Standing out with Cross Media Marketing

iStock_000015547825Small_business_newsIn a world inundated with marketing messages and ways to receive them, it is hard to stand out in the marketing mix. Cross media campaigns are essential strategies for reaching your market, allowing you to interact on multiple channels, providing various opportunities to reach every recipient. Single channel marketing, will result in being lost, and causing lower response rates and falling short of campaign goals. You have an important message- make sure it is heard!

Cross media campaigns can combine web, cross-substrate print, mobile, email, social platforms and targeted landing pages to create more opportunities to communicate with audiences.

A successful cross media campaign delivers content and a call to action throughout multiple channels simultaneously as an integrated campaign.

“Brand awareness is fueled 44% by print & 37% by online media. Incorporate both for even better results.”

Measuring the Effectiveness of Cross Marketing Campaigns

Successful cross media campaigns begin in the planning stages: Develop a well coordinated message, a strong database, a way to strategize and streamline content and actions and develop artwork that will work across channels.

Once you know your audience, identify which platforms they engage with and deploy your message on those platforms. Start with a 2-channel campaign, test the waters then add a 3rd channel once you have developed your best practices.

Because each form of media has a different ability and benefit, identifying the audience is the first step. For example, reaching out to an older audience using SMS or Social Media, might not be as effective as reaching out to a younger audience using these forms of media.

Print media provides a physical piece of advertising that buyers can hold in their hands; when an email campaign is supported with a print piece, it creates a better rate of response than when using email alone.

Combine web with print for greater impact, and response rates.

Marketers report an average improvement of 35% for multichannel campaigns over single channel campaigns – Print in the Mix

Once you know your audience and which media to use, determine the message you want to deliver and what the call to action will be. Be consistent with your messaging, using the same images, color schemes, and other elements across all platforms to amplify and reinforce your marketing message.

What makes Cross Media campaigns effective for marketing is the ability to collect response data, and apply that data to generate interaction with leads and customers. Ideally, a campaign will drive the target audience to one action (visit a landing page, register for an event, follow on a social media channel..) where activity can be measured and interactions understood.

In the end, a successful cross media campaign should help promote brand recognition, develop customer relationships and engage customers with an interactive marketing experience to reach the campaign’s goal. Remember, the more forms of media, the more interaction and engagement from your clients. Make your next cross media campaign stand out by mixing up your media!

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Watch the TGI Cross Media video to learn the 3 rules of engagement.