What is A Multichannel Marketing Strategy?
A one-size-fits-all solution is great for some things. Unfortunately, marketing isn’t one of them.
Your customers are unique. They can be found in different stages of life, they have different interests, and their purchasing preferences vary greatly.
If your customers are unique, shouldn’t your approach to marketing be unique as well?
As the name suggests, multichannel marketing refers to the approach of targeting customers through multiple marketing mediums and sharing relevant messages with them. This type of marketing enhances the customer experience by combining digital and physical methods to create personalized messages.
Let’s take a look at a few of the perks of investing in a multichannel marketing strategy!
Benefits of Multichannel Marketing
Marketing has changed. Many years ago, you could get away with choosing a single marketing strategy, stick with it, and see exceptional results.
However, since the advent of the internet, businesses are becoming increasingly aware of how important it is to target their customers through multiple channels.
Here are 8 reasons why this is true:
Connect with Customers
A multichannel approach to marketing allows businesses to connect with customers on all of their favourite devices, across all of their favourite platforms. In fact, 72% of consumers say they would rather connect to brands and businesses through multiple channels.
Increase Engagement
When you reach out to your customers through multiple channels you have the potential to significantly increase their engagement. For example, a company that sends out a piece of direct mail with their social media handles printed on the piece increases the likelihood that readers will follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other platform they might be on.
Keep up with On-the-go Customers
People are busier than ever before. In today’s world, you need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice or you’ll be left behind. This makes it important for businesses to consider how they’re going to reach customers who barely have the time to stop for lunch, let alone consume your brand’s message.
Multichannel marketing allows you to keep up with busy customers while they’re on the go. For example, an individual riding the LRT to work might see a print ad on the window, then scroll through their phone and see an ad from the same company on Facebook.
Having your brand appear multiple times on different channels throughout the day helps create a sense of relevancy for your company in the eyes of the consumer.
Get a Leg Up On Competition
Businesses are becoming aware of how important it is to share their message through multiple channels. However, despite this, 21% of marketers claim they lack the understanding to develop multichannel marketing campaigns.
If you’re able to jump on board now, you’ll gain a significant edge over your competitors.
Learn how here.
Expand Your Customer Base
Another benefit of multichannel marketing is that it allows you to increase your customer base. In many cases, marketing is a numbers game. Using more channels will mean there are more eyes on your brand which generally correlates with more customers for your business.
Decrease Customer Acquisition Costs
Multichannel marketing allows you to target your customers in the places they’re most likely to engage with. This means your message will be better received and you can acquire customers for a fraction of the price compared to using a “shotgun” approach where you target everyone, everywhere.
Gather Useful Data
As you continue to optimize your multichannel campaigns, you will begin to gather massive amounts of data on your customers. This is critical, considering that businesses that deploy a data-driven marketing strategy deliver 5-8x the ROI on marketing spend.
Data provides a number of valuable insights. For example, which demographic is engaging with your messages on each respective platform? Where does your brand’s message have the most impact? How can you adjust your targeting to increase your marketing ROI?
The answers to these and other questions will begin to present themselves as you continue to assess your multichannel marketing campaign.
For more on how data-driven marketing can help your business, see this post.
Target High-Value Customers
The more campaigns you run, the easier it is to see which demographic is responsible for generating the majority of your revenue. Once you have this information, you can double down and target this cohort through several different channels.
Build Brand Recognition and Relationships
If you focus on creating great content across multiple channels, consumers will take notice and reward your efforts with their loyalty.
For example, a blog post that provides useful information to customers increases the chances that they’ll come to you for answers (or products and services) in the future when they need them.
The Different Types of Marketing Channels
There are a number of different marketing mediums that can be incorporated into your multichannel marketing strategy:
- Direct mail
- Email
- Text
- Social media
- Personalized landing pages
- Websites
- Catalogues
- Blog posts
Keep in mind, this list is non-exhaustive. There are dozens of more channels that might prove to be effective for your business.
The Power of Print in Multichannel Marketing
When it comes to multichannel marketing, print mediums deserve special consideration. Here’s why:
- 56% of marketers find print to be the most trustworthy type of marketing.
- 92% of 18-23-year-olds find it easier to read print over digital content.
- Print marketing is proven to increase the effectiveness of other forms of advertising.
Here are some ways print can enhance the effectiveness of your multichannel marketing strategy: