How to Ace Cross-Channel Marketing Strategies
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Published:
December 28, 2023
Reading Time:
6 minutes
The proliferation of digital communications has transformed the consumption habits of people. A study discussed in the Harvard Business Review found that 73% of consumers surveyed use multiple channels during their buying journey. A survey by Google showed that consumers interact with an average of 3.4 touchpoints before making the purchase on a desktop.
This reality has crucial implications for firms’ marketing strategies. Many companies are now racing to keep up with the change to ensure the messages they want to convey are delivered to the right target audience in a variety of platforms they use.
In this blog post, let’s explore what are the key marketing channels in an increasingly fragmented market and how to cope with challenges in implementing cross-channel marketing strategies. Consultport also offers our insights into effective strategies to enhance audience engagement across platforms.
This reality has crucial implications for firms’ marketing strategies. Many companies are now racing to keep up with the change to ensure the messages they want to convey are delivered to the right target audience in a variety of platforms they use.
In this blog post, let’s explore what are the key marketing channels in an increasingly fragmented market and how to cope with challenges in implementing cross-channel marketing strategies. Consultport also offers our insights into effective strategies to enhance audience engagement across platforms.
Key Marketing Channels
The growth of digital communications has opened up more opportunities for consumers to access content and products via a number of channels. It is necessary for firms to have relevant content where, when, and how consumers, prospects, and customers are looking for it. Main marketing channels include:
- Websites: company site, local branches, department sites, microsites.
- Blogs: Separate blogs based on verticals, market segments, or internal departments and/or sub-brands.
- Newsletters: segmented in a similar way with blogs.
- Sponsored content: company content is placed on a third party site, commonly an article or blog post.
- Video: YouTube, Vimeo, Meerkat, Snapchat.
- Audio: iTunes, SoundCloud.
- Landing pages: Single CTA, one-page site for events, content downloads, newsletter signups.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- An effective cross-channel marketing strategy must be visible, measurable, personalized and budget optimized.
- Data is of critical importance for marketers to understand their customers, facilitate personalization and measure the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.
- Firms that have brand consistency are more likely to be successfully implement their cross-channel marketing strategies.
Challenges in Implementing Cross-Channel Marketing
There are a number of challenges that a firm may encounter when implementing cross-channel marketing strategies.
They have to find the right time to display ads on many channels. Each platform, however, has different practices. What works for TV ads may not be applicable for Facebook posts.
It is challenging for marketers to create different offers on different channels while still maintaining coherence and consistency of the message in all channels. In addition, they must also avoid duplication and overload for audiences.
To have a balance of all these challenging tasks, it is important to have a clear strategy, a unified vision and effective implementation.
A survey showed that about 42% of those surveyed who work in customer analytics find it hard to have quality data.
Data is crucial for marketers to know the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. They need to understand how consumers change from one platform to another and align their behaviors between all of them.
The amount of data is huge and it is important to understand what types of data is relevant for the strategy. With high quality data, marketers have good insights for decision-making.
Therefore, customer data can facilitate personalization. The ability to obtain and interpret data into meaningful implications will help firms provide personalized experiences for customers.
Analytics of data also allows firms to create relevant and engaging content for their customers. Data also enables the firm to find out where their customers have or lose their interest so that it can improve customers’ experience.
Data is especially crucial in creating a seamless cross-channel customer journey. According to Forbes, the integration and automation of offline and online consumer behaviors facilitate the most successful cross-channel experience for customers.
About 80% of surveyed consumers are more likely to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences. This is aligned with the marketing practices. A study by Evergage showed that 78% of marketers agree personalization has a “strong” to “extremely strong” impact on customer relationships.
Companies can collect information about consumers from CRM platforms, point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs, online accounts, email registrations, and third-party sources.
There are a few questions that a marketer should keep in mind to get started with using data for personalization:
Brand consistency can facilitate brand recognition, enhance trust and credibility, and serves as a competitive advantage for a firm.
To ensure brand consistency across channels, firms first need to have a clear understanding of their branding. What is the brand’s mission, values, identity, voice, messages, and unique selling points? These are the questions that a marketer should ask.
Once they have a firm understanding of branding, it is important to make a brand style guide. It includes regulations for verbal, written and visual elements of the brand across channels.
It is also important to train the team, partners and stakeholders to ensure the brand strategy is implemented consistently across different platforms.
In addition, firms also need to conduct regular review and update of the branding while ensuring the messages are still consistent.
The software and tools are of crucial help in automating repetitive marketing tasks such as email and social media campaigns. Using tools enables them to increase their brand’s presence in multiple channels.
According to a survey, 60% of respondents used web analytics platforms such as Adobe SiteCatalyst or IBM CoreMetrics to manage cross-channel messaging efforts. It is followed by email marketing service providers (53%), social media management tools (39%), and campaign management and automation platforms (32%).
