The Social/Mobile Balancing Act

In cross-channel marketing campaigns, it can often feel like a business is spinning plates, trying to find the perfect strategy and budget for each component without letting the others become ineffective.

A recent Direct Marketing News debate between David Chapman of 919 Marketing Company and Adam Shlachter of MEC covers what the ideal balance is between social, email and mobile spend this year. Some marketers may be wondering whether devoting more dollars to social media marketing and mobile than email is a good idea.

Chapman says it is, with a caveat: "Marketers and businesses should spend more money on the marketing programs that are working best for them in 2012. If it's not broken, why try to fix it?" Assess the current setup, he advises, and if it seems that email would be less effective than social and mobile in supplementing and advancing other "traditional marketing activities," feel free to divert some of the budget. An added bonus in beefing up social and mobile is that it can create a greater amount of consumer engagement.

With more people using mobile and social - Facebook alone has approximately 845 million users - it's wise to diversify the marketing campaign beyond the "push channels," especially since consumers now have the power and can push back against brands, he notes.

"Therefore, in addition to 'pushing' customers toward their products and services via traditional marketing tools, it's also important for brands to 'pull' them toward their brand by contributing to online conversations and offering up valuable discounts through texts and social media posts," Chapman argues.

Conversely, Shlachter says even with social and mobile's explosive growth and potential, email remains a "more mature channel" that can deliver higher marketing ROI and draw a connection between the brand and the consumer. He adds that brands must invest in the emerging channels, but shouldn't sacrifice the performance of the tried-and-true tactics in order to do so.