In a prior blog post I made this statement:
The media in which content is delivered should vary – but in all cases content is king. If the recipient does not want, need or value the information why should they continue to dialog with you or refer you to anyone they know? After all, you have underlined the fact that you do not know them, understand their needs or value their priorities.

Understanding your client base is the key to delivering content that is relevant, timely and accurate. If you completed the exercise I described earlier you have identified your client demographics – strongest, intermediate and weakest. Now the challenge is to engage your best clients and improve your success with the rest.

Your ability to engage is bound by three things – budget, time and resources. Email is less expensive than mail – but requires a different skill set to create. Phone calls are more personal than either, but require significantly more time – and a different skill set. The one constant we know is that the more often we engage, and the more positive the interaction, the more likely the client is to both re-use and/or refer your business.

Your client interactions need to be both purposeful and informed – which means that you need a way to identify opportunities and document your activities and the clients’ response to that activity. The identical activity can have a positive response from one person and a very negative response from another – so you need to understand which of your clients like which activities and which do not. Over time you will find that your clients fall into “buckets” – some respond to emails, some to a combination of email and web, some to calls, etc. The key is to have management tools that allow you to understand this – and the ability to optimize for each client.

There are a variety of 3rd party tools that include metrics – but few that allow for variable types of activities. As you review tools keep in mind customer support, range of actions that are included, your time, your budget and your skill set.

And do not forget that the cheapest option is not always the best. If you have to subscribe to an email service, a web service and a phone service, and none of them have the ability to share info with the others, the total cost may be higher than a single source vendor. In addition, you have to learn all of the systems, maintain all of them, and keep a master list somewhere else. Even if your combined cost is less, implementing a comprehensive campaign strategy across multiple media will be far more difficult to manage in both time and resources.