Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Looking for the Right Mix
Posted by 
on Friday, January 29, 2010 
at 10:11 AM 
in 
When it comes to friendships and relationships, nearly all of us seek out people from the past.
Sites such as Facebook have made it easier than ever to connect with people from our high school years. We all must admit to getting a little rush as we search and find an old buddy or a former crush that we haven’t seen in years.
Why do we look to the past?
Often, it’s because we have good memories. Sure, we may greatly enjoy where we are in life today. We may love the new people in our lives and the opportunities that have been opened up to us.
However, there’s something about the “old days” that we may look to cling onto.
Marketing And The Good Old Days
The same attitude should apply to our marketing activities. However, it may not come as naturally.
In the world of marketing, we are often attracted to what will happen next — we are constantly looking forward and pushing to ensure we take advantage of new channels and ways to communicate with prospects and customers.
This can be a very good thing.
Looking forward may help us to beat our competition… It may help us to save money and reach new people… It can help position us a leader.
However, we need to still take the time to look for “old friends”. What worked for us one, two, or even 5 years ago may seem ancient compared with our new, favorite marketing channel. However, there’s a good chance that a portion of our target audience may still prefer communication via a more traditional marketing channel.
It might be print. It could be a phone call. It could be a TV or radio ad.
If that is our audience’s preferred method of communication, we need to find ways to honor that.
The Right Mix
Certainly, solely clinging to old friends will not help us to succeed in life. We need to balance “the good old days” with where we are in life today.
The same principle applies to our marketing efforts: If we find a way to create the right mix in between traditional and new channels, we will give ourselves an opportunity to succeed.
Tags Marketing Automation – Best Practices
The term “marketing automation” is a mouthful – but it’s one that is worth repeating. Using technology to build a marketing campaign and send out consistent, relevant messages in an efficient, cohesive manner is always a good thing! So if you’re a little tech-hesitant, don’t get scared off by the term. Because marketing automation is really all about making your marketing easier on you and more effective overall. In fact, there are several things that are really important when it comes to marketing automation:
1 – The gathering of data that can be used to target your audience in a relevant and valued way. Think about all the information that could be collected about your target market. And think about how much could be collected over a period of time. That kind of information is worth its weight in gold, don’t you think? To be able to see the habits of your audience, pre-determine their decisions based on historical data…it’s all a gold mine at your fingertips. Marketing automation software allows this data collection and analysis and it’s obvious how important this information is for your future marketing campaigns. Why shoot in the dark for leads when you don’t have to?
2 – The ability to build a multi-channel campaign that reaches the target market within the channel they are in and the media in which they use. Your audience resides in a vast universe. And not all of your prospects will respond to a message sent via a single channel. Imagine resting your marketing campaign on a banner ad. Okay, so the banner ad is on several highly visible sites that your audience frequents. And the banner ad is actually pretty cool and you’ve received great feedback when you’ve tested it. But not everyone clicks on banner ads. And many people may turn a blind eye to them after cruising the internet for too long. Multi-channel campaigns allow you to send a consistent marketing message across several channels. Email. Direct mail. Text messages. Larger campaigns that seemed unmanageable with your current manpower are within your grasp when you implement automated marketing software.
3 – The development of an information map for your audience. You can make it easy for your prospects to find the information they need by having a clear call to action and the ability to follow through. Landing pages, personalized URLs…when your call to action is combined with an offer, your prospects are induced to move, heading to the automated responses that you have set into place. And in fact, as they move forward and receive those automatic responses, your sales team is in the wings, waiting to work the warm and hot leads.
4 – The ability to score your leads. Not every lead is equal. Some people are ready to buy. Some need more time and information. Some are just looky-loos. And you don’t have the time or resources to waste on the leads that aren’t ready. So one of the best things about automated marketing software is the lead scoring capability, informing your sales team who is cold and who is hot!
5 – The measurement of campaigns. If you throw a marketing campaign out there you want to know what parts of it were a hit and what parts were a miss. Did the email message fall flat? Was the text message the best received? The more you can analyze, the better, because it will enable you to design and implement further campaigns that are even more successful.
My Choice Printing Technology Recognition Program
We could use your help. We are very happy to be one of the nominees in the “Vote Must See ‘ems: My Choice Printing Technology Recognition Program”.
If you could take a moment and cast your vote for interlinkONE’s “ilinkONE Version 8” Marketing Software, we would greatly appreciate it.
Here is where you can cast your vote: http://ilnk.me/170c
Thank you, and please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you.
Tools for Cycle Counting
Ah, the Cycle Count.
If you have ever worked in a warehouse that stored inventory, you are probably familiar with that term — as well as the hours that may go along with accomplishing that activity.
Cycle counts can prove very helpful when it comes to keeping inventory amounts accurate. They also contribute to a customer’s confidence level.
interlinkONE’s ilinkONE Version 8 software has solutions to help your warehouse team accomplish cycle counting.
It is integrated directly with our inventory management and online ordering features. Thus, you have access to whatever data you need in real-time.
An interlinkONE customer recently completed a major cycle count with our software. They reported that their customers were happy with the results, the counters were happy using the system to update the numbers, and the auditors commented favorably on the process and accuracy.
Also, by using interlinkONE’s cycle count tool, they cut the hours spent last year in half!
Here are a few screenshots from our Cycle Counting feature:
Cycle Counting: Control Panel
CycleCount: To Be Counted
If you have any questions about interlinkONE’s Warehouse Management software solutions, including Cycle Counting, Inventory Management, Pick Ticket & Packing Slips, Premium Restrictions, and more, please contact our team.
At a loss for words? Here’s what to say.
If you are currently wondering whether it would be valuable for your business to have a social media presence, the hen is out of the gate.
Today, your competitors are having success with Twitter and Facebook. They are making connections on LinkedIn. Their prospects are enjoying the content pushed out on the corporate blog.
Perhaps you realize that you need to also be doing these things… You know you need a Twitter account and a Facebook page. However, once you do that, what will you actually say?
eMarketer.com published a chart that may help.
If people follow your company on social media, you certainly should look into ways to reward them with specials and deals.
But it can’t just be about the dollar.
Find ways to share your company’s personality, whether it’s through pictures, videos, or anecdotes. Provide general information that will help people grow their business – even if it’s through a tool that is not provided by your company.
If you share information, people will be pleased. If you share information that they want and that will help them, you will have a fan and friend that keeps coming back for more.
Original URL for that Chart: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007476
