Using Alternative Media Programs to Acquire Customers, Grow Sales

Envision your customer receiving a package from their most recent online shopping spree with you and included with their order are free samples and valuable offers from chosen partners. The samples and offers are a means of thanking your customer for their business. Meanwhile, the chosen partners reach consumers when they're receptive to ads in a noncompetitive, uncluttered environment and you, as the one sending the package, generate revenue by charging those partners a media rate.

This method of alternative media to generate incremental revenue has been in existence for over 50 years and is forever expanding. All genres of companies, from online-only retailers to catalogers, financial organizations to utility service providers, can develop a new revenue stream by including inserts and samples in their customer touchpoints.

Depending on the number of available customer touchpoints, you could potentially generate millions of dollars in revenue with minimal resources. Typically, companies that monetize their customer touchpoints use a media management agency with the experience to build and maximize their revenue. A media manager will execute all marketing and sales, ad trafficking, and processing of advertisement agreements and invoicing. They essentially become an extension of your staff, handling all facets of the alternative media program.

Getting started begins with a simple analysis of your customer touchpoints to determine what can accommodate a third-party insert or sample. The analysis should include a review of logistics to see how workflow would be impacted by inclusion of inserts/samples and any additional operational costs that might be incurred. If you're already including bounceback collateral in your customer touchpoints, the third-party advertisements would just be an addition to your existing workflow.

As a marketer, including inserts or samples into another company's customer touchpoints is a means to generate leads and drive traffic to your brick-and-mortar stores and website. Alternative media can reach millions of households, targeting many different demographics — e.g., men, women, teens, families, new moms, active seniors, affluent households, college students and more. Typically, the media rate is based on a cost per thousand inserts or samples and can sometimes include a digital component to develop an integrated media campaign. Marketers who use alternative media find it to be a cost-effective method of generating new customers at an affordable return on investment.

If you're looking for a new way to generate incremental revenue or reach new customers, consider an alternative media program as your next new venture.

Sandra Roscoe is the senior vice president of PlusMedia, a direct response marketing agency. Sandra can be reached at sandra.roscoe@plusme.com.