There’s a simple fact that all financial experts agree upon: Asset allocation is the key strategy for maintaining a consistent yet superior rate of investment return.
Like a good investment portfolio, an effective integrated marketing campaign uses a balanced approach. Here are a few “do’s” and “don’ts” to consider as you’re developing your marketing campaigns:
- Do: Understand who your audience is – and the various channels they may be engaging with on a regularly basis (e.g., Web sites, communities, email, direct mail, search engines). Spread your marketing dollars across these various channels. This approach gives you multiple lines of access to your audience and will quickly expose the channels that provide the highest returns at the lowest costs.
- Don’t: Put all your assets against one channel and hope it will work. This approach is high-risk, and doesn’t provide insight for long-term effectiveness.
- Do: Consider a mix of high-volume/broader-based efforts (e.g., publisher guarantee programs) along with lower volume/laser targeted efforts (e.g., direct mail). This will allow you to manage for long-term effectiveness while creating opportunities for short-term gain.
- Don’t: Forget to track EVERY aspect of your campaign so that you can optimize on your learning later.
- Do (this is the MOST important): Remember that it’s FAR more cost-effective to cultivate prospects than it is to acquire new prospects. Make sure you build out a cultivation plan that enables you to keep prospects warm and move them through the sales cycle. We’ve found that Web 2.0/Marketing 2.0 solutions are the key to success here. Communities, videos and other techniques that provide a relevant dialogue, personalized interaction or provide peer-to-peer insight are the most effective.
Need ideas to help build out your balanced portfolio?
Interested in Web 2.0 cultivation strategies?
I’d love to help you brainstorm. Contact me at laureng@bnj.com.
join the conversation