Interactive

This is a great question. In other words, where does an interactive promotion make sense versus other types of efforts.

The answer lies in relevance and how interactive strategies can address your specific marketing needs. Do you need more opt-in consumers to interact with? How do your offline efforts perform in terms of numbers? How many of your consumers are online and may interact with online promotions?

Sometimes this question is best answered by you. Would you be happy if 50,000 people registered and 25,000 opted in for future marketing efforts? You may base the answer to that question on whether the interactive campaign cost you $18,000 to execute versus $150,000. It is important to set goals, and measure carefully throughout an online campaign to try and maximize your results. Interactive and online promotions provide immediate feedback and response, meaning results can be reviewed and analyzed as the promotion is running. As a result the creative and marketing messages can be addressed and changed on the fly. The end result is that online and interactive promotions can be fine tuned both immediately and for the future.

So the answer is one that each and every marketer needs to answer for themselves. For one group, getting 5,000 new leads is a success and for another getting 300,000 unique visitors is a dismal failure. The possible upside (for instance, do I already know how many respondents will convert to a direct sale?) of a promotional activity needs to be examined versus the cost (and possibly the opportunity cost) of the activity. Interactive campaigns should be a part of your mix if they perform well against your other activities – they are not a universal solution for all situations.