Integrate, Automate, Communicate

In today’s interconnected world, campaigns that integrate print and digital channels are the most effective. But many companies’ marketing channels are segregated from each other, leaving them overwhelmed by data scattered throughout their print and digital marketing streams. In response to this rising need for integrated (and automated!) marketing, Formara now offers digital marketing services alongside its print business.

Beyond Print
You probably know Formara as a print company – and that is indeed what we were for more than 45 years. But in today’s interconnected world, print is no longer the ‘One Size Fits All’ channel to reach, acquire, retain and communicate with customers. Likewise, companies shifting most of their budget to digital marketing are neglecting a lucrative segment whose respond rate is higher when they can touch a ‘message’. Campaigns that integrate print and digital channels are proven to be more effective, achieving more than double the response rate of a digital-only campaign.

So, for a print company whose clients now need – and require – digital marketing services, it was both natural and necessary to adapt to the digital era of communication. Our customers still order prints…but they now also need digital communications to run successful marketing campaigns – ideally without any extra costs or compromising on quality and efficiency.

In response to this rising need for integrated marketing, Formara has added digital marketing services to its core business of print.

Our AIM service, short for Automated Integrated Marketing, is a data-driven software that lets you align and streamline all your online and offline marketing processes to improve your campaigns. It enables you to track, measure and analyse the success rate of each campaign and use the data to make real-time improvements. AIM also consolidates and clears up your legacy data, which will improve your understanding of your individual customers’ preferences and behaviour on a continuous basis. By using AIM, you will understand which marketing channel and format each of your customers prefer. Instead of bombarding your clients with generic marketing communications, you can now communicate with them as often as they want, using a marketing channel that they prefer.

Your choice and your customers’ choice(s)
Reflecting people’s preferences, respecting their choices and personalising the messages they receive will help you stand out amongst the competition. Other benefits of using AIM benefits include:

Reduced production and distribution costs across all channels.
Consistent branding and experience across all online and offline channels and devices.
Targeted one-to-one or segmented messaging that talks to your customers only about issues, products or services of likely interest.
Learning for future campaigns.

Which marketing channels you use on AIM, and how, depends on your, and your clients’, own preferences. Think lead-generation and customer retention marketing campaigns, donor communications for fundraising, updates to subscribers or members, internal comms for employee engagement and surveys, information posts for alumni groups, to name just a few examples.

Whatever your campaign and goals, AIM is easy to use. Once you start using it, we will consult you on each step of the process, including with cleaning up your data and designing your campaign.

We will first establish a strategy together with you, considering your desired outcomes, your dataset, budget and other metrics.
Then we create a storyboard that graphically depicts a user’s step-by-step customer journey, illustrating what he/she receives and how they react to the marketing message. For each user there will effectively be several possible “next steps” or interactions.
On approval of the storyboard and the financial proposal, Formara will produce a design mock-up for you to sign off.
The next step is creating the actual campaign. You will receive proofs to check that the campaign meets your expectations. Once everything is approved, the campaign goes live.