Accelerated by the widespread influence of the internet, communication channels have been growing—as has the obsession around them. While it can feel challenging to tackle something that is continuously evolving, just how important are these channels and what is their contribution to an effective communication/marketing campaign?
Channels are the vehicle of communication. They’re key to delivering the message, which is vital to have the chance at being heard by an audience. Still, even though they are part of the strategy, they should not be the strategy itself.
How to Pick a Communication Channel Strategy
There is so much obsession, competition, and importance around the channels that it’s not unusual for some marketers to track and try to decide which one to attribute a sale. In many cases, this might not make much sense as it will be like a salesperson trying to figure out which customer contact/visit they should attribute to the sale. All contacts and channels are important and contribute to a sale (unless not used properly).
The biggest issue is that this channel obsession drives some marketers to choose the channel first before the strategy. You might as well rent a vehicle without knowing where you are going or what you need to take with you. The sales and marketing strategy should drive the channels and not the other way around.
Marketers need to figure out first what they need to say, to whom, how often, and when…then they can choose the right channels to contact their audiences and deliver their messages. All the channels are relevant and have different strengths and weaknesses; therefore, the focus should be put on thoroughly understanding them without trying to pick an ultimate winner (which exhausts a large amount of time and resources). Marketers can then improve their effectiveness by using the most relevant ones for any given strategy or campaign.
For the most part, campaigns succeed not just because of the channel. There are many other components that are as important or more. Now, if someone insists that they want to know the best and most powerful channel of all time, it is without a doubt word of mouth. When the marketer can use someone else to promote and sell their products/services to that someone else’s known audience, that is priceless.
Enabling Personalization Is Key for Communication Channels
While some marketers obsess with finding the winning channel, their audiences are screaming for helpful and relevant personal content (as shown in the chart below).
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Sad to see that some marketers do not listen to their audiences, as personalized printing materials only accounted for a very low percentage of the total printing shares on a different Keypoint Intelligence survey.
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It is not surprising that many marketers aren’t comfortable with personalization. Their go-to has always been generic messages to reach as many people as possible. It is fair to say that a personalized campaign requires a greater strategy with additional time and effort. Some might even think this means a greater budget, but that is not necessarily true. What it means is that as the quality of the engagement gets better, the cost must grow. Then the number of contacts should be reduced to utilize the same budget as before personalization. This will increase the odds of being more helpful and relevant, which consumers demand—meaning the chances for more sales and better ROI are also greater. It is more effective to talk to a few that listen than being ignored by many.
It is imperative to balance marketing resources between all the components of strategy, implementation, and tracking. For example, when it comes to tracking, it’s often more effective to track who is responding and buying what, when, and where (as well as who isn’t responding or buying at all) versus trying to pick a winning channel (which often does not exist).
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
If you are a print service provider, the relevance of print and the mailbox as a communication and marketing channel stands up stronger when discussed from a strategy standpoint versus a printing product’s specs and price. Focus on the imperatives of marketing and communication (i.e., capturing attention, being relevant, and making it easy for people to buy) and you’ll see how print and its seamless connection to other channels is so powerful that it will take care of itself.
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