Crafting a Successful Cross-Channel Marketing Strategy

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mail + Social = Success! Sound familiar? Research we conducted earlier this year showed that customers using our both our email and social products experienced an uptick of up to 28% in their open rates. More than a marketing hook though, it has become quasi imperative for businesses, big and small, to incorporate cross-channel marketing tactics into their marketing strategy. What does cross-channel marketing entail? Let’s take a look.

Multicross, Integrated Touch…Huh, What?

Before we dive into the intricacies of cross-channel marketing strategies, let’s review some basic terminology, to avoid any confusion. You’ll often hear the terms multi-touch, multichannel, cross-channel or integrated marketing bandied around to refer to the concept of hitting the same customer segment through multiple channels at the same time, but there are some subtle differences to note:

Multitouch or multichannel marketing: Back in the day, traditional marketing campaigns involved one-and-done touch campaigns. You’d reach out to your target audience once, via a newspaper ad or TV spot, and move on. These methods would be highly ineffective today, with the advent of digital marketing. Since we all have limited attention spans and time available, businesses now focus on creating a marketing mix combining different “channels” (i.e., email, social, direct mail…) that allows them to “touch” their prospects/customers multiple times, thus repeating their message and reinforcing its impact in their audience’s minds. This allows them tunisia whatsapp number database to maximize the effectiveness and extend the reach of their campaigns, since no single communication channel can be 100% effective. In an article for Target Marketing, PointClear president and CEO Dan McDade even recommends you touch your audience a minimum of 12 times, based on his program’s results. If this seems excessive and repetitive, you may want to try…
Cross-channel or integrated marketing: la crème de la crème, cross-channel marketing is the same as multichannel, but with an added twist: instead of hitting your target with the same message across multiple channels, you use different messages that are strung together throughout your different channels. Say you send out an email; it would include a link or code that connects to your other channels, such as your Facebook page or website. You can then track your targets as they engage in one channel and move to another. This requires a more holistic approach to your marketing, and means you need to engage your audience in the right channel at the right time.
The Keys to Effective Cross-Channel Marketing

Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s take a look at how to implement an effective integrated marketing plan. First, let’s do a quick inventory of the different methods at your disposal:

Email
Social
Search marketing/display ads
Direct mail
Mobile (text messaging, apps…)
Telemarketing
Content marketing (webinars, blog, guides, whitepapers…)
Traditional (TV, radio, press, billboard…)