Interactive marketing gives consumers the power of choice. They can decide whether to scan a QR code, voice-activate the content, visit a social media profile, or complete any other action. If a person doesn’t feel like interacting with your brand right now, she doesn’t. Although it might seem to weaken customer engagement, such freedom is increasing customer satisfaction and conversions. People want to be treated with respect and hate pushy brands.

Recent statistics prove the growing impact of interactive communications. Interactive content has 2X more engagement than static. Around 88% of marketers plan to make at least 10% of their content interactive within the next two years. The same percentage believes interactive content differentiates them from competitors.

If you want to maximize the marketing impact of interactive customer experience, you should make it offline. When you connect physical interactions with digital content, customers are more likely to notice your product or service. They are tempted to visit the website after getting a print postcard with online shipping. Contests, quizzes, voice-activated messages also work great.

Want to get more ideas on increasing customer satisfaction and engagement through interactive offline experiences? Read on to learn the benefits of the interactive marketing trend and find practical examples.

What Is Interactive Marketing? Digital and Offline

Interactive marketing is a one-to-one marketing approach based on the idea that a brand directly responds to a customer’s activity. This activity may be anything from a real-time action to preferences, demands, or expectations. Using automation software, marketers set up unique workflows to offer personalized customer services and customer support to leads. As a result, when a person does a specific action, the software is triggered to interact with them in a particular way.

In recent years, interactive marketing has significantly evolved and become more complex. Focused on increasing customer satisfaction and engagement, marketers adopt the latest technologies and go omnichannel. From a purely digital discipline, interactive marketing grows into a comprehensive multichannel strategy uniting online and offline.

Whereas digital interactive marketing covers the combination of online experiences (e.g., online quizzes on websites), offline interactions happen in real life (e.g., triggered direct mail marketing trends). Even though they are connected with the online marketing resources of the brand, offline contact is the key. Keep reading to discover examples of interactive offline communications and use them to improve customer satisfaction.

Examples of Interactive Offline Communications Increasing Customer Reach, Customer Satisfaction and Engagement

To better explain how interactive offline communications work, we want to offer you some examples. They may become a great addition to your interactive marketing campaigns and start increasing customer satisfaction.

Example #1. Online Shipping Print with QR Codes

When a customer orders something at your store, interactive online shipping is a great chance to establish the connection. In China, around 65% of customers think that QR codes on product packaging help build trust. That’s why QR codes on the leaflets enclosed with online shipping are one of the mainstream interactive direct mail marketing trends.

Hence, if you run an e-commerce business, make sure to add a QR code forwarding to your website or social media to offline communications. Such mail campaigns inspire customers to scan the online shipping code and see what’s behind it. They also enhance customer loyalty and engagement through real-life interaction.

Read 7 Ways QR Codes Can Boost your Direct Mail Marketing

Example #2. Smart Speakers for Offline Offers

Voice-activated calls-to-action (VACTA) are the latest word in interactive offline communications. Marketers leverage the next-generation voice technology to get in touch with loyal customers through smart speakers directly.

How does it work? A person gets an offline message (TV, radio, mail campaigns, or print) with a unique code. After that, they tell smart speakers the code to fulfill a request (e.g., order a product) or share the necessary information.

This way, companies can sell more goods or measure customer satisfaction of their leads through satisfaction surveys. Given that over 60 million US citizens already have smart speakers, the marketing opportunities are enormous. You just need to stir consumers’ interest with an offline CTA to make them convert.

Example #3. TV Commercials

In 2021, 4.23 billion people around the world will be TV viewers. Despite the gradual decrease in the number of TV lovers, many are still watching TV shows and, most importantly, commercials. Interactive TV ads are often an alternative way to engage consumers that ignore digital or social media advertising. To make a simple commercial interactive, you can add a website link or a QR code. People that want to learn more about the offer will take their smartphones, point at the screen, and go directly to the necessary page.

Example #4. Trigger-Based Personalized Postcards

If, in addition to increasing customer satisfaction, you want to exceed customer expectations and how the customer feels about your brand, send personalized postcards. You can add the name of the person and a tailored message to attract attention. To ensure the message matches the moment, make it trigger-based.

For example, you can deliver print postcards for your customers’ birthdays or when they abandon the cart or receive their online shipping. Trigger-based postcards are among the most effective direct mail marketing trends in e-commerce. Besides, with modern software like Inkit, you can fully automate their printing and delivery.

Discover 5 Direct Mail Triggers to Perk Up Direct Marketing Strategy

Benefits of Interactive Marketing Communications Compared to Traditional Approaches

If you doubt whether any of these campaigns is worth launching, we have convincing arguments for you. Interactive direct mail marketing trends, voice-activated calls-to-action, and other interactive offline experiences outperform traditional methods in the following ways:

• Interactive marketing communications always happen at the right moment;
• Interactive marketing communications are increasing customer satisfaction through a more personalized approach;
• Interactive marketing communications provide more engaging content and, hence, encourage word-of-mouth marketing;
• Interactive marketing communications unite offline and online marketing experiences (e.g., triggered direct mail trends);
• Interactive content has a reusable value, which makes it quite multifunctional and cost-effective.
  

Finally, interactive messages are becoming the marketing basics. Realizing that interactive approaches improve customer satisfaction and engagement, more and more companies adopt them. They readily invest in marketing automation software to send time-sensitive messages based on real-time customer activities.

Inkit REP for Increasing Customer Satisfaction with Interactive Offline Communications

Inkit is a reach enablement platform (REP) that supports interactive offline communications for sending marketing and official messages. You can use it to join direct mail marketing trends and automatically deliver personalized postcards, leaflets, or letters based on triggers. Since Inkit has document rendering capabilities, it’s also suitable to deliver invoices, bills, notices, and other official communications necessary to provide customer service. To make sure the communications quickly reach the destination, Inkit automates address verification.

Such functionality makes Inkit a must-have solution for interactive offline messages. It fully automates all the related processes, from document rendering to printing and delivery. No need to worry about shipping rates or print labels.

Would you like to test Inkit and see how it works? Fill out the form to get the demo.