Multichannel marketing is something that everyone who is involved in them marketing, public relations or advertising industry should be familiar with, because this strategy is the most effective way to get your message out there.
In this article, we will be looking at multichannel marketing techniques, the benefits of using the strategy and giving you some good advice on how to make it work for your business.
What is Multichannel Marketing?
The first thing that we have to do is define multichannel marketing. The guiding principle behind multichannel marketing is to reach your customers using a variety of methods while remaining consistent with your overall marketing strategies. You interact with your customers using a variety of methods that utilize both direct and indirect communication. Some examples of these types of communications include direct mail, email campaigns, retail store, company website, paid search advertising, mobile advertising and many more. The reason that multichannel marketing is so effective is that it allows the consumer to choose how they are going to buy your products, meeting them where they are instead of making them come to you.
Why is Multichannel Marketing Important?
Multichannel marketing is extremely important for businesses, not only because you have to be where your customers are, but also because you want to give them as many chances to find you as possible and each new channel that is used will give them a slightly different impression. You never know what it is going to take to get them to become interested in your brand. Studies have shown that multichannel customers spend nearly four times as much as those who get their information from a single channel. Customers today have a great deal of control over the products that they buy and those who arent doing multichannel marketing are going to lose those customers who want more information and more options.
The Benefits of Multichannel Marketing
There are number of benefits to multichannel marketing. The first of these is increased awareness. In other words, since you are putting your ad out there in so many different places, it is bound to be seen by some of your target audience. If you are fishing in the ocean, and you only want to catch tuna, then you need to go where the tuna are or have as many nets in the water as you can manage. In addition, customers will be more open to your message if you speak to them over a channel that they prefer. Depending upon the length of your buying cycle, you may need to communicate with potential customers several times before you can get a conversion. This is another benefit of multichannel marketing.
Keys to Multichannel Marketing Success
You also want to make sure that you know how to use multichannel marketing successfully and that means understanding the keys to success. There are three keys that you want to keep in mind. First, determine who your customer is, and maintain a consistent view of the customer across all of your marketing channels. Second, establish a multichannel marketing platform that you can use whenever you run a campaign. Having a platform already designed is kind of like a game developer licensing a well-known gaming engine a lot of the work is already done for you. Finally, make sure that you are not emphasizing one channel over another. You want the customer experience to be consistent over all of the channels youre using.
Your Multichannel Marketing Strategy
You are definitely going to have to have a strategy if you are doing multichannel marketing. Some of the elements of your strategy should include campaign management, which allows you to create a workflow and segment audiences, and advanced analytics strategy which not only helps you predict what will work for your current campaign; it also helps you optimize the campaign while you are running it; capabilities for managing content, triggering events and making decisions in real time, as well as the ability to use new and old media channels and discover brand-new channels along the way. Emerging channels can give you some of the biggest returns if youre able to jump on them early, and the only way to know when they come along is to have a strategy that allows for them.
The Importance of Consistency
Consistency is really important when it comes to multichannel marketing. Part of the reason is that you are not just promoting a particular product and service with your advertising campaigns; you are promoting your overall brand. Most of your customers are going to experience your marketing on multiple channels, and if you are not consistent, then they are going to get the impression that your brand is not a solid as it could be.
Whatever channels you are using, you want each of them to present your brand in the best possible way and give the customer a positive experience. Customers may not interact with your brand on every channel, but they still see your brand on every channel, and that impression can determine whether or not they will convert down the road.
Fulcrum-Tip: This is especially true for businesses that have longer sales cycles. If the buying cycle last for several weeks or months, you dont want to talk a potential customer out of converting because of inconsistency, especially after you have done all of the work to get them as far along as you have.
Conclusion
There are a lot of reasons to use multichannel marketing. The benefits of this strategy have been shown over and over. The downside is; the more marketing channels that you are using the more money you are going to have to spend and the more time youre going to be putting into marketing. However, the long-term rewards are worth it. Do some research and figure out which channels are going to fit your brand best, and then create a strategy that will allow you to market consistently over all of those channels at once.