“A cowboy rode into town on friday and left 3 days later on friday. How did he do it?”

I assure you the quiz question is relevant and it all has to do with the channel. It’s the same in marketing!

Elizabeth Gooding, the Digital Nirvana, recently discussed personalized URLs and how it should be used in conjunction with email and direct mail.

We’ve been touting the same message almost all year but we’re finding that the channels you use to reach your customers and how you put them together are becoming more important this year. Especially when more than ever, marketers need to show results and find a way to get the same response at less cost.

In her article, Elizabeth quotes a statistic provided by podi.org which indicates that

“Relevant campaigns generate, on average, 300% better response than those that are simply personalized”

Now imagine what that boost in response will be if it is personalized, relevant and continuous.

You may have a great campaign idea for a direct mail piece, complemented by a purl, but it is not enough until you have a plan for a multi-touch campaign. This means involving everything from email, purl, direct mail, reminder emails, sales calls, maybe even SMS that continues the two-way conversation between your brand and your customers.

Yes it may look more expensive adopting this multi-channel process, but remember when you have a way to track response down to the individual, you will be able to make sure you spend 80% of your budget on the 20% of customers that give you the most business!

For more on the multi-channel process. View this video about “Climbing the Multi-Channel Mountain (without falling off!)” to see how you can get started!

By the way, the horse’s name was ‘friday’.