Obviously, it's vital to make contact data quality a priority in order to maintain an accurate record of customers and know how to reach them for sales or advertising purposes. But once you establish that line of communication, you need to make a connection with the customer.

Some companies have struggled to find the best way to talk to their target audiences, while others are weighed down by the workload of managing multichannel advertising programs. Yet as Christopher Hosford writes for BtoB magazine, more companies are bridging the gap between email and direct mail by adopting automated solutions.

He points to a new service from Eloqua Corporation that automatically sends a piece of direct mail to email recipients who click through the digital message. This means that the consumers who are already primed by initial contact with the brand are receiving a follow-up mail piece, which could improve the response rate.

As Hosford notes, the material also features a quick response code or personalized URL, which enables the company to track its recipients' next moves and determine whether further follow-ups are necessary.

"There are things you can do with print you can't do with email, such as providing more and different image options," T. Baxter Denney, manager of database marketing at Citrix Online, told Hosford.