Traditionally, the benefit of an integrated campaign has been thought to be about synergies, where one plus one plus one equals something more than three.
The problem with the traditional mindset is that one never really knows whether these synergies truly exist. How much benefit did the email campaign obtain from the direct mail? How much more effective were the online display ads when a DRTV campaign was run simultaneously? These are tough questions.
In fact, the only way to know for sure is to measure each channel discretely. This is difficult to do, but not impossible. Here are four keys to the new integration.
Many traditionally integrated campaigns begin with a media bias. If the marketer has usually done a direct mail campaign, the plan starts with direct mail and then other components are added-email, for example, or DRTV.
For the best direct marketing results, rather than start with a media bias, start with a performance bias. If you have performance goals, start your plan with the media most likely to reach the goals. You will need to make some assumptions about response rates, but over time, your guesses will become more accurate.
