What Makes A Great Multi-Channel Marketing Program

It is very rare today that I get a straight telemarketing project. When you can increase your return on marketing investment by 38% why would you? Today, the average adult uses four and a half connected devices to access the internet.  I know what you’re saying. Who uses a half a device? Don’t ask me, but the experts say we use a half a device.  As businesses are communicating with customers, it’s important that we understand the fundamental aspect of the user’s experience then tailor make our marketing strategies to fit them. Finding new customers and keeping in touch with customers truly requires a multi-channel strategy. When done right, multi-channel interactions pumps up and amplify your company and brand  just the way a conductor orchestrates the instruments of an orchestra to play together to build a richer fuller  musical experience than any one single instrument played alone. Benefits of Multi-Channel Customer Marketing Channel Preference Different people have their favorite channels. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Brandergy, email, text messages mobile push notifications, and yes phone calls – determining which channels are preferred by which customer is a powerful way to improve the response rates and uplift of your campaigns.   Channel Medium Different types of messages work better over different channels. Some examples are, Emails are obviously better suited for longer messages and in cases where the visual design plays an important role.  SMS text messages work best for short messages that have some urgency associated with them as well as Twitter. Facebook, LinkedIn, Brandgery  and Twitter are best suited to social communications or messages that are designed to “go viral,” etc. Multi-Channel Variety Our brains are made to differentiate between information that we need and retain versus information that we can discard immediately. Without this ability, we would be quickly overwhelmed with information and unable to function. The standard wisdom is that a consumer has to see a particular ad seven times before the message of the ad will even begin to sink in. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association will tell you the average person needs to see an ad SEVEN TIMES before he responds to it. It use to be we saw 1 out of every 3 marketing messages put before us. Now because our brains are able to ignore or discard most marketing messages, advertising must be repeated to get the audience’s attention. Repeating a message via different channels is much more effective than repeating it via a single channel. The common wisdom is that now only 1 out of every 7 messages are seen.  Yes that means on average it takes 49 marketing messages to get into the customers mind. Multi-Channel Synergy And Why The whole is almost always worth more than the sum of its parts. You should use multiple channels in ways that complement and support each other, multi-channel campaigns can generate better than expected results. For example, if there is no response to a push notification within a reasonable amount of time, we can use another channel to reinforce the message without annoying the customer. Then add in a phone call and it goes 38% better! The Challenges of Multi-channel Marketing Targeted Messaging Thanks to the abundance of channels and choices facing customers, delivering the message isn’t enough. Messaging must be tailored to the audience's preferences and take into consideration demographic, behavioral and transactional history, preferred channel and current location. Engaging customers this way will ensure that they not only receive your message, but are also attentive, receptive and willing to act – regardless of the channel. Highly choreographed campaigns Customers are everywhere, and you should always aim to be where your customers are. In addition, customers today have much more control over the buying process than marketers do. As a result, marketers must constantly develop and coordinate highly orchestrated touch points and micro-campaigns that span multiple channels fluidly, in a way that the customer finds meaningful and trustworthy. Marketing response attribution It is increasingly difficult to know which channels, campaigns or sequence of touch points contributed to qualified conversions and sales. Knowing what triggered each response would enable marketers to assess whether or not their marketing efforts are getting the best results. Leveraging Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies One of the keys to successful multi-channel customer marketing is managing all channels in a coordinated way, within the same framework. It is critical to maintain a single-customer-view customer database. Additionally, it is ideal to have a single campaign management framework for scheduling, executing and evaluating all customer campaigns via all channels. This assures full coordination of which customers are receiving which messages via which channels. The benefits of multi-channel marketing outweigh the challenges. With the right tools and know-how, it is a strategy bound to yield significant results.