Marketing

Cross-media marketing is also known as “multi-channel marketing” or “integrated marketing”. It could be a radio advert which alerts listeners to a new billboard campaign which in turn drives people to a landing page on their website or a Direct Mail pack which promotes a competition which is entered via a Facebook page.

It’s not about how many channels you use; it’s about using the right ones. An effective cross media campaign will use the most appropriate channels and more often than not, will include social media. Clear campaign goals, careful planning, a good database and creative flair are the essential requirements for effective cross channel campaigns.

We’ve seen some great uses of this type of marketing, especially around high profile events like the Olympics. To boost the sales of souvenirs, all around London and Olympic arenas were posters with a QR code printed on them so spectators could scan the codes to find the nearest shop.

The QR code landing pages were mobile-friendly and not only included maps and store locations, but also links to the London 2012 Olympics social media pages. The landing pages offered the viewer the ability to make a mobile purchase right from their mobile phone instead of visiting the store itself.

Even the Chelsea Flower Show had an entire garden based around a QR code and this year will display a code on each garden sign that links to a page with a host of digital information.

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MARKETING A START-UP BUSINESS OR PRODUCT LAUNCH

If you’re building a start-up or new business, chances are that you’re channelling most of your time into developing a great product or service – and rightly so. However it’s crucial not to forget one very important task: marketing.

Start-ups sometimes fail to apply the same depth of thought to marketing their business as they do to production, sales and cash flow. Too often they believe wholly in the maxim, “build it, and they will come.” That by delivering a great product, everything will naturally fall into line.

Just don’t rely on it.

Entrepreneurs come from all fields and walks of life. They may be savvy professionals, craftspeople, engineers and advisors, but not everybody is equipped with marketing experience. Many don’t fully appreciate that executing a well-founded marketing plan is essential to any venture’s success. No matter how ingenious a product or service, nobody will find it unless they know it exists and understand the value. That’s why branding and marketing is synonymous with telling a story – the story of a company and what it can offer.

Quality “product launch branding” and marketing crosses barriers and speaks to everyone consistently and persuasively. The idea of “build it, they will come,” is now out of date. You have to create a fantastic product, identify consumers, and then spend time telling them about it. Brands that tell great stories keep people interested and turn consumers into advocates.

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The scare-mongering is over, the GDPR deadline arrived and nothing terrible happened, except for our inboxes being flooded with privacy policy updates, which was awful for all concerned.

So, now we can all move on in a positive way, within this new GDPR framework, but how does it affect email marketing and specifically, gated content?

Can B2B marketers still use gated content to gather leads for email marketing?
This article addresses B2B email marketing and does not apply to B2C due to the way in which businesses can rely on ‘legitimate interest’ instead of ‘consent’. If you can show that people are being contacted because of their job, not who they are and that they need your product and so may be interested, there are possible grounds for legitimate consent. Check out Seven things B2B marketers need to understand about GDPR for more about legitimate interest.

There’s no denying that email is the undisputed king of B2B Marketing and the best lead generation tool for ROI. In fact, The Marketer email tracker 2018 report found email marketing’s return on investment (ROI) is £32.28 for every £1 spent, up from £30.03 last year.

Gated content has always been a fantastic way to build a B2B email marketing database. Both, the company and the B2B consumer know how it works: useful content, whether blog posts, video, or other resources, are shared in exchange for contact details and further marketing as payment.

This can kick-start the lead generation and sales process, both getting people interested in your products through your content and giving you the means to contact them later.

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Today I received an email from a travel agent, and it perfectly illustrated a point that a copywriting friend of mine mentioned just the other day.

Because a smartphone will typically only display the first 25 or so characters, marketers and copywriters have to work even harder than ever to make a subject line impactful enough and make the reader want to open their emails.

So perhaps this was an intentional attention-grabbing subject line, although I don’t think so…

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