Remember the days when web and email were the pioneers of online advertising? Marketing was so much simpler back then – but the opportunities were very limited, of course. You could seamlessly reach customers while they’re on their computers, but even then, you’d still have to compete with countless other emails and ads fighting for their attention.
Fast-forward to today, there’s an increasing number of opportunities to reach customers and prospects than we could ever imagine not so long ago. Businesses can now engage with customers through more channels, such as social media, email newsletters, mailers, display ads, stores, and more, to make better data-driven decisions and transform insights into actions that lead to marketing and spending efficiency.
There’s no doubt that today’s customers have more control over the buying process than marketers do. But since consumers can now access marketing information through a variety of devices, you must take a customer-centric approach to manage and optimize campaigns for each channel so you can improve your customer experience across all channels and maximize your returns.
Let’s take a closer look at how multi-channel marketing can create a strong foundation that resonates with your customers and grows your company.
Expand your reach and boost customer engagement and conversion rates
Whether you are a business owner or a marketer, your primary goal is to attract as many consumers as you can. However, if you seek to engage your audience through a single channel, you’ll just be hindering your growth. For instance, if you only communicate with your audience on Facebook, you’ll be missing out on the opportunity to connect with customers who prefer Instagram, Twitter, or other social networks.
Single-channel marketing significantly limits your possibilities. Businesses that use different touchpoints have a much greater chance to communicate with and sell to more customers. This approach helps them cast the widest net for more opportunities to increase their market potential and allows customers to make a purchase how, where and when they want it.
By strategizing your campaign across multiple platforms and devices, you’ll see more engagement from customers. Not convinced? Well, 72% of consumers say they would rather connect with brands and businesses through multiple channels. Plus, multi-channel business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns see a 24% increase in ROI compared to marketing through a single channel.
Increase revenue
Sales and profits are the primary measures of every company’s success. Multi-channel marketing capitalizes on that fact by putting your business in front of more people. Naturally, when you engage with customers through multiple channels, the exposure and credibility of your brand also increase. Because of this, a customer is more likely to make more purchases and recommend others if they like your products. And the result? Increased revenue and brand equity, just to name a few. Once your multi-channel marketing campaign is executed properly, it’s only a matter of time before your brand catapults to fame and fortune.
Provide a positive brand experience and build lasting relationships
There’s nothing more annoying to a customer than being bombarded with spammy emails and ads in their inbox. These kinds of interruptions can ruin the consumer experience, rather than creating a smooth experience across their devices. By marketing through multiple channels, you can understand your customers better and reach them on the right platform, so they are less likely to see your ad as spammy or annoying. This presents a valuable opportunity for you to develop brand loyalty among customers, create a positive brand experience and build longer-lasting relationships with them.
Market your content based on your customers’ preference
Every customer might have different tastes in products and how they receive messages. Some might prefer to buy online whereas others might prefer buying in a physical store or when there’s a sale or an exhibition. In terms of channels, some customers might prefer to receive messages through mobile push notifications, email, text messages, and/or phone calls. With this in mind, a multi-channel marketing approach helps you determine which products or channels are preferred by which customer personas, thus allowing you to refine your strategy so you can increase response rates and customer engagement.
Drive relevant content to your customers
Rather than sending a massive ad-filled banner to your entire audience, a data-driven strategy allows you to put the right content in front of the right people in the right places. Multi-channel marketing also lets you reconnect with customers through retargeting, drip emails, personalization, etc.
Case Study: How Springwell Water has found multi-channel marketing success!
Springwell Water Systems have been embracing new technologies that have the potential to skyrocket the company’s growth and impact. With over 20 years of experience in creating some of the most state-of-the-art whole house water filtration systems in America, the company has set out on various marketing campaigns that would help them seamlessly reach a diverse audience. To achieve this, the company understood that its customers are everywhere, but are likely on different platforms and that they might have different preferences on how they receive messages.
Considering that, Springwell Water developed a unique marketing strategy that would allow them to use multiple channels to drive more engagement to their website, boost sales and revenue, increase market potential, and gain a competitive advantage.
They used a pretty simple (but powerful) service called Yotpo, a third-party integration platform that accelerates business growth with a full suite of solutions for customer reviews, visual marketing, loyalty, and referrals. The service auto publishes raving reviews to all of their social media channels like Facebook & Twitter. Yotpo builds trust with potential customers as it markets to past customers to generate real reviews. This has increased its online e-commerce sales by over 45%.
This service allows Springwell to reach their target audiences through several powerful integrations and other practices like retargeting, personalization, and drip emails. Springwell has managed to achieve great success in their multi-channel marketing efforts, which many companies, both big and small, can use as a blueprint to level up their marketing campaigns.
Verdict
People are connected now than ever before. That means businesses need a marketing approach that will help build their presence on various channels, devices, and platforms. In this way, they can respond to customer decisions and interact and connect with audiences on any channel they prefer. All in all, multi-channel marketing must become a way of life for any company that wants to survive in this technology-driven world.
