Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Taming the Digital Herd
Posted by 
on Thursday, July 8, 2010 
at 12:37 PM 
in Mailing Systems Technology recent published an article from our CEO, John Foley, Jr., titled “Taming the Digital Herd”. In the article, John discussed ways that companies can merge their print and mail communications with the multi-channel world.
Hopefully you caught the article in the print-edition of their magazine. But if not, we are happy to share with you a link to the electronic version.
Here is a summary of the article:
Communication today is nothing like it was 10 years ago — or even two years ago. We now receive messages from vendors, family, friends and even our dentist in a variety of ways. It might still be through a traditional phone call or a letter, but more often than not, it is via email, a text message, a post on our Facebook page or a tweet on Twitter. Today, there are so many vehicles for communicating, and most are driven by our ability to use the Internet and cell phones, technologies that allow us to communicate with one another no matter where we are in the world. Without a doubt, the emergence of web-based and mobile technologies have changed the game.
Tags Looking for the Right Mix
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.
