Today’s post is a guest post from Jessica Best, Community Director at emfluence, a full service interactive marketing company based in Kansas City.
Despite all the talk about emerging media killing the old standbys, they simply aren’t disappearing. It is getting a lot more crowded at the table, though. Email, Web 2.0 and Social Media all joined the party and our customers are ravenous for them.
As marketers have learned, it’s important to have a presence wherever the consumer wants us to be. Maybe that means posting to a blog or maybe that means pinning to boards on the newly popular Pinterest. Maybe it means making our customer service teams available on Twitter and not just via phone numbers. Or hosting our latest promotion at our Facebook page instead of at our website or by mailing in entries. Maybe it means using email to drive traffic to websites and profiles.
As we add more options, the key is not to just add the newest and neatest media to your marketing mix: integrate it. Twitter is the reason TV viewers have started returning to the couch to watch shows in real-time. Viewers can follow live running commentary on Twitter using a television show’s hashtag (i.e. #Glee).
Here are a few ways you can integrate your tried-and-true marketing media with emerging media:
- Take your best television and radio spots social: add your funniest or most touching commercials to YouTube and spare the chance to share the laugh or smile.
- Direct your postcard readers to your mobile-optimized website, where they can sign up for more information, subscribe to your email marketing or share content with their social networks.
- Ask new email subscribers to follow your Tweets or become fans on Facebook, so you can share conversations with them, too.
- Encourage your social audiences to subscribe to regular email updates, so they don’t miss a message about an exclusive deal or access opportunity.
- Capture your inbound search traffic on your site with social media asks and an email sign-up form. Stay connected and nurture that lead to increase conversion rates.
Whatever your marketing plan is for 2012, be sure you’re integrating all your powerful marketing channels – traditional and new – so they can help each other out.
What media are in your marketing mix this year? How can you integrate across channels to maximize return on investment?
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