I remember some years ago preparing to present a sales training course and on the first day, when driving to it and wondering if my content was on the money, I pulled up at a roundabout behind a four wheel drive. On the spare wheel cover on the back of the vehicle, and right in my line of vision, were the words “So what’s stopping you”?
This became my opening position in the training session and we spent some time, before launching into the content that I had prepared, discussing what was stopping them achieve their goals. In fact we discovered that not too many of them actually had any goals at all. It’s true that if you don’t know where you are going then you will end up somewhere but it may not be in the right place.
Similarly with direct marketers, many are going through the motions but don’t really have a clear understanding of where they really want to be. I recently asked a person when discussing opportunities available what was his marketing strategy and without a great deal of conviction he answered that all they did was advertise in the local newspapers. I asked if he knew what the response to those expensive ads was and he was unable to provide any substantiation that the ads were in fact working at all.
Multichannel marketing provides tools that enable you to totally track the effectiveness of every campaign and provide you with clear indications of what the return on your investment really is. This gives you the ability to understand which method is best to use to reach your market and how to actually get there.
In today’s market it is vital to understand the various channels available that can be used to reach your market. David Ogilvey, the direct marketing guru said “If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.”
These days local newspaper readership is dwindling significantly, and so why keep on advertising in a dying medium? Understanding your target audience is essential to your success and using “their language” is critical to that success. For instance how many people under the age of thirty actually read a newspaper let alone a local newspaper? On the other hand how many are on Facebook or Twitter or receive messages on their smart phone?
The use of multichannel marketing techniques enable you to reach your audience, diverse as most are, in the most appropriate way and to test the various channels to get the results that you are looking for. Combining those channels in the right way will also improve results enabling customers and prospects to take the action they have been called to take.
Working with an organisation that understands marketing requirements and how to put multichannel output together is critical to the success of your campaign. Find the right organisation and your overheads and management issues will be reduced which will be reflected in an improved return on your investment.