Keeping Print in the Mix

As more marketers and businesses turn to alternative media in lieu of print for their business communications needs, they often miss an opportunity to improve the customer experience when they leave print out of the mix.

Integrated marketing uses a number of touch points to get the marketer’s message across in the most effective manner, and print can be effectively used as one of those touch points.

Perhaps the campaign starts with an email that encourages interested recipients to visit a personalized URL. This can go to thousands, even millions, of recipients. When interested recipients visit their personalized URL, the marketer will use an attractive offer to get recipients to provide more information about them. This allows the marketer to update their databases with more information, and more finely tune their communications to specific individuals or groups.

To keep the dialog going, a high-quality versioned postcard can be mailed to these qualified segments with yet another offer or additional information that the recipient will find of value. This way, the business is using the less expensive email medium to narrow the field, and investing in high quality print for those who are likely to become sources of revenue.

Email---website offer to collect information---fine tune content---postcard offer to qualified buyers

Thomas Miner

President of Bartleby Press Austin, Texas