Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
John Foley, Jr. Speaking at Print Delivers Boston
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on Friday, October 21, 2011 
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We are quite excited to announce that we’ll be attending and participating in the Print Delivers Boston event on October 26th.
Our CEO John Foley, Jr. will be delivering a presentation on the following topic –Integrating Print in a Multi-Channel World.
Here is a description of what John will be covering:
What role does print play in today’s marketing landscape? John will demonstrate ways that companies can effectively integrate print with channels such as social media, mobile, and the web. He will provide practical applications and case studies on how marketers can effectively leverage new technologies to improve the effectiveness of their printed materials.
If you are interested in attending to hear John speak, as well as the other presenters from companies including the US Postal Service, Xerox, Heidelberg, click here for details.
If you are un able to attend make sure to follow @JohnFoleyJr, @GrowSocially, or@interlinkONE on Twitter to hear snippets of the presentation as well as updates on future events.
Tags Can Social Networks Drive Offline Activity?
I recently had the privilege of speaking at the “Marketing 2.0 Tools and Technologies” event in Plymouth, MA. It was put on by the wonderful folks at the Plymouth Chamber and Curley Direct.
There were certainly a wide range of businesses represented in the audience — some from large organizations, others that own small Mom & Pop shops on Main Street. But regardless of the size of the business, I talked to a few people that are questioning whether it’s worth it for them to incorporate social networking into their marketing efforts.
While I do hope that I was able to provide a compelling argument and some useful ideas on how they could benefit by having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc., I think this recent eMarketer chart may help too:
Your social networking activity does not guarantee a sale. But truth be told, you are not guaranteed that a sale will come when you send out an email blast, a direct mail piece, or buy an advertisement.
To succeed in today’s world of marketing and communications, we must work harder than ever to reach prospects and consumers via the right channel, at the right time, and with the right content. If we are willing to do that, then we may be able to experience some of the actions mentioned in the chart above.
The Benefits of Integrated Marketing
When it comes to creating multi-channel marketing efforts, companies certainly need to have the right technology and tools. For example, they need a solution for doing things such as
- Creating personalized URLs
- Sending emails
- Sending and managing SMS/Text-messages
- Building landing pages
- Entering leads from a Business Reply Card, a trade show, or another event
- And more…
To do that, some companies do by separate point solutions for each channel that they are trying to use. However, this approach often leads to headaches and trouble when it’s time to train employees, compile reports, maintain branding and consistency, and export & import data.
In this video, interlinkONE’s CEO John Foley, Jr. discusses the benefits that companies can receive by taking an integrated marketing approach to their activities. We hope that you enjoy John’s tips!
Channels that talk to each other
While reading the August 17th, 2009 edition of DMNews, I came upon a great quote. Here it is:
“It is the mantra of multichannel that everything has to be integrated”. This was said by Alex Betancur, VP and general manager of the PCH Online Network at Publisher’s Clearing House.
The article discusses how companies are merging traditional and not-so-traditional channels in their marketing efforts. It talks about using billboards in conjunction with mobile marketing efforts.
Perhaps you are also looking at using different channels to promote your company, product, or service. If you are, that is great news! But I would encourage you to keep in mind the quote from Alex Betancur.
Go multichannel…. but stay integrated.
Without integration, you risk delivering messages that are inconsistent, that may not have proper branding, and that could make a bad impression on your target audience. Sure, each channel may be used to reach people a bit differently. The tone and creative may be slightly different. But if your email efforts are encouraging a long-time customer to “sign up now”, you are asking for trouble. Or if your social media site tells someone to go to Booth 1235 at the trade show, and the direct mailer says Booth 4531, you have created confusion.
But on the other hand…………. If you can have all of your marketing efforts pull from and populate a central repository, then you can truly execute and measure very successful integrated, multichannel marketing campaigns.
