this might think, "not us" but the truth is it happens.

Data is everything in today's marketing world. It not only provides direction for deployment but tracking the data is just as critical. It really comes down to how are you going to respond and can your campaign react to the results. If your prospect or customer responds and it take two weeks or more to follow up then something is broken.

Think as MLI.

A combination of "New" and "Traditional" media yield best results!

There is no denying the widespread use and remarkable impact of "new" media. It is enormously important in the lives of consumers, particularly Affluent’s, and is becoming more so. Further, any business that suddenly finds 20-30% of its best customers "experimenting" with less profitable options  will face important challenges and serving them.  We always believe that a blending of both New and Traditional methods are best.

In an interesting analysis this year…

Throughout 2011, AdAgeStat(Kraus& Shullman) professes while using  it’s Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer to track new and traditional media use among American Affluents. This monthly survey consists of more than 1,000 online interviews with respondents making at least $100,000 in annual household income -- in other words, the 20% of Americans who account for about 60% of U.S. income and approximately 70% of U.S. net worth. The survey was conducted between March and May 2011.

In the same way, it has been well-documented that younger consumers differ in their media-consumption patterns from their older counterparts, and certainly they have been earlier adopters and heavier users of some emerging and alternative platforms. But even today's younger generation shows the characteristic pattern of tending to consume media through its most traditional outlet, even as they show more cross-platform "experimentation." For instance, among those aged 18-34:

•88% read magazines in print, followed by 35% who read them online

•Newspapers show the greatest amount of experimentation -- 70% read newspapers in print, followed     relatively closely by 54% who read them online

•94% view video content on TV, followed by 35% who do so on computers

•93% read websites on computers, followed by 38% who do so on smarthphones

The moral of this story seems to be that those that can provide a combination of both new media and traditional media  is surely  to get the best results for their customers.

A Conversation with a Marketing Team.

So often we meet with a marketing team and of course the direction of the meeting is skewed as not to damaged the ego of those involved. The real questions are averted such as " Where are you getting you Data" and " Why can't IT provided you with this information" then it navigates toward a project time line that is frankly just silly. In the end the objectives of the campaign were not meet and the sales channels suffer.

The real questions are hard to answer and the truth is that its easier to organize and Ad agency then it is to look at the data, and determine who you are going to target, with what product or message. Data mining is key to any successful campaign and knowing how to deploy the data is even more important. The value of digital printing and web integrations can not be stressed enough, but the fact is that most companies do not know how to execute this type of campaign or to read the data results, this is a shame. Most companies are trying their hand in banner ads, which is great if you are looking for a response rate south of .09 or less. Look, traditional static direct mail can get better results any day of the week and you own the data.

In the end Digital print, Purls, Txt and digital assets are you 4 aces but like anything else in life if you play them to soon you will not get the ROI that you really should have received.

Think as JR.