By Shanon Roberts, on 2 June 2021
Multichannel marketing uses a mixture of marketing techniques and channels to reach new and existing customers. Multichannel marketing can include email, direct mail, social media, events, paid ads, physical locations, and more. This approach allows brands to reach customers they wouldn’t otherwise encounter and gives customers a choice in how they interact with a brand.
Multichannel marketing might seem overwhelming yet there are plenty of benefits for businesses. We’ll cover these benefits and how to create a successful multichannel campaign below.
Benefits of Multichannel Marketing
Put simply, multichannel marketing allows you to reach more customers. People have preferences regarding social channels and how they like to be marketed to. Some people love spending time on Instagram, while others love Twitter, and it’s for reasons like these that multichannel marketing has so much more impact. Here are some of the most powerful benefits multichannel marketing can give your brand.
Expands Your Reach
The most obvious and impactful benefit is that multichannel marketing broadens your reach. Using different channels allows you to expand your brand awareness and establish yourself as an industry leader. Lots of people use just one or two channels so it’s important to find where your target audience spends their time. While most of your sales will likely come from specific channels, it’s still important to maintain a presence across different platforms. The goal is for people to be familiar with your brand and multichannel marketing accomplishes this.
Boosts Engagement
The more places your brand presents itself, the more engagement you’ll get. People want ways to interact with brands that suit them. For example, phone calls are outdated for many people and Instagram messages may be very strange for others. Consistent and cohesive messaging on multiple marketing channels means people can engage with you as they see fit. Maybe they start with a YouTube video, then a message on FB, and end up in your physical store to make a purchase.
Grows Your Business
The more exposure your brand has the better. It’s important, however, to focus your resources and energy into the channels that give you the most sales. Exploring multichannel marketing allows you to find the most effective channels for business growth. Where do your customers spend their time? What marketing tactics work best? What platform achieves the highest engagement? All these questions can be answered by taking a multichannel approach and analyzing results.
Creating a Successful Multichannel Marketing Campaign
A well researched and strategic multichannel marketing campaign can have a serious impact on your business. If you take on the challenge (and we suggest you do), there are many factors to consider when developing your campaign.
Not so long ago marketers were limited to just a few ways to advertise. Today there are tons of options for reaching audiences and the number of channels just keeps grow. Think about the recent surge of podcasts and TikTok content, for example. That said, here are a few tips to help you increase the success of your multichannel marketing campaign.
Identify Your Target Audiences and Buyer Personas
This is the first and most important step. Who are you trying to reach? What types of people are interested in your products or services? Understand the demographics and habits of your buyer persona while streamlining your messaging and boosting your sales. Considering factors like age, location, interests, income level, etc. you can craft the right tone and style of your messaging and connect with your target audience.
Choose Your Channels
Based on your buyer persona, you can target specific channels where these people spend their time. Are they Gen-Z? Then TikTok and Instagram are a good bet. Are they middle aged professionals? Maybe LinkedIn and Facebook are ideal. With industry research and analysis of your own customer data, you can discover where most of your traffic comes from and test new platforms for their effectiveness. However, unless you have a large team, you should focus on 2 to 3 platforms since you need to be consistent to make an impact.
Create a Cohesive Experience
A consistent and cohesive brand experience is essential for your multichannel marketing campaign. If a customer engages with you on Facebook and then Instagram they should experience the same level of quality content and messaging. You don’t want to confuse customers, but rather reinforce the communications they have had or might have on other channels. That said, every platform has its own rules, advantages, and limitations.
Maximize and Understand Each Channel
Each marketing channel serves specific purposes. Email lists, for example, help you keep customers informed, share exclusive deals and upsell products. Instagram is ideal for visually highlighting products, lifestyles, and sharing moments through Stories or Reels. Physical locations are great for creating that personal touch and developing trust.
If you understand each channel you can decide if you want to include it in your campaign and even hire a specialist to maximize your impact. Make sure you’re not just recycling content but rather creating unique content optimized for each channel. Cross sharing is fine, but keep each channel fresh with exclusive content too.
Keep Up with Trends
Technology is continuously changing how we advertise. Just a few short years ago you’d have been hard pressed to convince someone that social media would take over advertising. Today, even smart TVs, home assistants and apps like TikTok need to be considered in your multichannel marketing campaigns. Location and voice based searches are also becoming more and more popular. Even if you don’t use all these platforms it’s important to stay informed of the forces shaping the marketing industry.
Combine Channels for More Impact
Nielsen Research discovered that campaigns using both TV and Facebook had a significant increase in brand recall among audiences. Likewise when TV and radio ads are combined, brand recall improves by 35%. This proves that multichannel exposure helps people remember your brand, which means they’re more likely to choose you when making a purchase.
Multichannel marketing is a must for just about every brand. People expect to be able to interact with businesses when and where they choose so find out where your customers are active, craft your pitch, and execute cohesive messaging across all your channels. Do this consistently and you’ll see that multichannel marketing is one of the most beneficial activities your business can implement.
