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There’s a gap between today’s multi-channel customer and too many marketers that don’t use or can’t measure multi-channel marketing. Most of us have mobile devices and use social media regularly. 25% of American mobile Web users are mobile-only (mobiThinking). Meanwhile 46% of US smartphone and tablet users plan to make holiday purchases via mobile devices this year. (eMarketer)
And yet, many marketers are not reaching audiences across multiple channels and most (80% of retailers) cannot quantify the impact of multi-channel marketing. (Aberdeen Group)
Here are nine insights to help you jump-start — or improve — your multi-channel marketing mix. (Or, as they say on the London Underground, “Mind the gap.”)
- Customers want a brand relationship, not simply a transactional or communication environment. Marketers need to use each channel effectively, delivering the right message (offer, promotion, news) in the right medium (email, social media, mobile).
- Consistent branding is key. Since there are a hodgepodge of channels, at least as far as the customer is concerned, consistent branding goes a long way to establishing a top-of-mind brand and winning new audiences in new channels.
- Measure customer channel preferences. There at least two ways to measure: (a) watch your customers and monitor, or (b) ask them. If you already have an email preference center (EPC) then that’s a good place to elicit channel preference.
- Use the right technology. There are a lot of tools out there that allow companies to manage consumer data, collaborate on social media outreach or measure customer complaints and praise. Finding the right software will help you create efficient and successful messages.
- Use email. The Aberdeen Group study found that 79% of “best-in-class” retailers use email marketing as part of their multi-channel marketing mix. “Email marketing lets retailers reach a broad audience cheaper than other methods of direct marketing. Additionally, retailers can integrate email into their customer analytics application to create targeted and personalized promotions.” According to the DMA, email achieves the highest ROI of any marketing channel.
- Social media is branding. Marketers are finding that blogs, Twitter and Facebook are effective mostly for for brand awareness and affinity.
- Mobile works for timely messages. Retailers use mobile (SMS and MMS) for targeted offers and mobile coupons, while B2B marketers use mobile channels to communicate revised pricing, program launches, outages and other time-sensitive information.
- Invest in emerging channels. There’s no guarantee you’ll get it right the first time, but since your customers are already living in a multi-channel world, you may as well speak to them where they live. Otherwise, you miss the opportunity and your brand begins to tarnish.
- Measure results. Most channels are very measurable. The question is not how to measure a channel but figuring out what to measure and how to compare measurement metrics.
Tags: campaigns, channels, Email, insight, marketin gmix, mind the gap, Mobile, mult-channel, results, smartphone, social, tablet, tactics
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