MULTI-CHANNEL COMMUNICAITONS

The Old Way

No matter how fabulous, how inexpensive or how ingenious your product or service is, one truth trumps everything you do to make your offering attractive: customers buy for their reasons, not yours. In that we, as marketers, can learn that all we can do is influence the decision to buy and do so by being in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. Wow. tall order. Knowing this, really large direct marketing campaigns use a concept called multi-channel. The idea is that, by broadcasting a message in multiple ways, mail, print advertising, radio etc., you increase the likelihood that your message will resonate with a prospect and that the prospect will be more likely to have your product or service in mind when she had a reason to make a purchase decision. Smaller marketers couldn’t afford multi-channel campaigns in the past, but with the advent of internet advertising, email and other new media, multi-channel is both more affordable and more important to every direct marketer.

The More the Merrier?

There’s real science behind the multi-channel approach. Psychology tells us that our brains register information for later recall that may be useful by association. The associations between a message and an experience are called anchors. Anchors are on our senses and experiences. An example of an association and an anchor might be that you smelled pizza when you heard an advertisement for a pizza parlor. The combination of the message plus the smell creates an association that increases the likelihood that, when you are hungry, you will recall the pizza parlor message and consider buying a pizza from that vendor. The same science also tells us that the more sensory anchors associated with a message, the more likely that our brains will recall that message when we make a related choice. Add a picture of a slice of pizza to the message you heard and the smell that you experienced and you further increase the likelihood of recalling the advertiser’s message when you’re making a choice about food. OK, now that you can’t get pizza off your mind, we can apply the same science to other forms of marketing. An email by itself may be effective, but it’s more likely to be effective if the recipient has also recently seen a banner advertisement for the same product or service. And response may further increase if an offline medium, such as a postcard was recently delivered, creating three different anchor points for the same message. So it really is a case of the more the merrier. The question is which mediums and how to coordinate them without driving yourself crazy.

Different Strokes

Because prospects buy for their reasons and not yours, it’s important to make sure that we, as marketers, are communicating with a message and in a way that increases the likelihood that a buying choice will be made. That’s where different media become important. Each has it’s own characteristics and place in the life of a prospect. A text message for instance is immediate, however its persistence is very low (it’s forgotten quickly). A postcard may take 2 – 3 days to deliver, but it also may find a spot on a bulletin board or on a prospects desk. Its persistence may influence a choice long after you send it. Online advertising can catch a prospect in a buying moment and provide a mechanism – the click through – to fulfill the choice to act. Likewise email, which is read in an office, at home or on the road can contain rich amounts of information and provide a means to take action. A multi-channel campaign should consider:

• Sequencing – the order in which prospects on a list receive messages in each medium
• Frequency – how often a message, or a slight variation on a message is repeated
• Richness – how much information can (should) be packed into the chosen communications medium
• Consistency – are all channels working together to broadcast the same message
• Medium – if a prospect has indicated a preference for certain mediums of communication, are they being used?
• Mix – which communications mediums make sense for the target demographic and message?

Managing It and Making It Work

Planning and organization are the keys to a well executed multi-channel marketing campaign. In the past a whiteboard or spreadsheet might have been used to track placements, drop dates, lists etc. Today a useful tool for managing multi-channel marketing campaigns is the online dashboard. The dashboard provides a snapshot of a database that keeps track of the content, creative, distribution channel, recipient(s), drop dates etc. for a multi-channel campaign. In addition to managing the outbound information about the campaign, the database can track responses. By analyzing response trends, marketers can develop profiles to guide future choices about sequencing, frequency, mix etc. to maximize the potential that a message reaches a prospect at the right time, in the right place with the right message to influence a buying decision. 

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