Marketing is full of channels through which to send messages. Some are more powerful than others.

With the rise of social media over the last half-decade, I fear that at times we’ve created an imbalance in how funds are allocated toward the quality of content through these channels. Sometimes we put too much effort into video and not enough into email. Or go all-in on social at the neglect of print. And so on.

But one example from Telluride made me stop and say, “Yeah, that’s a smart move…well played.” Here’s what that was.

Before
Print is not dead. Direct mail is even less dead. It’s one I have very little first-hand experience with but, from seeing the numbers and getting accounts from marketers, have been reminded again and again just how effective it still is.

Take that idea in the context of last year’s Telluride mailer.

Well designed but fairly basic in concept, it covered the direct mail base.

After
Now take a look at what Telluride put together for this year’s campaigns.

A really, really well-designed booklet full of smart combinations of information and visuals, all guided by a nice flow from topic to topic. It even featured a set of custom pages for different guest types and demographics they were mailing to.

It’s a huge step up from last year and those who dislike print might scoff at such an investment, but I can’t help but think that this is much closer to the time and attention that print content actually deserves.

Reevaluate
The more I read and studied both brochures, the more I kept asking myself a fairly simple question.

“Is the way we divide up our content-creation budget between different channels in balance?”

One that comes quickly to my mind (surprise, surprise) is HTML email templates. We’re spending gobs on high-end content production in other areas, yet email design – where so much value is driven – is, more often than not, an afterthought.

That’s one example, but I think Telluride’s step up in the print and direct mail game marks a good example and point for us all to ask ourselves the same thing.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.