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If you're a multichannel marketer in challenging economic times, it pays to think beyond your own four walls…or two covers…or URL…or whatever the case may be.

At the Direct Marketing Association's recent Catalog on the Road Day in Cambridge, MA, speakers shared their ideas on cost-effective ways to build bonds (and sales) with existing customers and prospects.

Tom Kothman, former CEO of Motherwear, noted that — no surprise — his best customers were new moms. To reach these women, his catalog of clothing and accessories for nursing mothers partnered with Parenting magazine. A free subscription was offered to customers who placed orders over $50. Over 1,000 customers responded, he said, and the average order for the campaign was 40% better than usual.

Motherwear also maintains a blog to connect with its audience, as does business-to-business high-tech marketer CDW Corp. Director of marketing operations James Garlow said tools like blogs and Webinars help position the company as a “voice of authority” in its various markets, as long as they aren't used to “hard sell” products.

CDW offers personalized Web sites for customers who log in when they visit CDW online. They aren't required to log in to browse, Garlow said, but if they do they receive special pricing based on purchase history.

E-mail is used to offer things like white papers to customers, to inform them about product options. Sales reps are sometimes told that a customer has received or viewed a white paper, so they can be aware of the sales opportunity. “Of course,” he cautioned, “things like this have to be done in a selective manner.”

Another firm considering the potential of blogging is BlueSky Brands Inc., which operates the Bits and Pieces, National Wildlife, Paragon and Winterthur catalogs. While making Web 2.0 profitable can be a challenge for shopping sites, the potential for getting feedback from brand advocates is tremendous, according to senior vice president of marketing Gary Smith.

“People are very willing to give you their opinion on virtually anything if you ask them,” he said.

Some companies have to recognize that their audience may not be ready for all the whiz-bang that comes with Web. 2.0. Vermont Country Store, for example, markets hard-to-find products that help folks connect with their memories.

“You need to figure out how to translate your brand into every channel,” said Laurence Shaw, Vermont Country Store's former vice president of marketing. “We don't want to slow the shopping experience with rich media, and we don't want customers to think we don't understand them.”

Mohan Namboodiri, director of customer insights for Williams-Sonoma Inc., said his company was getting ready to introduce a new Web site for its flagship high-end kitchen products brand that would include a better use of videos highlighting products and cooking demonstrations. There's an opportunity for WS to create a community built on things like recipe sharing, but the company isn't there yet.

While Williams-Sonoma can gauge customers' love for its products based on anecdotal evidence like the audience going wild when panini makers are given away on “Oprah,” it doesn't have a formal loyalty program.

“We do think about loyalty in terms of recency,” he said, “but in a time when customers want to talk back [to retailers] that might not be enough.”

Smith said BlueSky is building a corporate database. The opportunity obviously exists on the Web to communicate with the different segments within each brand. “Not all people buy all product categories, so there's an opportunity to segment communications relevantly.”

Relevant communications are essential to CDW as well, Garlow said: “Customers demand that we hit them with a vehicle that pertains to them.” For example, he added, while a hospital might want a $140,000 server, a small business probably wouldn't be interested.

When CDW looks at loyalty, the company finds that it varies widely depending on sector. On the government side, where the contact might typically build a strong bond with a sales rep, loyalty is very strong. Small firms, however, often mirror consumer behavior and move their business depending on factors like price or convenience.

Shoe marketer Aerosoles is using shoe mega-sites like Zappos.com to help build brand with a wider audience, said vice president of direct marketing Magnus Gustafsson. After customers have tried — and hopefully liked — the shoes from Zappos, the challenge is to convince them that they'd have a better overall brand experience on Aerosoles' site.

“Zappos is kind of like a prospecting channel for us,” he said.

For more articles on integration, go to http://directmag.com/disciplines/integration/.