By: Jack Emery, Vice President of Business Development
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THESE TERMS?
1-to-1, Variable Data Printing, Personalized URL, multi-channel marketing, personalized landing page, touchpoints, ROI, VDP, Purl, 1:1, convergence marketing, relevance based marketing….. Yes there are many more terms being thrown around in the industry these days, and both the terminology and the variety of terms can be mindblowing at first. In order to make sense of it all I think there are two terms that form the foundation of effective ROI focused marketing – convergent marketing and relevance based marketing. All of the terminology is in reference to the tools and mechanisms that we use to make this type of marketing work.
“Convergence Marketing” is a reference, a holistic approach to marketing that balances direct response “hard sell” tactics with long term brand identity, value and integrity. It
is driven by a coordinated approach that leverages both the broad brand based messaging in billboards, on television, as well as magazines and trade journals with the direct response call to action models traditionally seen in direct mail. Richard Rosen has written a terrific book about the balance between these two worlds called Convergence Marketing. While Mr. Rosen focuses on creative and messaging, we take this concept further and use the term to include managing the multi-channel experience based upon timing and relevance. I will get to how relevance based marketing fits with convergence, but we need to define relevance based marketing first.
Relevance based marketing leverages all of the data you have about an individual to optimally target an offer that they care about at just the right time – in other words give people what they want when they want it. If you appeal to a consumer’s stated personal desires at the right time then you have given the recipient something of value and the term “junk mail” or “spam” evaporates.
To illustrate the antithesis of relevance based marketing I personally had a retailer who consistently would send me emails about specials on women’s clothes. I have purchased a lot of men’s casual clothing over the years in store and online, and I may have purchased a women’s sweater once as a holiday gift. Based upon that one purchase they kept sending me emails with offers and information about women’s clothing. Eventually I started to receive the emails on a daily basis. Finally the deluge of email I received was so great that I
unsubscribed. I felt annoyed because they disrespected to my time and inbox. This brand from whom I loyally purchased many items forced me to label their emails as junk.
Presently, I still receive men’s only catalogs but their entire digital strategy is not based upon relevance or customer needs it is based upon volume of emails and hopes for click-throughs. They devalued their brand and lost a communication channel by not being relevant – by not leveraging the data to offer me something of value. If the communication lacks relevance then it becomes junk regardless of the communication channel. Their email strategy was trying to use a sledgehammer to sculpt a masterpiece – their catalog strategy was a little better more like using a hammer, but relevance marketing is like a master sculptor with his chisels and rasps. The appropriate approach would have been to send only men’s emails and catalogs. I would even have welcomed the occasional women’s gift guide or suggestion via these channels but not on a daily basis.
So how do we bring together convergence and relevance marketing? Leverage data on hand and incent people to tell us what they want and when they want it using a variety of communication tools that support the brand identity and lead to direct action.
Here is an example of how it might be applied – Joan has been on three cruises with Starlight Luxury Cruises and has participated in a number of on board and shore excursions. Each of her cruises has occurred in April when the school where she teaches is on spring break.