Currently online marketing is the growing, vogue channel for the marketer to choose. It seems that budgets are being pulled left, right and centre from traditional offline work into the digital arena - where measurement is king. In many cases this is a good thing and our online agency - Digital Welly - is reaping the benefits at the moment, so I'm not complaining.
We are seeing demanding briefs for tighter budgets, which makes working in this arena a great challenge. It's forcing us, and other agencies across the land, to think differently and come up with innovative solutions.
One side effect of this increased, frenetic activity is saturation of communication down these 'new' channels. I call it the wallpaper effect. It is caused by the fact that because some companies are able to highly personalise and tailor their message to their customers they feel they must inundate them with message after message. This creates so much 'noise' that the message becomes wallpaper with no cut through or stand out at all.
We are finding that by employing tried and tested offline direct mail techniques and offline activity the message is getting through to the prospect or customer in way that aids all of a company's potential sales channels. We are finding DM to be very successful at driving web traffic for both online casinos and holiday companies alike. In fact, in the case of the tour operators, the correct use of a 'flavour' brochure is the key driver of traffic for online sales. Tests have proven that without a physical brochure landing on the doorstep the purchase process never begins.
I am not advocating this for every product or service, but if the dynamics add up and the end sale can support such activity, great cut through can be obtained by using a media.
A logical way to look at marketing going forward is to ensure that each channel is not placed in a bubble. Retailers and service providers are most guilty of this as they tend to have specific departments for each discipline. I understand that there is a historical reason for this, but they have to bring about change quickly.
In these tough trading conditions a consumer does not think that they received a message from the online division of a retailer today and then the shop tomorrow and the mail order arm the day after. Consumers do business with the brand in totality. Businesses have to present a united front and think what's the most relevant channel to give you the best chance of driving income.
Sometimes it will be a blend of off and online, others one specific channel, but it should always be thought through with the consumer (and not the department) in mind. This way you will enjoy greater cut through and thus financial rewards. This is why offline will never die.
So the future presents both a great opportunity and a great challenge. Getting the mix correct will lead to success and growth from this rather annoying recession which we are all enjoying. So let's start thinking differently today.