Here we go again - the internet has changed everything once more!  Now, even direct mail can be viewed in a new light.  It is only the first step in a cross media marketing campaign that can be easily monitored and measured.

Instead of a campaign consisting largely of intensive planning followed by "spray and pray," direct mail can now include personalized URLs (PURLs) that extend the campaign onto the web.  We're not talking about your website here - this is where micro-sites and PURLs come into play.  These are marketing response channels; your website is not.

This cross media approach can rapidly develop into an interesting and compelling way to continue the conversation with your prospects, allowing them to provide you with individual insights and valuable perspectives that you would not have gained if you had not provided a medium for your prospects to respond. 

The quarterly Cross Media Marketing (CMM) Newsletter is dedicated to provide readers with the information needed to fully understand Cross Media, or "Integrated," Marketing.  Articles will explore opportunities, pitfalls, and case studies of other company's experiences so that readers may gain the understanding needed to successfully navigate this new territory.  We hope you enjoy the CMM Newsletter. 

If you've never tried a PURL, here's your chance. Go to www.mycampaigndashboard.com to take a short survey and to download the 1:1 Cross Media Marketing 2008 (A practical guide to improving response and increasing ROI by James D. Michelson Managing Partner, JFM Concepts LLC).

You'll be glad you did!

Regards,

Marc Armstrong
Publisher, Cross Media Marketing Newsletter
marmstrong@inkspout.com

You Never Forget Your First PURL
By Margie Dana - Founder, Boston Print Buyers

For the longest time, I've been curious about PURLs - those personalized web sites that are part of direct mail campaigns. By sheer coincidence, I wrote a Print Tip about PURLs one year ago this week. Since then, I've received dozens of them in the mail. Colorful postcards, every one. Each had my name as part of a URL.
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Implementing Cross-Media Marketing Campaigns
By Gail Nickel-Kailing, Managing Director, Business Strategies Etc.
In the beginning there was direct mail, and that was enough.
Actually direct mail - and the ever-evolving direct marketing - wasn't there at the very beginning. The earliest identifiable piece of direct marketing comes from about 1000 BC. It was an ad for the return of a runaway slave and is now in the British Museum. Unfortunately, we don't know what the response rate was.
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CMM Dashboard Corner

The Balanced Scorecard: Prelude to a Marketing Dashboard
Marketing NPV 
No matter how much we advocate the science of marketing, its art has not disappeared. Take the balanced scorecard, for instance. In the tradition of marketing creativity, a graphical document, the balanced scorecard, translates marketing strategy to operational terms and sows the seeds for marketing accountability as measured and highlighted on the marketing dashboard. Balanced scorecards, very simply, help marketers and the executives to whom they answer visualize strategic project planning.
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Marketing Performance Out of Alignment? A Good Dashboard Will Focus and Inspire
Marketing NPV
Does your company suffer from any of these symptoms?

• Marketing is not seen as having a direct impact on the organization's financial performance.
• Functional silos within marketing seem to be operating independently and fighting for budget dollars and attention.
• With the swarm of marketing initiatives, no one is clear on which ones are really contributing the most to the bottom line.
• Marketing budgets are set on what was spent in the past year, not on what was achieved in the prior 12 months or on new company goals.
• Finance isn't buying into the ability of the marketing mix model to link brand attributes to revenue or profits.

>> Complete Story