Personalized content is paramount to any successful marketing campaign – content that is designed specifically for the person viewing it is more likely to pique their interest and encourage them to take the next step in the interaction, regardless of whether that's filling out a form, clicking an advertisement or visiting a company's website.

It's all about the interaction. Personalized content is more relevant to the individual's desires and needs as it gives them the media they want and warrant. It also reaches them in real-time, providing them with the right message at the correct moment in the buying process. For example, a recent study from Crowd Science found that respondents were 27 percent more likely to engage ads that were relevant to them. This number skyrocketed to 76 percent among Americans older than the age of 55.

Moreover, personalizing content isn't a difficult task with proper solutions in place. Key data pieces, such as demographic and psychographic information, purchase history and dollar amounts per transaction, call center interactions, clicks, form submissions, web site visits and mobile responses, can all be leveraged to better customize media and make it more relevant to the person interacting with it.

By utilizing this information, businesses can create messages that are delivered in real-time to consumers via the most applicable device to their current situation. A person on a mobile device can be targeted with mobile-optimized content, or a person browsing their email can be reached though media personalized for that channel.

Personalized content stems from having in-depth information about both prospects and existing customers. By leveraging a variety of marketing channels, companies increase the breadth of their information gathering tools. Marrying a number of different sources enables businesses to maintain a profile of each and every person they are interacting with, regardless of whether it's a long-term buyer or someone who simply "Liked" a Facebook status.

For example, if a customer is in a store and texts a mobile short code to redeem a coupon, these past interactions will form the base of a company's response. The business with a full profile of the customer will be able to look at a variety of sources to better determine how much the coupon should be worth. Previous transactions and interactions will help companies decide how to create a promotion relevant to that individual.

Increasingly, retailers are realizing the benefits of leveraging the growing population of smartphone users to disseminate their direct marketing campaigns.

In fact, a new report from Juniper Research predicts that the mobile retail marketing sector will be worth $15 billion worldwide by 2012, representing a 50 percent increase over 2011.

A few factors will contribute to this rapid rise in value, including increased budgets for mobile ad spend as well as a growing acceptance among retailers of mobile coupons. A separate survey from the research firm noted that as customers grow more cost-conscious and tech-savvy, mobile coupons will be in greater demand, with their total redemption value exceeding $43 billion globally by 2016.

"With people much more cost-conscious today, the appeal of a bargain offer specially tailored to you and delivered to your own mobile phone exactly when and where you needed it (or even if you didn’t know you needed it) is very high," David Snow, an analyst, writes for the company.

Retailers are responding to consumer desires. Additionally, the report notes that while mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers have made it easier to reach shoppers, they also allow consumers to run on-the-spot price comparisons with stores' competitors.

Yet retailers shouldn't assume that the same technology will be attractive and useful for all consumers. For example, the research affirms that a mobile app may not be the most appropriate channel through which to connect with a target market. And perhaps even more importantly, not all consumers may want to be contacted.

Mobile retailing should promote trust and loyalty among a retail establishment's consumer base, making it doubly paramount that prior to launching any direct marketing campaign, the company asks for subscriber permission.

"Mobile retailing is undergoing rapid change," says Snow, one of the authors of the report. "We are starting to see an 'arms race,' as the power of the mobile channel equips both the shopper and the retailer with capabilities they never had before."

"Each side has to keep up with the other and gain an advantage in order to clinch the purchase transaction in their favor," Snow added.

Just about every American has an email account, and the majority of them are willing to receive relevant, branded messages. However, just because they sign up to receive an email message doesn't mean they will always be avid readers. While subscription rates are crucial email metrics, so too are open and click-through rates.

If an email reader has become disengaged, they aren't lost forever – that likely only happens when they unsubscribe completely. However, disinterest does suggest that marketers somehow aren't living up to what the subscriber thought they would be getting when they signed up in the first place.

As ClickZ suggests, there are a number of strategies brands can use to win these individuals back.

The first step is analyzing all available data and determining if they are actually not reading the messages. For example, many email service providers place tracking cookies in images to determine open rates. However, if the recipient has images blocked, it could appear as if they aren't opening messages.

"What if they have images turned off, only see your subject lines that trigger browsing through a different channel or remember who you are and what you sell based on the emails they never read? These are the slippery slopes of making some decisions on who is truly unengaged and what determines this," the news source explains.

After determining which subscribers are truly disengaged, marketers should consider segmenting and customizing. Whatever the business is currently doing obviously isn't working, so marketers should consider alternative approaches such as altering subject lines, changing creative, introducing new offers or modifying frequency.

An automatic reengagment series of emails may also help businesses get to the route of any possible problems.

