Do your marketing communications have the “ER”? 3 tactics for getting greatER results and strongER results.

Let me start by saying the “ER” is not a reference to an emergency room or some type of crazy condition. Rather, I am referring to the small suffix that you can add to a root word to improve the meaning. For example, your marketing communications are smart, but they could be smartER. Your response is strong but could it be strongER. You get my meaning.

I’m always astonished by the number of marketers I come into contact with who are looking for ways to add the ER to their marketing. Many think that they have to incorporate another channel or consider drastic changes to what they have been executing. The fact is that adding smaller, strategic changes to your ongoing activities can often get you there. Let’s take a look at 3 tactics that can add the ER to your marketing communications efforts.

1. Personalization. This will make the impact of your marketing communications greatER. The number of marketers who don’t incorporate personalization, or think they actually do personalization, is alarming. Personalization is more than simply including a name on the communications or segmenting into groups. True personalization goes deep. Consumers expect marketers to know which products/services they’ve previously purchased and to receive communications that fit their interests. In fact, 2 out of 3 consumers prefer to receive personalized communications from marketers vs. general information.

Incorporating personalization into your marketing communications will promote improved customer experience and ultimately produce highER response and greatER results. As I mentioned, there are a lot of details that go into true personalization. To learn more about optimizing personalization, download my article, “Your personalized emails are not personal.” Common misconceptions and how to improve what you’re doing.

2. Integration. Marketing communications integration is a work in progress; however, incorporating integration can make your marketing communications strongER. On average, 40% of marketers say that their marketing efforts are integrated across web, social media, email and direct channels. With ownership spanning across several functional areas in many organizations, it’s not surprising this is one of the greatest challenges that marketers are facing.

The reality is that marketing channels work together. Almost nothing works as a stand-alone vehicle. Even the newest channels, social and mobile, should not be utilized on their own. Multichannel, omnichannel–whatever term you use, integrated marketing communications across channels has gotten more complex. More and more channels exist now, and for many organizations there are many different cooks in the kitchen. StrongER communications come from the integration of multiple channels.

Each channel should also be focused against where it falls in the decision process and the objective for that individual tactic. For example, if your goal is lead generation, then less content can be more, but data capture components, such as lead forms, become critical. If your goal is to drive response for acquisition, then all of the content and information to get the target to a decision point is necessary. And that information should be carried across and elevated at each contact point. All channels–SEM, email, direct mail and other outbound tactics—should be integrated with inbound communications to complement each other and make your marketing strongER.

3. Optimization. The path to highER response rates, deepER customer engagement and greatER return on your marketing investment is through optimization. Companies spending more than 25% of their marketing budgets toward optimization are twice as likely to enjoy high conversion rates, according to a recent study conducted by Adobe. Remember: To optimize is to enhance, improve, adjust and elevate what you are currently doing. Most marketers sadly make the mistake of not looking at optimization as a way to greatER results.

Marketing optimization comes down to applying best practices and testing various techniques to achieve greatER response. Enhancing a particular channel can improve response anywhere from 10% to 200%, making it a worthwhile investment of time and money. This is a positive for marketing effectiveness. For the most part, each channel within a multichannel strategy has unique aspects for marketing optimization.

So where should marketers start to adjust their tactics? Typically the best place to start is with measurable media, since these will be the easiest to determine optimization impact. Direct response techniques are now being integrated into many different marketing communications media. The principles of response marketing, such as targeting, delivering relevancy and effective calls to action, are critical to making all marketing work harder. Optimization is a path that is underutilized by many marketers. While it takes careful precision and diagnostics to determine the best paths for marketing optimization, it can quickly show increases in response and ensure your marketing dollars are working as hard as possible.

So you say you want strongER communications, greatER response rates and highER return on your marketing investment? Maybe we should have a conversation. Better yet, come geek out with us by taking advantage of our complimentary personalized webinar: Improving Performance and Optimizing Your Communications.

P.S. In homage to my childhood, this article was brought to you by the letters “E” and “R.” All together now, everyone make the sound “ER.”