Never put all your eggs in one basket. The same holds for marketing. As a matter of fact, employing multichannel marketing is a critical strategy for companies today. Multichannel marketing means using two or more mediums in a coordinated effort to interact with customers and prospects and move them through the sales funnel to fulfill company goals. It’s not a new concept, and the traditional marketing that existed before present-day technologies typically used several coordinated channels to feed a sales funnel.
Today, marketing channels can be divided into three general categories: Digital Channels like a well-designed, managed, and optimized (SEO) website, active social media sites, or email campaigns; Out-Of-Home options like billboards, print ads, and vehicle wraps and Collateral Marketing Materials like brochures, catalogs and one-pagers. The channels should support and feed each other for maximum results.
Why Multichannel Marketing Works
There are several reasons why a multi-pronged approach to marketing has always worked better than an all-eggs-in-one-basket approach. Generally, a company has a wider reach, more opportunities to engage, more effective engagement through targeted content, and more opportunities to collect useful data.
- Amplify Your Reach: Using various channels means you meet potential clients and customers where they are. The more media you use, the wider your marketing reach will be. Some people never read unsolicited emails; others don’t ever read magazines. Some love all things social media, and others avoid all the platforms.
- Reinforce Your Brand to Boost Engagement: The more often someone sees your logo and reads your message, the stronger your brand and the more likely a person will be to step into the sales funnel.
- Customize Messages and Content: By using several marketing channels, you can tailor your message to each audience using different types of content, such as blog posts, videos, and white papers, to appeal to varied audiences.
- More Data Collection Points: A company must collect data to measure and adjust marketing efforts and improve success. A multichannel campaign creates more opportunities to gather information about potential customers and build a more accurate buyer profile.
How to Choose the Channels
Successful companies try as many channels as possible and evaluate them in different combinations to find what works for them. Different channels or marketing options work for different audiences, so considering a company’s target audience and buying persona can help decide what to try. Various combinations of marketing efforts may work for different industries and companies. Reading reliable articles about what marketing works in your industry might help you choose your initial channels. For example, what works for a construction company or architect may not be the best for a retailer or restaurant. Research plus trial, evaluation, and adjustment are what it takes to find your perfect multichannel marketing strategy.
Start with Digital
Channels should include digital options starting with a website and search engine optimization.
Here are most of the digital choices:
- Website: This should be your anchor. A well-designed and informative site should feed the sales funnel.
- SEO (search engine optimization): Be sure your website appears high on search results in organic searches by following the search spider’s preferences.
- Paid Search: In competitive fields, you might want to pay the search engine (i.e. Google) for a spot high on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
- SMS or Short Messaging Service: SMS is text message marketing and it appeals to some buyers. However, it can also annoy some customers.
- Email: Email campaigns are an ideal channel for sending targeted messages to your audience that can then connect them with other media and move them forward in the sales funnel. Email has one of the highest ROIs in marketing today.
- Social media: In service industries, social media might be a lower priority, but all companies need a presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
- Chat: One more recent tool for social media sites is live chat and chatbots, where Human or AI-powered software offers immediate customer service.
Out-Of-Home
Forbes defines OOH as “anything in the physical world that can be used as an advertising canvas — from massive billboards to wallscapes to street art.” Other experts also include a few other indoor possibilities like print ads. Essentially, these channels reach people when they are not at home.
Here are a few:
- Billboards and Signs can include lighted signs on a highway, yard signs, or building site signs, all of which build brand recognition. You might also use posters at train stations or airports or even street furniture.
- Vehicle Wraps or Signage, including company vehicles and bus, train, and taxi signage and posters
OOH has a couple of advantages over digital marketing. You can’t turn it off, and in many cases, it has much less competition for the viewer’s attention. OOH also complements digital advertising. For example, a study found consumers are 48% more likely to interact with a digital ad after seeing an OOH ad.
Print Collateral Marketing
Traditional, printed sales and marketing materials remain important in a company’s arsenal. They can be used to market individual services or products and serve to reinforce a brand. This channel includes sales materials like business cards, brochures, catalogs, flyers, white papers, proposals, and testimonials. It also includes imprinted business gifts and giveaways, from printed pens to corporate apparel.
Channels Feeding and Supporting Each Other
Cross-channel marketing should work towards specific goals like moving a customer through a sales funnel towards requesting a quote, making an appointment, or making a purchase or commitment. Connecting the various channels increases exposure and marketing results exponentially. For example, every email should have links to the website. A social media post could also include links or encourage someone to download a white paper or case study that links to a website page. The links can be to the main page, service page, or contact page, depending on the original message and what a reader might need.
Multichannel Marketing Challenges
While the benefits are tremendous, there are a few challenges to multichannel marketing. More channels mean more planning, work, oversight, and evaluation. Using multiple channels can cost more too, but when a company finds the right combination, the investment becomes worth it. While determining ROI from a single marketing effort can be simple, with a multichannel system where all the channels feed each other, income attribution can be difficult. For example, if a customer finds your website from another source, like a print ad or email campaign, but is convinced to click through to the website because of the number of worksite signs they have seen in the city, that makes attribution tricky.
Relying on one or even two marketing channels can severely limit a company’s growth. Each channel has a limited audience. Consumers and potential clients often base decisions on brand recognition, and multichannel marketing increases brand exposure. Whichever channels a company chooses, by regularly evaluating results and making incremental changes, it can perfect its multichannel marketing strategy.