Customers are constantly receiving messages from different brands and companies — some they have relationships with and some are vying to get them in the door for the first time.  Because of the amount of people and companies looking to get a person’s undivided attention, your message can no longer be irrelevant.  It must be highly targeted content that not only captures the person’s initial attention, but because of it’s relevancy, keeps them engaged and ultimately drives the consumer to take action.

A DMNews.com study showed that 65 percent of customers surveyed don’t ‘prefer’ targeted messages, they expect them from brands they have a relationship with.  Furthermore, 66 percent of marketers surveyed said they plan to dedicate 25 percent of their marketing budget to personalized marketing.

Just as it is important to create unique, relevant messages, it is also important to integrate each of your brand’s communication channels with one another.  For example, your print messages should correlate in timing and content with your digital messages.  With the use of pURLs and QR codes it is increasingly easier to connect your offline message and your online message.  By doing so, this allows you to secure higher engagement rates with your target audience.

Overall, personalized cross media marketing gives you the opportunity to increase the number touch points your target audience has with your brand and by utilizing personalized messages your message will see a higher response rate and you will ultimately see a higher return on investments.

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association