Print in a Multi-channel World --Sherburne

In the case of your business, you can show customers how print plays an important role in a multi-channel communications strategy by using a blended approach in marketing your own business to them.

Last month at an industry event in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of hearing one of the true entrepreneurs of our industry speak. Michael Panaggio founded Direct Mail Express (DME) in 1982 in Daytona Beach, FL. He has grown DME from a startup employing seven people to a fast paced, continuously expanding, vertically integrated marketing company that currently employs more than 550 associates and will reach $100 million in revenues in 2005. DME offers both offset and digital printing, mailing services, database management, creative services, three customer interaction centers, and a Web hosting operation that hosts more than 700 Websites as well as personal URLs (PURLs).

In working with his customers, Panaggio and his team help customers determine and develop the right medium delivering the right message to the right audience, using a blend of telephone (through the customer interaction centers), mail (print!), the Internet and multimedia. In attracting new customers for himself, Panaggio uses the same approach, integrating the media to deliver a centralized cross-media campaign.

There were about 150 people in the audience of this event, and before most of us even escaped Las Vegas, Panaggio's team had established PURLs for all of us. Once I logged into my PURL with my e-mail address, I was presented with a personalized page that displayed a video presentation about DME, a downloadable PDF of the slides Panaggio presented, information about the value of PURLs in the marketing mix and links to information about DME. It also offered me the opportunity to refer a friend to have their own PURL created, to "share the wealth." And within moments of logging in, I received a personal e-mail thanking me for visiting my PURL and reminding me to explore the options DME offers.