Quad is leading the conversation about how marketers should be managing their channel mix.
In a new Forbes BrandVoice piece titled “5 Reasons Why You Might Be Thinking About ‘Channel-Agnostic’ Marketing All Wrong,” Kris Persons, Quad’s Senior VP of Direct Marketing, says that marketers who take a “let the best channels win” approach may be relying on an overly simplistic strategy — in part because of the way their organizations are structured.
“In many marketing organizations,” she writes, “channel management/measurement remains siloed. For instance, many marketers treat digital as completely separate from direct marketing, with DM shunted off to the side as a sort of production function. That separation is often rooted in a procurement approach to reducing channel costs, which is a worthy goal. But that separation also results in structural barriers that can actually prevent marketers from achieving the best cross-channel optimization for their dollar.”
Persons also notes that many marketers are working with inconsistent data outputs from various channels that can make meaningful measurement of channel attribution difficult. “At Quad,” she writes, “we work with thousands of marketers across every conceivable vertical — from financial services and healthcare to brick-and-mortar retail and direct-to-consumer — and one thing we’re heavily focused on is helping to maximize the data inputs and analysis around all channels so our partners can get the full picture on effectiveness.”
Getting the full picture involves using cutting-edge, personalized, data-driven solutions, Persons says, citing tools “such as Quad’s Accelerated Marketing Insights virtual testing platform and JourneyMail, our automated, Salesforce-integrated campaign planning and execution tool that combines personalized print with digital in the customer journey. The bottom line: Quad can track a direct mail impression as it leaves our facility, when it lands in-home and, with QR/Flowcodes, we can track the impact on website visits and other CTAs. In other words, we can connect the dots of the consumer journey no differently than you would with social channels or digital channels.”
In sections with subtitles including “Poor channel execution hobbles budget-allocation decisions” and “Channels need to be evaluated in tandem as part of a hybrid approach,” Persons cites other reasons marketers may be missing their targets.
To learn more, read Kris Persons’ entire column here: “5 Reasons Why You Might Be Thinking About ‘Channel-Agnostic’ Marketing All Wrong” — and be sure to visit Quad’s Forbes BrandVoice page for more marketing thought leadership.