"Leveraging email automation based on business rules can be a very efficient way to have evergreen reengagement campaigns running once a subscriber is classified as 'inactive,'" ClickZ writer Simms Jenkins explains. "Don't forget to update these, as I have seen plenty of automated campaigns with a cross-promotion expiration date that is expired."

Finally, if nothing is hooking their interest, marketers should simply be blunt and ask. Find out what they wanted to hear about when they signed up, why they are no longer reading messages and how you can fix it. Marketers may not be able to win these customers back, but the feedback will be invaluable for future campaigns.

Moreover, this input could be used to supplement other parts of multi channel marketing efforts. For example, if email and social media content is similar and email subscribers say they don't like the direction a company has taken with its email content, marketers may also want to consider revising their social media content.

With malls full of Christmas shoppers, individual retailers are doing anything they can to get prospective customers to stop in. Some are even using mobile marketing efforts outside of their stores to pique consumers' interest, Mobile Marketer reports.

For example, retailers are posting quick response codes on posters and signage outside of their stores or in mall entrance ways, hoping to stop shoppers in their tracks and engage with them. These mobile efforts get consumers invested in a brand and show off all the products they have in stock. The QR codes could also give shoppers coupons or other incentives to come to the retailer instead of its competitors.

"Retailers are discovering that the store is one of the best locations to present a mobile call to action," Stephen Burke, vice president of mobile at Resource Interactive, told the news source. "There are more mobile calls to action because there are more and more mobile assets being created by retailers … The good news is that that technology works and consumers are embracing mobile calls to action."

Using mobile calls to action is not new for international marketers – a number of Japanese and European brands leverage mobile devices to engage consumers. However, Americans are only just now making the switch to high-tech smartphones, which has led to more marketers taking advantage of the relatively young medium.

Retailers need to be careful how they use mobile calls to action, though. Just as customers are quick to put a brand that emails them frequently in their spam box, they may also grow annoyed by seeing QR codes plastered over every store sign, flyer and poster.

Consistency is another issue. If a retailer has a number of locations, the company should ensure each location uses QR codes in a similar way.

"If you have hundreds of stores, the effort to get a consistent mobile call to action out across all these locations requires a lot of cooperation within the organization," Burke added. "Mobile is typically handled by the digital or direct arm of the business so it requires working with the physical locations to deploy."

Mobile marketing is particularly engaging among young Americans. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 tend to be the drivers of new technology, so if a business is seeking to reach that crowd, mobile devices may be the way to go.

The number of smartphones in the hands of American consumers has surged this year, up nearly 30 million year-over-year in September. With that mind, it seems like a no-brainer that marketers would devote larger chunks of their advertising budgets to mobile devices.

The increase in expenditures and interest in mobile marketing was especially evident at this year's ad:tech conference, Mobile Marketer reports. The publication polled a variety of mobile marketing firms at the event to get their take on the growing mobile channel.

"Mobile engagement has gone beyond trial and error and experimentation. There are now lots of companies who want to be taken to the next level of mobile and are now looking to improve their strategies," Danielle Gotkis, director of marketing at Trilibis Mobile told the news source.

People want to find the next big thing in the mobile market, she added. Just a few years ago, text messaging and telemarketing were essentially the only strategies that could be used to reach consumers. Now, marketers have apps, in-app ads, quick response codes and a variety of other ways to reach prospective customers through their phones.

If marketers are looking for innovative ways mobile devices can be used to promote products, they should keep their eyes on the big brands.

"There are two brands that as an agency you always need to keep your eye on – Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble because they set the trends for innovation and marketing," Eduardo Alvarez, senior vice president of digital marketing and CRM at Lapiz, explained. "There is still a lot of discussion out there about what is mobile, but I think it will grow as more data comes out of it."

Pepsi is another brand that has leveraged mobile devices in an engaging and innovative way. For example, earlier in the summer, the soft drink brand launched a foursquare campaign that encouraged followers to go to various locations – beaches, concert halls, etc. – and check in from their phones. Consumers who checked in to these locations were rewarded with unique badges and an entry into various sweepstakes.

The key is staying ahead of the digital curve. Marketers are consistently coming up with new and innovative advertising approaches. Integrating emerging channels, such as mobile marketing, into broader multi channel campaigns is a part of staying ahead of the competition.

If marketers haven't at least considered optimizing their multi channel marketing efforts for mobile phones, they may want to reconsider – especially if they are trying to reach Millennial consumers. According to new data from Nielsen, nearly two-thirds of Americans between the age of 25 and 34 (62 percent) have smartphone devices.

