Because they target customers across multiple channels, multichannel marketing campaigns are an effective strategy to breakthrough advertising clutter and capture customer and prospect interest. Multichannel campaigns can also help to generate measureable results through integration with technologies such as PURLs and QR codes. As we move into the New Year, here are some creative ideas to help you get a head start on planning your February multichannel campaigns.
Theme: Winter Home Improvement
Sample Industries: Building Products, Financial Services
• Issue a multichannel campaign to building products customers to help reduce last year’s inventory.
• With a majority of customers unable to work on outdoor projects through the winter months, take advantage of seasonality to offer special financing and deals on kitchen and bathroom renovation products or services or use Super Bowl 2013 (Feb. 3) as a draw for purchasing and installing home theater products before the big game.
• Promote discounts and incentives on winter home improvement projects through a multichannel strategy including customer emails, newsletters, direct mailers, in-store vending posters, and newspaper advertising inserts.
• Leverage PURLs and QR codes as the vehicle for redeeming discounts on products and/or services or to dynamically schedule renovation work.
Theme: Customer Appreciation
Sample Industries: Auto Manufacturers, Auto Repair, Financial Services, Fitness Centers, Weight Management
• Segment accounts by last interaction date and invite inactive customers to return with an extra incentive or gift – use a tie-in with Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) to show customers you love (and miss) their business.
• Link the gift or incentive to a measurable component such as a PURL or QR code to measure campaign effectiveness.
• Enroll customers who have not responded after a period of two weeks in a follow-up campaign through your MRM system.
• Issue communications through multiple channels including email and direct mail to increase conversions and consider A/B testing to explore which messaging versions are most effective as measured by conversions or redemptions.
Theme: Heart Disease Awareness and Heart Health
Sample Industries: Fitness Centers, Food Manufacturers, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Hospitals and Clinics, Weight Management
• Run a multichannel campaign with direct mailers and a PURL or QR code component to promote heart health in honor of Heart Awareness Month and help prevent heart disease, the leading cause of death among women and men in the U.S. Include the latest stats and facts from the CDC and the warning signs of a heart attack.
• Use PURLs or QR codes to offer an incentive for scheduling an annual physical, health screening or blood pressure check, or to offer discounts and incentives on heart healthy foods, fitness classes, or gym memberships.
Theme: New Account Enrollment/Customer Acquisition
Sample Industries: Financial Services, Health Insurance, Life Insurance
• Issue a multichannel campaign to new prospects encouraging new account enrollment and define goals for new customer acquisition and campaign messaging with Sales up front.
• Distribute the campaign via email and direct mailers with an integrated QR component linked to a web form where prospects can apply for a new account and/or quote, then measure the number of new customers who responded to the campaign on the back-end.
• Schedule a follow up continuity campaign with three touches over the next quarter to help convert new customers on an ongoing basis. Use the data captured to refine your marketing mix over time.
Conclusion
February brings many timely opportunities to connect with customers and prospects and generate new business through creative multichannel marketing campaigns that can be scheduled, managed and distributed from your MRM system. To improve campaign effectiveness, multichannel campaigns should be developed collaboratively with Sales, while messaging versions should be tracked and evaluated over time to improve conversion rates and adjust the marketing mix accordingly.
At DocuStar (now Vya), we have extensive experience helping client marketing teams execute highly targeted marketing campaigns through the integration of digital marketing technology and variable data printing. Need help planning and executing your next multichannel campaign? We can help! Let us know via our Contact Us page and someone from our team will be in touch to follow up.
