Long gone are the days of huge marketing campaigns with ginormous budgets and low expectations. Marketers today have to stretch their budgets and insist on higher returns. This has been obvious since 2008, when everything began to dramatically slow down. However, in our business this slow down has given rise to the opportunities in integrated campaigns. An integrated campaign is all about finding that sweet spot between too little and too much.
The Goldilocks Theory was originally applied by NASA to describe the distance from the Sun that a planet needs to be in order to have the right temperatures to support life. Venus sits in front of that zone between the Earth and the Sun and has an average temperature of 900 degrees. By contrast, Mars sits beyond the Goldilocks zone and has an average temperature of negative 100 degrees. Not surprisingly, Earth sits comfortably within the zone and well, I don’t have to tell you how nice the weather is here.
The same theory can apply to integrated campaigns. Too little, and your ROI will be gut-wrenchingly cold. Too much, and you’ll be burned by an over bloated budget.
The key to finding the goldilocks zone in your integrated campaign is to keep a few basic principals in mind.
1. Prioritize your channels: You can’t do everything in the campaign so figure out what channels tend to yield the best response rates and start there.
2. Remain consistent: Your creative, messaging and overall theme must be consistent throughout the various channels. If your direct mail piece drives them to a landing page, then be sure the landing page has a similar look and message as the direct mail piece.
3. Follow your targets: Understanding what channel your targets responded too is important for obvious reasons. The channels you use in your next communication are going to be determined by the outcome of this campaign. Don’t get stuck not knowing what worked and what didn’t at the end of a campaign.
4. Ask your targets: Be sure to ask your targets how they prefer to be communicated with. This can be done on a landing page or in an email, but it is important information to have for your future communications. I recently received an email from Sirius Satellite Radio telling me that they never hear from me and asking how I would like to be communicated with. I receive about two emails a month from Sirius and I have never responded to any of them until that one arrived.
Applying these principals to your integrated campaign will help yield the greatest results. Of course, understanding your targets and prioritizing your channels is marketing 101, but when it comes to integrated campaigns the rules change a bit and finding the goldilocks zone in your efforts is the difference between too hot and too cold.