Smartphones have a much higher penetration rate among this age group. While Nielsen observed that only approximately 43 percent of mobile subscribers are smartphone users, the highly lucrative 25-34 age range were more likely to have these devices. Including the full demographic of Millennials (18-35), penetration hovers at 54 percent.

"Other groups show slightly lower penetration rates. Around 40 percent of 12-17 year-old teens and 40 percent of 45-54 year-olds reported owning a smartphone, as opposed to a more basic feature phone," Nielsen observed. "After younger adults, the segment with the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64. Smartphone penetration among this older group is only 30 percent, but it jumped 5 percent this quarter."

The Millennial age group tends to be the focus of many businesses as this demographic has yet to develop loyalties to brands. Additionally, they tend not to have overwhelming financial burdens – such as houses or children – which means they have more disposable income to spend on products and services.

Smartphones are still the Wild West of marketing channels, but advertisers have reason to be interested in them. A number of studies have found that mobile ads have higher engagement rates than traditional web banner ads. Consumers also tend to carry their phones on them where ever they go, which means marketers can engage them anywhere.

A separate report from Nielsen also found that mobile subscribers with Android phones are more likely to click ads, which again bodes well for mobile marketers.

"As the smartphone market continues to expand, Android remains the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, with 43 percent of the market, while Apple is the top smartphone manufacturer, with 28 percent of smartphone consumers sporting an Apple iPhone," Nielsen notes.

As of September, more than 87.4 million Americans own smartphone devices, comScore reports. The smartphone user base in the country has grown by nearly 30 million users since last year.

For many retailers and companies, the holiday season is when business really heats up. However, owners and entrepreneurs can't just sit around drinking eggnog and eating cookies, expecting customers and clients to arrive gift-wrapped from Santa. Instead, they must leverage multichannel marketing to fill their pocketbooks through the New Year.

Dynamic content marketing will be even more important this year, as consumers continue to deal with tightened budgets. Yet, a survey from Shopper Sciences suggests that businesses which go social and engage with consumers beyond just a purchasing perspective may experience a happy holiday season after all.

"Americans may be under pressure from the economy, but that doesn't mean they want to endure a disappointing holiday," Shopper Sciences CEO John Ross stated. "For those retailers and brands willing to share, support and empower shoppers – rather than just sell to them – it has the opportunity to be a bright season."

For example, while 41 percent of respondents surveyed said the country was still in a recession, more than half acknowledged they would spend as much or more on gifts than in previous years. Furthermore, nearly 25 percent of respondents said they are likely to spend more than $1000 on gifts this year, while another 45 percent plan to pay $500 or more.

Although consumers are still planning to spend, how they make decisions and purchases is shifting. Shoppers are spending more time online researching items before making final decisions, and many times this process occurs in-store on mobile devices.

For retailers and marketers, this means engaging with digital media will be mission-critical. From coupons to mobile shopping apps to special deals via social media, shoppers are expecting increased connection and value from retailers.

In fact, sites such as Facebook could prove particularly lucrative for companies looking to connect with consumers. Fifty-six percent of survey respondents – the largest share – said they find a retailer on a social networking site in order to "score a good deal."

"This is shaping up to be a no-holds-barred, digitally empowered shopping season. Retailers will need to harness every media trick possible to connect and convert this new digital savvy shopper," Ross asserted.

Yet, brands will not want to focus only on digital solutions, as different demographics respond to different marketing materials. Companies should research their communities and key consumers, and build a targeted strategy from there. 

Consumers have come to expect different things from websites over the years. A decade ago, simply having a website was the sign of a forward-thinking company, but now special care must be paid to how businesses create their homepages and landing pages. As MarketingProfs recently noted, having an interactive and engaging website is key to reaching the modern consumer.

This starts by having deep websites with lots of rich content. Gone are the days when it was acceptable to have a website with fewer pages than fingers on a human hand. Content marketing has reset how consumers perceive websites, and they have come to expect valuable content.

"One way marketers are meeting that demand is by deploying microsites," MarketingProfs explains. "The new breed of microsite is pure HTML, a collection of several pages linked together by a set of lightweight navigation choices. They load quickly, they're SEO friendly and they can be built quickly and inexpensively."

Design is another crucial issue. Landing pages have traditionally been very plain, the epitome of function over form. Now, marketers are beginning to observe the basic principles of design. It's all about making a good first impression, and businesses won't be able to do that if they have a bland or boring website.

That said, function should still be a top priority, but making excuses for poorly designed websites because they are easy to use is no longer acceptable. Businesses need to strike a balance between both aspects.

