Benefits of combining physical and digital channels in direct marketing

The success of direct and promotional marketing has a lot to do with its ability to personalize messages. In this line, the combination of physical and digital channels is an essential tool that allows you to reach each customer at the best time, through their preferred medium, which strengthens their relationship with your company. The multichannel approach offers more personalization and other advantages that are worth knowing.

These are the points we develop to go deeper into the subject:

• Importance for direct marketing campaigns of the multichannel option and how it has evolved over time.
• Benefits of combining physical and digital channels: more reach, higher response rate, increased loyalty and more analytical tools and direct feedback.

It delves into the concept of direct marketing and its different strategies.

Companies have always had to make themselves known in order to be successful in selling their products or services. In this context, concepts such as advertising and marketing, which are not the same thing but are often confused, have arisen. The purpose of advertising is to publicize an article in order to stimulate its consumption. Marketing implies a much broader scope, whose ultimate goal is to establish a link between company and customer.

In fact, although marketing strategies, according to experts, emerged with the birth of the printing press, they took off in the 60s of the twentieth century. And from that moment on, it took advantage of the potential of combining all the technological advances of the time to reach a wider audience and make a greater impact. At that time, it made use of printed publications, radio and television.

It is the same that explains the importance of integrating physical and digital channels in today’s multichannel marketing strategies. Do not leave anyone potentially interested outside the communication radius! Traditional media are maintained and new generation media are being incorporated. These are some data that explain how this evolution has worked:

• 1994: first commercial spam.
• 1995: digital search engines begin to emerge and, with them, tools such as SEO.
• 1998: blogging was born, an essential tool in the creation of digital content for marketing campaigns.
• 2003: Facebook comes into our lives and with this platform begins the phenomenon of social networks. We only had to wait three years for the appearance of Twitter.
• 2009: Google starts real-time searches.
• 2010: Around 90% of Americans have a cell phone.

Start by discovering the differences between offline and online marketing.

Evolution of direct marketing towards multichannel marketing

We have established the context that leads to the evolution of direct marketing into a multichannel tool. A process in which four phases can be distinguished:

• Marketing 1.0: It acts with unidirectional strategies, using traditional physical channels (television, radio, press). Messages are focused on satisfying generic needs or even creating them in people who did not perceive them as such. The only objective is to increase sales.
• Marketing 2.0: Marks the emergence of two-way campaigns, in which the consumer begins to be taken into account as an individual entity. The goal goes beyond the sale of a product, it seeks to create an engagement with the customer, using messages with emotional values.
• Marketing 3.0: Progress is being made in this two-way communication, in which the focus is on the customer, knowing what he thinks and how he feels. The objective is not so much the sale, but the way in which the consumer interacts with the product.
• Marketing 4.0: Use of all offline and online channels putting “the customer in control”. Maximum personalization to build trust and increase loyalty.

You are interested in knowing what personalized marketing is and how it benefits your company.

It seems obvious, and this is demonstrated by the evolution of marketing, that the smartest thing to do in any promotional campaign is to use all the means a company has at its disposal.

Of course, it is especially important in direct marketing strategies, as can be seen from an analysis of its positive effects.

• Greater reach and precise segmentation
  A personalized strategy implies a detailed knowledge of audience segmentation in order to target campaigns to those sectors where it will be most effective. Segmentation yes, but reaching the largest number of people.
  It is clear that the use of offline and online channels allows reaching people who, excluding either of the two options, would be left out.
• Significant increase in the response and conversion rate
  Launching the right message, at the right time and through the most effective medium makes the recipient feel more involved and affected. We know that the feeling of belonging, of being taken into account, results in a greater response and identification of users.
• Improved customer experience and loyalty
  The user feels listened to, with a quick and direct response. Of course, this means that they feel more satisfied with their customer experience. If you have been treated so well, you have less incentive to change, you feel in your place, understood and satisfied.
• Budget optimization with combined strategies
  Tools like our portal MailShop Crossmedia portal allow the different departments involved in a marketing campaign (customer service, sales, advertising) to work together, using very simple processes that do not require advanced levels of knowledge to be implemented effectively.
• Advanced analytics and real feedback for continuous adjustments
  Direct marketing campaigns can be tracked in real time and in detail. If you facilitate feedback by letting the customer choose the channel they are most comfortable with, you increase their response.
  For your company, this translates into two important advantages. On the one hand, you have more information to adjust failures and improve the interrelationship. On the other hand, again, you respond more quickly and in a personalized way.

At MailComms Group we have been betting for years on the combination of physical and digital channels in direct marketing strategies.Contact us and we will put them at your disposal immediately!