Advertisers missing the mark
Modern marketers often disagree about what advertising medium is the most effective in terms of customer returns. In doing this, however, companies are failing to address other important components of marketing strategy, namely: consistency, frequency and variety.
In a recent report published by Forrester Consulting, research shows 18 percent of marketing organizations value growing long-term relationships with customers as their top goal, according to Direct Marketing News. Another 18 percent claim their top goal is to enhance the customer experience across multiple channels and touch points. But despite valuing how a company interacts with and is perceived by customers, businesses are still failing to implement marketing strategies that foster customer-business relationships.
Consistency
Companies send all types of mailers. Perhaps one is a newsletter and the other is a holiday sale promotion, but whatever the motivation behind a piece of mail, one thing should always remain the same: how it looks. That's not to say every marketing material sent out should be identical, but companies should provide customers with some semblance of constituency - a similar look and feel and a familiar tone. If a targeted customer hears the same message the same way over and over again, he or she will be more likely to spread the word about a business and more capable to articulate that message in a way the advertising company would approve of.
To help manage consistency, businesses can invest in Web-to-print solutions. Web-to-print can assist companies in consolidating print operations, streamlining the entire process with a single browser-based platform.
Frequency
Companies selling different products and services will inevitably have different needs when it comes to frequency of marketing, but as a general rule, advertisers should try to reach out to primary markets twice monthly, secondary markets monthly and at least once every quarter for tertiary markets. By establishing dependability of frequency, companies are simultaneously promoting brand awareness.
Variety
One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is dedicating entire campaigns to a single promotional mailer. To keep customers engaged - in a sense, to maintain a better relationship - businesses need to ensure their marketing strategies include a diverse array of material, and not just in regards to medium. Instead of a lone activity, like sending a mailer promoting an upcoming sale, companies should combine a series of activities designed to function in concert, like sharing a monthly newsletter and then hosting a public relations event.
To further aid in helping design more efficient and effective marketing campaigns, organizations would be wise to employ the use of address correction systems. By taking advantage of the software, businesses can ensure the integrity of mailing addresses upon entry by automatically validating, correcting and standardizing all addresses.