Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Benefits of Integrated Marketing
Posted by 
on Friday, March 12, 2010 
at 9:12 AM 
in A recent article in DMNews helped put the spotlight on the benefits of integrated marketing.
The article, which is a great read, focused on non-profits. However, the challenges they face are quite similar to those of businesses both large and small.
Does this sound familiar to you at all? —- “…databases can be cumbersome, and accessing constituent information in real time isn’t something many organizations can do, Regen adds, noting that many nonprofits also aren’t organized for integrated marketing, with their structures, cultures and communications inhibiting cohesion“.
While some of those challenges may seem daunting to overcome, an integrated marketing approach can absolutely help. Here are 3 of the main benefits listed in the article that come from integrating marketing activities:
- Access Data in Real-Time
- Wisely Invest Your Money & Resources
- Produce a Higher ROI
Do those types of benefits sound familiar? Are they, perhaps, on your wish-list?
If so, an article like the one in DMNews may be just the inspiration you need to start integrating your marketing activities — from direct mail to e-mail to SMS to QR Codes and more.
Tags Using QR Codes in your Marketing
On March 11, 2010, Mobile Commerce Daily featured an article on QR Codes from interlinkONE’s President/CEO John Foley, Jr.
The article was entitled “Tips for using QR codes in Marketing”. In the article, John provides a few basic strategies for companies that are looking to push the usage of QR Codes forward.
Here is a link to the full article: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/tips-for-using-qr-codes-in-marketing/
What Social Media is To Me
I am certainly a huge fan of Social Media. Over the past few years, it has helped increase awareness of our company, its employees, and our products. I recently commented on a post in PrintJunkie.net, and I wanted to share those sentiments here as well:
The core to Social Media for me is this: Trust is earned, and relationships are built over time. So in this sphere of marketing I try and use the tools to gain trust and build a relationship. I try my hardest to put information out there to help others grow their business.
I’m a marketer and a business fanatic. I greatly enjoy the prospect and opportunity of helping others as well.
I’m posting and sharing information that is not always about me or my company, (99% not) but rather information that may be relevant to people that matter. Even the 1% or so is about sharing information that I still think is relevant even though another employee wrote it on behalf of the company. I’m hoping the information I share exposes my knowledge, and also our employees knowledge which can be picked up over time. If folks want to learn more about my company so be it. But they do know firsthand my thoughts on the subject matter, who is behind the company, what our employees do, the inner workings of who we are, and yes, interested folks can go find out what we do.
So it is myself and these folks… The employees in our company are empowered to use Social Media. NO policies either! This is not a leap of faith, this is part of today’s business. Iit is not discretionary in my mind. The funny part is we have been doing this all along in other marketing channels and using different medias. Yes before these tools came along, it was never sell – sell – sell for us. The difference is this environment allows us to possibly build more relationships in a broader and more meaningful way.
So — use social media to build relationships trust. And as @chrisbrogan put it, “Stop talking about yourself!”
Have a great, productive day folks!
If you wish – follow me on twitter
http://www.twitter.com/johnfoleyjr or @johnfoleyjr
interlinkONE to discuss QR Codes & Social Media at the PINE Digital Forum
We are the excited to announce that we will be participating in the PINE Digital Forum on March 25, 2010.
John Foley Jr., President and CEO of interlinkONE, will be speaking on the subject of “How to Use Social Media to Build Your Business.”
Also, Jason Pinto of interlinkONE will be on the panel for the subject of “QR Codes: Augmented Reality and other Mobile Marketing Opportunities”
The forum is being held at PINE Headquarters in Southborough, MA
Here is an overview of what John will be discussing:
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook- these sites are growing in popularity in all vertical markets and are being leveraged to promote printing and marketing services. In this session John presents advice on how to use these social media sites to grow your print and marketing services provider business. He presents real-world scenarios and shares the pros and cons of each of these popular sites.
For more information about the PINE Digital Forum, you can visit their website at http://www.pine.org/Education/digital_forum.html
QR Codes: Reporting Capabilities
We recently recorded a new video that walks through the features and benefits available to registered users of QReate & Track.
Everyone can create QR Codes for free… However, only registered users have access to the real-time reporting dashboards.
Here is a quick video that walks through the features available to registered users:
