As you may know, multi-channel marketing is one of the more effective methods of reaching and communicating to customers. The thing is, multi-channel campaigns tread on a thin wire between effectively “communicating to” and “blasting” customers.

As some of you may know, the Cross Media West Conference, part of PMA 2010, is coming up in a couple of weeks. It is a one day event with a focus on multi-media integration. There will be exhibits and presentations dedicated to various aspects of cross media marketing: VDP, web-to-print, multi-channel strategies, personalized urls etc… more details

As a multi-channel/cross media technology provider, we have witnessed many great and successful campaigns launched by our customers … and then there were some that… I wouldn’t call a complete failure, but are not really a success.

“Then HOW do I launch a successful multi-channel campaign?” you may ask. Well, quite frankly, there is no single correct answer to the “how” question. It is rather a series of answers to a series of other questions that will give you the answer to the “how” question.

More than often, multi-channel campaigns don’t achieve successful results, because not enough questions were answered before answering the “how” question.

Here is a list of questions I have compiled from some of the customers who have launched multiple successful campaigns…

Seth Godin has a book about the lies marketers tell, do you agree with the premise?

Yesterday, I had a refreshing conversation with a non-marketer friend about the perception of marketers and of marketing campaigns. With no knowledge of the book by Seth, she came to the same conclusion that all marketers are liars.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably disagree with this statement.

For us, every other marketer is a liar, seems to be more applicable here. Yet, the simple fact is, sometimes we get so entrenched in marketing speak, industry jargon and hype, that we forget the basic function of marketing is to engage, educate and enrich customers.

Going back to this basic function, you’ll do well to apply the “so what” test to your marketing.

Every line you write, every tagline you like, every campaign theme you design, apply the “so what” test and see if it is still relevant. Often you only have a few seconds to capture your audience, if it does not pass this simple go-no-go test, then scrap it.

Sometimes campaign data is like a clock that’s too fast or too slow. It gives you a good impression of what time it currently is, but without knowing how much faster or slower it is, you can’t be precise.
Sometimes data works in a similar way. The data you have of your customer may at times be [...]

As the demand and limits of variable data publishing (VDP) continue to advance, more questions arise. Most of you understand the concept of VDP, but some of you may be wondering about the following…

One of the keys to succeeding in cross media marketing is “relevance.” If you religiously follow marketing blogs and news sites, you have probably read more than enough articles and posting about “relevance.” If not, here are some postings/articles you should consider reading:

Relevance in Marketing - Rohit Bhargava @ WebProNews
The Importance of Marketing Relevance - William King @ Content Caboodle
B2B Marketing in 2010: Focus on Three Key Issues - Mark Eardley @ The Long Hello
Email marketing content ‘to become more relevant’ - @ DirectNews
This is Getting Personal… - Michael Fleischner @ The Marketing Blog

The thing is, most of them only review the importance of relevance, and very few actually explore the logistics of implementation. I recently came across an article on DM News that focuses on the three biggest hurdles to achieving relevance in marketing…

No matter what the focus of your marketing efforts are in the new year, email will be essential. Weather it is a social media, integrated marketing campaigns, or surveys etc… email will be the core of your communication stream.
Just like you, your prospects and customers are too busy to notice and/or respond to every email [...]