Email is too flat: Experience 3D Attention with Media Convergence

If you haven’t yet heard of or started practicing media convergence, then now is the time.

In the hyper-connected world of digital marketing and sales, it’s easy to lose the attention of those you’re looking to punt a product to. So how can we make email less “flat” and more engaging? By adding some media convergence!

Keeping consumers engaged through converging

You want to keep your customers engaged – engaged being the key word here and one you’ll read about throughout this article — is essential in both marketing and sales campaigns.

Being able to engage your email list and website visitors and actually make them click and take action is a major achievement. Even getting them to open your emails can be a struggle. Imagine how damaging it could be once they opened it and saw there’s nothing stimulating there for them. The truly dynamic version of what marketing or sales material can be, has become a necessity in the super competitive digital marketing world.

What is media convergence?

What does media convergence mean and what does it mean to a modern email marketer? You can speak about media cenvergence if you bring together different media and channels to support a single campaign or product promotion We could also call it the merger of marketing. This can be in the form of a web page, digital brochure or email marketing material. Few things lose a consumer’s attention as quickly as a static website, newsletter or promotional package.

You probably receive 10 newsletters per day. Eight of those are static pages with one or two images and way too much text. The other two might have videos, clickable audio files, live Twitter streams, vibrant high-definition imagery you’re able to flip through without having to leave the page and the list goes on (for brevity’s sake we’ll stop there). So which ones are better (and less boring)?

Converged media offers marketers a means of combining different delivery methods all in one, offering an interactive and attractive experience for consumers. Related concepts like social media, consumer collaborative statistics and a subsequent marketing strategy can now be combined with vox pops, QR codes, short video segments and writing.

The best way to achieve media convergence

So what’s the best way to bring all those media forms together? Here are three things to keep in mind when getting started:

1. Mobility

The go-to word for 2013 is as relevant to convergence as it is to … well, everything else happening this year. According to Rethink Wireless , 51% of people in the US now have a smartphone U.S. that is over 119 million people!

The world is going mobile and al marketing promotions need to be compatible with mobile browsing. There’s a very good reason why tablets and smartphones are doing as well as they are: they offer on-the-go access to content. Marketers have to take advantage of the vast exposure available via mobile and use the media available to them in order to leverage this opportunity. In short: Make sure you email works on mobile and the added rich media does too.

2. Geofencing,Timing through Marketing Intellingence

Knowing when to send is almost as important as what you send. A converged message will take up some of the reader’s time. Video and audio clips need to be viewed and listened to and be as dynamic and concise as your writing.

It will take time to filter through. So make sure you send when they have that time. Also take into consideration that certain companies have strict policies and apply geofencing practices that limit the access of the information you’re sending them. For instance they can’t go on YouTube or Facebook from their desk at work.

Marketing intelligence can help you analyse and determine for your intended recipients:

• The profile of who you want to send to,
• the industry they are in,
• and even age range.

All that information and more is available through marketing intelligence. It will help you determine when the best time is to communicate with your audience in order to get great real-time engagement.

3. Bandwidth in your pocket

Another factor to take a look at when targeting emerging markets is bandwidth and network availability and capacity. This doesn’t have to put a damper on your plans for converged content, however. Let’s say you’re looking to send out material with video, imagery and text. Think about compressing the file to a smaller size. The same goes for high-resolution images. With programs like Nero , you’re able to compress audio files as well.

You don’t want the recipient waiting for forever to open it, but you also don’t want to sacrifice too much of the quality. If your marketing strategy focuses on specialized campaigns aimed at consumers in specific regions, it allows you to know the bandwidth in that area. Important to know also if you are doing international (email) marketing. In B-to-B communication the networking is generally more advanced.

Media convergence isn’t just about putting a bunch of attractive moving parts into a cleverly wrapped-up delivery method and expecting a good response. It requires research, thought and proper planning. But when done right this will put you miles ahead of the next marketer who might think their static communications will do the trick.

Look at who you’re communicating to and think of what it will take to get a response from them. Then decide on the best forms of modern media you’ll need in order to relate to them and go for it.

Image via flickr (CC)