One of the popular software for social media management is Brandwatch. It is designed to help companies manage, streamline and analyze their marketing activities across social media platforms. Among its highlights, data aggregation and scheduling and publishing features are the most notable.
Reaching audiences at the right time on the right platform
About 40% of surveyed marketers found that leveraging strategies to reach their target audience at the right time is one of the biggest challenges.They have to find the right time to display ads on many channels. Each platform, however, has different practices. What works for TV ads may not be applicable for Facebook posts.
It is challenging for marketers to create different offers on different channels while still maintaining coherence and consistency of the message in all channels. In addition, they must also avoid duplication and overload for audiences.
To have a balance of all these challenging tasks, it is important to have a clear strategy, a unified vision and effective implementation.
Demand for high quality data
While data is a crucial element that determines the effectiveness of a cross-channel marketing strategy, the collection of quality data itself might be a challenge for many marketers.A survey showed that about 42% of those surveyed who work in customer analytics find it hard to have quality data.
Data is crucial for marketers to know the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. They need to understand how consumers change from one platform to another and align their behaviors between all of them.
The amount of data is huge and it is important to understand what types of data is relevant for the strategy. With high quality data, marketers have good insights for decision-making.
Cross-channel Marketing Strategies
Cross-channel Personalization with Data
The first step in personalization across the channels is to understand the customers. Data analytics can offer firms insights into their customers across platforms. A customer dataset gives companies an overview of their customers’ background, preferences and interests.Therefore, customer data can facilitate personalization. The ability to obtain and interpret data into meaningful implications will help firms provide personalized experiences for customers.
Analytics of data also allows firms to create relevant and engaging content for their customers. Data also enables the firm to find out where their customers have or lose their interest so that it can improve customers’ experience.
Data is especially crucial in creating a seamless cross-channel customer journey. According to Forbes, the integration and automation of offline and online consumer behaviors facilitate the most successful cross-channel experience for customers.
About 80% of surveyed consumers are more likely to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences. This is aligned with the marketing practices. A study by Evergage showed that 78% of marketers agree personalization has a “strong” to “extremely strong” impact on customer relationships.
Companies can collect information about consumers from CRM platforms, point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs, online accounts, email registrations, and third-party sources.
There are a few questions that a marketer should keep in mind to get started with using data for personalization:
- Which data points would they need for personalization across channels?
- What attributes about their customers or business drive the segmentation strategies?
- Which platform will be the system of record for the consolidated customer profile?
- How will that data be passed between marketing systems?
Cross-channel Brand Consistency
According to research, brands that can maintain consistency are 3.5 times more likely to enjoy strong visibility than those with inconsistent brand recognition. Brand consistency also contributes to revenue growth. The 2021 Brand Consistency Report revealed two thirds of businesses agreed that brand consistency contributes to revenue growth of 10% or more.Brand consistency can facilitate brand recognition, enhance trust and credibility, and serves as a competitive advantage for a firm.
To ensure brand consistency across channels, firms first need to have a clear understanding of their branding. What is the brand’s mission, values, identity, voice, messages, and unique selling points? These are the questions that a marketer should ask.
Once they have a firm understanding of branding, it is important to make a brand style guide. It includes regulations for verbal, written and visual elements of the brand across channels.
It is also important to train the team, partners and stakeholders to ensure the brand strategy is implemented consistently across different platforms.
In addition, firms also need to conduct regular review and update of the branding while ensuring the messages are still consistent.
Integration of Technology and Tools
Digital marketing has developed rigorously from relying mainly on print ads to using complex cross-channel marketing automation software. In response to this change, marketers have adopted many technologies and tools to support their cross-channel efforts.The software and tools are of crucial help in automating repetitive marketing tasks such as email and social media campaigns. Using tools enables them to increase their brand’s presence in multiple channels.
According to a survey, 60% of respondents used web analytics platforms such as Adobe SiteCatalyst or IBM CoreMetrics to manage cross-channel messaging efforts. It is followed by email marketing service providers (53%), social media management tools (39%), and campaign management and automation platforms (32%).
One of the popular software for social media management is Brandwatch. It is designed to help companies manage, streamline and analyze their marketing activities across social media platforms. Among its highlights, data aggregation and scheduling and publishing features are the most notable.
Conclusion
The changing consumption habit of customers urges companies to leverage their cross-channel marketing efforts. To take full advantage of a cross-channel marketing strategy, the company must ensure it is visible, measurable, personalized and budget optimized.
If your company is pondering the question of how to ace a cross-channel marketing strategy and does not know where to start, don’t hesitate to contact Consultport. With substantial experience at leading and innovative companies, our consultants will bring fresh ideas to your company, helping to ace the most challenging strategies to achieve your goals.
If your company is pondering the question of how to ace a cross-channel marketing strategy and does not know where to start, don’t hesitate to contact Consultport. With substantial experience at leading and innovative companies, our consultants will bring fresh ideas to your company, helping to ace the most challenging strategies to achieve your goals.
