Multi-channel marketing is when companies communicate with customers via multiple channels, both direct and indirectly, to sell their goods or services. There are many ways to reach customers – both in terms of number and variety of platforms and channels. There is the physical store, but there are also various social media integration, blogs, emails, brand websites, catalogues, direct mail, newsletters, QR code marketing and more.
Why is Multi-Channel Marketing Important?
There are many marketing strategies available to connect with your customers. Multi-channel marketing strategies give you many paths to grow customer connections, leads and conversions.
Recent statistics from Invesp, a conversion rate optimisation service, show that 52% of all marketers used three or four platforms to reach consumers in 2020, which is up from 44% in 2015. The growing number of people embracing multi-channel marketing strategies indicates the importance of reaching consumers across multiple platforms.
Multi-channel marketing strategies can help your business:
- Find new customers
- Maintain existing customers
- Understanding of customer demographics
- Analyse customer interactions
- Focus advertising and spending budget
A multi-channel marketing platform is important to today’s B2C and B2B markets because customers are in numerous places at the same time, regardless of their geographic location.
We asked marketing agency Prism Marketing for their opinion: “Multi-channel marketing places you where your customers are: one channel is not enough for a robust marketing campaign. These days, customers have more choices than ever when it comes to how they come by information. Executing multi-channel marketing strategies increases the probability of marketing content being seen by consumers. This in turn increases the potential for revenue generation; the need to embrace multi-channel marketing is a critical one.
What are the Benefits of Multi-Channel Marketing?
- serve customers wherever they are
- understand audience preferences
- improve customer experience
- boost customer loyalty
Serve customers wherever they are: multi-channel marketing increases your ability to serve customers where they are already spending their time. No matter who your target audience is, they will have different preferences when communicating with brands. Some customers may prefer to speak with a real person whereas others would want to communicate via SMS. Communicating with customers where they are will allow you to improve the overall experience for you and the customer.
Understand audience preferences: a multi-channel marketing strategy also allows you to learn more about the preferences of your customers. It’ll mean you get to know the platforms they’re using and the times they are active on those platforms. You’ll also be able to effectively gather feedback as customers will be more likely to answer surveys on the platforms they use regularly.
With personalised marketing, all of this information will give you an advantage when selling your product or services.
Improve customer experience: One of the most valuable things a company can offer is the customer experience itself. Multi-channel communication improves the customer experience where they are, right now, making it easier to get in touch and resolve customer inquiries on the platforms they are using. Multi-channel marketing strategies allow you to provide consistent messaging at each step along the way.
Digital Marketing Channels
Customers are online in huge numbers. Data shows that around half of the world’s population, 3.9 billion people, are using email. Additionally, an estimated 3.5 billion Google searches are executed per day, which adds up to an astounding 1.4 trillion searches per year.
Digital marketing channels are important for your business. Focusing on channels and strategies including websites, content marketing, email newsletters, paid search ads and display ads are vital.
Social Media Channels
Social media lets people interact in all kinds of ways and provides opportunities for your business to interact with consumers. In 2020, more than 3.6 billion people worldwide used at least one social media platform. This number is thought to expand to 4.41 billion in 2025.
There are many opportunities to connect with customers via social media marketing channels, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. You can target your marketing campaigns to these platforms allowing you to define the audience that sees your ads or content.
Newsletter Campaigns
Newsletter campaigns are a useful tool to improve user engagement, increase a business’s credibility and help you to connect with your customers. A customised newsletter campaign provides an individual method of information that will satisfy your customers needs. A carefully planned newsletter campaign gives long-lasting benefits that can be experienced by your business for many years to come.
Final Thoughts
Multi-channel marketing is vital to connect with as many consumers as possible in relevant ways. Engaging with consumers on many levels across the consumer journey means more opportunities to connect and convert consumers into customers.
Multi-channel marketing gives your business the key to success. The right strategies will reap the benefits by engaging customers across many platforms both online and offline. It gets your message in front of prospects, leads and existing customers, wherever they are.
If you need any help with delivering the perfect multi-marketing campaigns across print, email and text, check out Romax for help in providing big results for your business.