Where Can We Find Multichannel Synergy?

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Posted by Marc Kline

We are big advocates of multichannel marketing. After all, what is email marketing but another way to communicate with prospects and customers?

Of course, there are qualities that make it quite unique, such as its cost effectiveness and its timeliness, but whether we’re getting subscribers from our websites, driving traffic to our blogs and order pages, or encouraging subscribers to visit our physical locations, email does our businesses its biggest favor in combination with other channels.

An Recent Example of Success

A recent article we found over at Direct Magazine (by way of Mark Brownlow) describes a good example of how one retailer used email with another channel to achieve a significantly improved sales response over just email.

In a controlled study, one group received both a card by postal mail along with an email, while the other received only email. The retailer, BareNecessities, found a 15% increase in their sales for the combined group over the email only group.

So, the coordinated postcard seems to have increased on the efforts of the email, and we might assume that the postcard would not have performed the same without the email.

Does A + B = More than C?

Beyond the ways the success of different channels tend to depend on one another (e.g. our blogs with syndication), these types of results beg a few questions in my mind:

How much more can our businesses benefit when we execute a planned mix of different marketing touch points for a single, focused campaign?

With a planned campaign working on a single goal, how much do the advantages of each individual channel used combine to reach a synergy, where the benefit of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?

Above and beyond simply using these channels, what methods — such as strong coordination that this article mentions — can we employ to maximize results?

What role (or roles) does email tend to best play in the equation?

What formula has your business found the most success with? Please join the discussion in the comments.

Tags: multichannel marketing

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8 Responses

Anthony Foster
December 4th, 2007 at 10:57 am

An interesting article. Direct mail will never die, and to use it to compliment email is a masterstroke
elliot
December 4th, 2007 at 7:30 pm

When should direct mail lead email and when should email lead direct mail…or…what are the pros and cons of the two options…
Marc Kline
December 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am

Elliot,

In the linked study, the email and postal mail campaigns seem to have been targeted to hit at around the same time, though this is not clearly stated in the article.

I can’t offer any insight about the ordering of messages through different channels, because I haven’t run or read any tests myself, but perhaps others can chime in with any experience(?)

Regardless of the order, as this article suggests, the most important factor in success would seem to be coordination:

* Using each as a medium to communicate the same campaign
* Making sure we’re sending through each channel to the same people

But of course, we can’t assume that each and every person is going to see or hear each communication just because we target them, so we may also want to make sure that each communication stands on its own two legs and we don’t take for granted that they’ve seen each of our other communications.

So, as for the pro’s and con’s, by virtue of coordinating through multiple channels we might maximize the pro’s - by hitting prospects with multiple touches through different mediums - and minimize the con’s - if one of our channels doesn’t make it to them or stick, maybe the other(s) will.
Florence
December 5th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

Most people will agree that they just don’t get to go through all their mail. Many will also agree that they do not have time to read all their emails. Therefore what your article recommends makes lot of sense. In the long run, you can targeting the same audience via two different channels and what doesn’t reach them throught one medium, you just might get their attention in a different way.
Bill White
December 11th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

My area of expertise is the subject of synchronicity. Synchronicity meaning "meaningful coincidence" can be very well replicated by methods like you describe. If a person keeps running into your message through various channels on a subconscious level they will take this as a "sign" they should pay attention. Synchronicity and good marketing require the use of time and timing. I would say from studying this phenomena in metaphysical terms that if you cluster the messages so that they reach the recipient in bursts you will find they deliver more impact and get a greater degree of response.

This means the timing of the pieces should be close enough together that the repetition is a noticeable pattern. I’d say more than 2-5 days apart would be too far to build the effect, but simultaneous might play out as contrived.

There are plenty more mediums to explore beyond email and postcards. Don’t forget television, radio, billboards and other avenues as well.
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Barbara Bix
April 29th, 2008 at 11:32 am

As a business to business marketing consultant, I’ve found that multichannel synergy significantly shortens the sales cycle. Many people will not open email from strangers. Hence, getting the initial contact may require a referral from a trusted source–or speaking at a conference or writing in a journal that are the prospect trusts to provide valuable content. That said the least expensive way to follow up–and create the 7 impressions it takes to create an impact and generate trust is often email. The trick is ensuring that each email provides value and that the prospect can easily anticipate the value based on the subject line. I encourage each of my clients to develop an ongoing email campaign to move prospective customers through the buying cycle. It’s a great way to get people the information they require at each stage from raising awareness, to creating a sense of urgency, to helping them validate that you’re the vendor for them. Moreover, as another commenter points out, everyone buys differently so if you don’t use multimedia you may miss some of your contacts.