Multi channel marketing, also known as cross-channel marketing, is the process of interacting with customers using a combination of indirect and direct channels. These include direct mail, mobile and social platforms, in-store and website channels.
Multi channel marketing is often confused with omni-channel marketing but the two aren’t entirely the same. Omni-channel marketing is the practice of coordinating a consistent message to customers across every possible channel that could spark a relevant interaction. Omni-channel isn’t all hype, but it certainly isn’t a universal reality yet. At this stage, it’s still just an aspiration for most brands – especially considering that many global brands are still struggling to do multi channel well.
To develop – and deliver – excellent multi channel marketing campaigns, your company needs to focus on its multi channel campaign management first. The following four areas are key to getting this right.
1. Get your data together
The starting point for successful multi channel campaign management is getting your customer data in working order. Accurate data is essential to delivering a superior customer experience, yet brands often buy expensive marketing technology before tidying up their databases.
You need to perform a thorough health check of your data first and foremost. Remove any customer details that are no longer useful and retain only the most business-relevant data points. These relate to customer buying behaviours such as repeat purchase rates, conversions and channel preferences. Make sure your data is clean enough to give you a clear and up-to-date view of who your customers are – and how you can engage with them efficiently.
The next step is to ensure that everyone across your company has access to that data. If any business-critical information is trapped in silos, your sales and marketing efforts will work against each other. Ideally, the marketing function should sit horizontally across the business. Everyone, regardless of actual role, needs to make sure that the company as a whole is delivering a top-notch customer experience.
2. Start profiling and segmenting
Customer segmentation helps you know your various audiences better, and target them more successfully. It divides your customer base into groups that share certain characteristics related to age or gender, buying habits and responsiveness. Segmentation captures behavioural indicators that determine various propensities, such as how likely a customer is to complete an online form or respond to an offer via email.
Once your database has been segmented, you can identify the different personas in your audience and work out who the best prospects are to engage with. That way you can focus your resources on targeting the most lucrative opportunities with relevant, personalised marketing communications.
3. Choose the right channels
Once you’ve completed profiling and segmenting your customers, you need to work out which marketing channels will target each group best. Successful multi channel campaign management doesn’t mean every channel. It’s about being where your customers are, and where it makes sense for your business to be.
Some channels simply won’t factor into your customer’s experience. WhatsApp, for example, may not the best way to target an audience of people over the age of 65, whilst 18-25 year olds may prefer to communicate via this channel.
Given the rate at which new channels are launching, delivering a consistent message to the right people, at the right time, via the right channels can be a challenge. Some brands have responded by appointing a customer experience team who can oversee specific channels, such as email, mobile and social.
4. Seek out multi channel campaign management technology
Choosing the right type of technology is crucial to support your multi channel marketing campaigns. That said, there is a confusingly wide range of options to choose from. Don’t try and procure every possible piece of software that promises the earth – you’ll only succeed at depleting your marketing budget and delivering an inconsistent and disparate customer experience.
It’s important to get your whole team on board with a superior and highly accessible marketing software. Marketing automation solutions like Adobe Campaign, have the capabilities to orchestrate and automate complex multi channel campaigns. They take care of labour-intensive and time-consuming manual processes, freeing up your marketing team to focus on improving the quality of your campaigns. This ensures that marketers are consistent, on-target and deliver the best possible customer experience.