Finally, businesses shouldn't be afraid to explore interactivity. Modern websites aren't just something consumers read, they engage with them. They want to be able to comment on content, "Like" their favorite products and share related pictures with brands.

"Instead of simply presenting a linear piece of text, landing pages might encourage visitors to click on different elements on the page to identify what's most relevant to the visitor," MarketingProfs suggests. "The simplest incarnation of that might be an embedded video that visitors could click to watch, or a 'lightbox' that lets visitors zoom in on a particular image, or a simple layout of multiple tabs of content that break out the different features of a product."

Landing pages are crucial components to multi channel marketing efforts, as they essentially tie the other aspects together. For example, a pay-per-click advertisement could lead to the landing page, as could a link in an email.
 

There are few things more sacred than a marketer's "from" name in an email. Consumers open messages based almost strictly on who they are from – if they recognize the name, they'll be more likely to open it than if they don't. Once businesses have established an email marketing campaign, few ever think to change their from name out of fear their open rates will drop.

However, as Email Marketing Reports author Mark Brownlow recently noted, sometimes a from name change can be good – it just has to be executed effectively. If businesses were using a company name and then just changed the from field to "customer service," that switch might not go over to well.

For example, Brownlow decided to see what would happen if he switched the from field name of "Email Marketing Reports" to "Mark at Email Marketing Reports." He had developed his name brand as the author of the reports and felt readers would respond to the change.

It worked – open rates were up 12.75 percent, while total click-through rates improved by 21.3 percent. Brownlow believes the change added a personal touch to the messages, making it seem as if recipients were receiving messages straight from him.

He was quick to note that this experiment doesn't mean every marketer should go adding their names to the from field – this worked for him but it may not be universally effective. Brownlow wasn't even positive the results from the test would hold up in the long run. However, it does show that changing the name in the from field of an email can work out for the better some times.

"Consider a voluntary from line change only when you have good reason to believe it might lift results [and] avoid changing to something that is unrecognizable," Brownlow explained. "Ensure other elements of the email are optimized to keep recognition high – preheader, logos, preview pane, subject line, etc. [Then,] test."

Experimentation should be the motto of every marketer. Advertisers should try using different copy, colors, images, headlines – everything they can. Only through in-depth testing can companies be sure they are getting the most from their multi channel marketing efforts.

Landing pages are crucial parts of advertising campaigns. It doesn't matter how much money marketers spend on their pay-per-click efforts. If their landing pages aren't well-designed and optimized, they aren't going to generate any sales.

That being said, it can be tough to get everyone on board a landing-page optimization effort. Most businesses would rather spend money generating clicks, visits and exposure rather than fine-tuning their landing pages. As MarketingSherpa notes, marketers can explain the importance of A/B tests, conversion rates and everything else associated with landing pages, but executives may still opt to focus on other elements of marketing.

When it comes to getting others on board with overhauling landing pages, the key is being persuasive and ensuring marketers can afford to do the whole project.

Make sure the money and time is available

Landing-page optimization can be a long and drawn-out process, and that of course means it will also cost money.

While most companies understand the importance of landing pages, there is no denying that marketing budgets have grown increasingly tight over the past few years. If marketers want to ensure their landing pages are optimized, it's going to take money, both to pay for design costs and the employee's time.

"The exact amount of money will vary considerably with your situation. Some marketers can leverage free testing tools and internal resources to create tests and get them running. Others will have to pay for development or consultants," the news source notes.

For most companies, the time sink is the biggest cost. Optimizing landing pages requires a huge time investment. Analytics must be measured, strategies need to be planned and websites have to be created and altered based on results. It isn't something that can be done in a single day, or even a week. Creating the best landing pages can take months.

Be prepared to persuade others

Once marketers know they have the proper time and resources to meaningfully optimize their landing pages, they will need to convince their clients or coworkers that the process will ultimately benefit them. The best way of doing this is by talking about the potential optimized landing pages can bring their company.

"You will inevitably be asked to estimate the potential impact of a testing program. This is a tricky question because the answer depends on many factors. You need to set expectations high enough to generate interest, but keep them low enough to prevent disappointment," MarketingSherpa recommends.

Marketers can do this by showing the numbers. For example, convince the necessary partners that better landing pages could lead to a certain percentage increase in sales conversions or leads. Then, translate those improvements into overall revenue.

Case studies of other companies that have optimized their landing pages can also be useful – it's hard to envision what benefits better landing pages can bring, but showing examples may make the concept easier to grasp.

As more companies begin to spend money on paid search initiatives, convincing them to overhaul their landing pages may not be as much of a challenge. During the first half of 2011, paid search budgets have increased by nearly $2 billion compared to the same time last year, according to research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.