8 things not to do

29/07/2011

Getting a cross media marketing campaign right isn’t easy. You need to use data, creative skills and campaign intelligence across different media to maximise the campaign experience. To help you get your cross media marketing campaign working successfully, here are eight mistakes you should avoid.

1. Don’t underestimate the importance of good data

Design, creative messaging and execution are important because they are highly visible. Equally important is the quality of your data. While you might not need vast amounts of information about each recipient to run a campaign, you do need good, clean, accurate data. Refine, cleanse, de-dupe and sort your data before it goes anywhere near your cross media marketing campaign.

2. Don’t make it complicated

Lots of people get very excited about the creative possibilities of cross media marketing. The result can be a highly creative but complicated campaign that either alienates or turns off the recipient. Don’t make the campaign so complex that he or she has no idea what you are offering, what they need to do and why they should do it.

3. Don’t go wild with the website

Make sure the personalised landing page is relevant, reads well and is not too complex or long. If it’s there to reinforce a message then make sure that message is seen first. If it’s there to collect data, then make sure it asks for info in bite-size chunks.

4. Integrate your technology

A personalised print mailer and a personalised web landing page will often be created using different technologies. This can result in different databases being used which in turn will bring the chance of error into the campaign. Make sure you integrate the message into the campaign and across all of the media being used. It’s just as important that all of the technology is integrated seamlessly to deliver a consistent and reliable campaign.

5. Involve the right skills at the right time

Don’t allow people to go off and create individual elements of the campaign at different times without a clear brief. This will only result in inconsistent and badly designed pieces that cannot possibly work together and which could increase campaign production costs enormously.

6. Don’t ignore the potential of a personalised website or PURL

Usually a cross media marketing campaign is created with a personalised website to back it up. The more campaigns you develop the more personalised websites a customer will receive. But don’t overlook the fact that a PURL is designed for the customer, not to meet the needs of the campaign. It should recognise the customer’s previous responses and show any new information.  It should know if this is a first visit or a return visit.

7. Don’t forget to track your campaign

You shouldn’t look on a cross media marketing campaign as a one-off piece of communication. Your campaign should be completely trackable in real time so that you can know exactly how successful (or otherwise) it is on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour or minute-by-minute basis. Try using a reporting system that lets you track across all forms of media, and in real time so that you can see what’s happening as the campaign rolls out.

8. Don’t forget that it is about relevancy and not personalisation

Customers don’t care how many times their name appears on a piece, or if it’s in a range of sizes and colours. What they want to know is, “Is this piece relevant to me? Is it telling me something that I want to know about? Is it offering me a product or service I need or want?” If not, then they will just think it’s junk mail. 

For more information on cross media marketing, call Dvid Thacker at Perspektiv on 0115 950 0510.