The Inkjet Summit kicked off this week in its virtual form but the opening speaker on Tuesday was an unusual one for this event. Tim Curtis is the President and CEO of the agency CohereOne which he describes as a “data-driven direct marketing agency.” He delivered a very data-driven and compelling presentation on the value of print in the multi-channel direct marketing ecosystem. The session titled: “Print – An Emerging Digital Marketing Champion” turned the positioning of print on end. Print is not a competitor to digital marketing but rather a valuable partner that can both drive customers on line, and drive continued engagement following online interaction. Full-color production inkjet has provided the critical catalyst to allow print and digital campaigns to align. Curtis noted that, historically,  print has been relegated a the top of the funnel in a funnel based marketing model. But blending of print and digital campaigns allow engagement at the bottom of the funnel as well. For example postal retargeting using purely digital cues from a website such as abandoned carts or abandoned browsers to deliver targeted print marketing can be extremely effective. This approach takes all of the advantages of online in terms of personalization and targeting and marries it with the equally personalized print to deliver of haptic value and staying power. In shifting the mindset from digital as a competitor to print, Curtis suggest that printers need to have a betting understanding of digital marketing in order to succeed and align print with other channels. Brands often think in terms of ROA or Return on Ad Spend, but Curtis says they should be looking at a more granular level – when and where are we spending money across channels and how much are we getting back? Also to look at the interaction between types of spend. Curtis said “It’s a dirty little secret, there’s a very deep link between print and paid search demand.” That may sound counterintuitive, but Curtis cites clients where paid search demand has fallen by 50 – 76% when print is not part of the equation. Often brands don’t mail to their “digitally engaged customers” thinking that it is unnecessary. Curtis showed examples where incorporating print doubled what digital was able to do alone. Another challenge for many companies is a limited email universe due to failure to collect, bounce back or opt-out. Curtis cited one client where 82% of the customer file was not able to receive email due to opt out or no email on file. But if you have physically mailed product to the customer, you have the delivery address. Printers need to understand and embrace what digital is doing well and then show customers how you can take it up a notch with print. Leverage data showing print supporting the full spectrum from acquisition to retention and reactivation and working in tandem with digital to build long-terms growth. Printers also need to understand the methods for making print more interactive and linking to digital channels. This was not a topic covered during this session, but it will be covered in an upcoming webinar on WhatTheyThink, "Beyond Print: Technologies for Augmenting Print Reality" hosted by Richard Romano. You may also want to check out the information shared by Lands' End on their testing of digital, direct mail and catalog mailings on our recent webinar "Rethinking Catalogs." As all of these channels and print and digital approaches merge, marketing is becoming more sophisticated. The old rules of funnels and stand-alone models don't work. It's a multi-channel, multi-model, multi-modal marketing world where change is accelerating. Our best tool is our ability to gather data, learn from it and sell with it. Curtis closed the session with a timeless message from advertising luminary David Ogilvy "Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving." I think that message applies to a lot more than advertising.