Marketing strategies used to be simple. Choose a channel and guide customers through the sales funnel stage-by-stage. Companies had complete control over the brand, the message and the buying process.
Today, however, things have changed––a lot.
With access to virtually endless amounts of information about the products and services we buy, control over the buying process has shifted almost completely to the consumer. As a result, people expect brands to not only engage them on multiple channels, but keep their message and brand experience consistent throughout.
Multichannel marketing tackles this growing challenge by giving customers what they want most: Choice––the choice to listen, engage, and ultimately buy what they want, the way they want.
Although it’s been around for years, many companies still struggle to understand why multichannel marketing is important, let alone how to execute effective multichannel campaigns themselves.
Whether you’re new to the concept, or simply want a fresh perspective on why it’s so important, here are three reasons multichannel marketing is essential in 2015.
1. TODAY’S CUSTOMERS EXPECT IT FROM BRANDS BIG AND SMALL
With so many ways to find information, customers are literally everywhere these days. Combine this with our appetite for convenience and there’s no arguing it’s on companies to get themselves in front of their customers, not the other way around.
Because consumers are now in almost total control of the buying process, success means creating integrated channel strategies that target the right audiences with the right message at the right time.
2. IT WORKS FAR BETTER THAN SINGLE-CHANNEL MARKETING
If you think multichannel marketing is more about checking boxes on what you “should” be doing and less about actual bottom line results, you may want to take a look at the numbers:
- Mashable found that that 72% of consumers prefer an integrated approach to marketing rather than dividing channels into distinct silos.
- Although many customers still interact through a single channel, an increasing number are using multiple channels in their buying process. On average, these people purchase about 30 percent more.
- 60% of multichannel marketers reported increases of more than 10% in revenue attributed to their marketing initiatives.
3. IT’S NOT SLOWING DOWN ANYTIME SOON
According to consumer researcher Jay Walker Smith, we’ve gone from being exposed to 500 brand messages a day to as many as 5,000 today, and the noise level is only growing.
For companies, this means the effectiveness of all communications will depend more and more on their ability to target specific audiences with personalized messages on the channels they use––the essence of any effective multichannel campaign.
The point here is simple: Marketing is changing fast and it’s up to companies to adapt.
New channels mean new opportunities for companies to reach people with their message, but at the same time, traditional channels continue to provide meaningful results. The challenge for marketers going forward is selecting which of these channels will be most effective and deciding the best budget to make their efforts work.
It’s no easy task, but here at OneTouchPoint, we help brands big and small make smart multichannel marketing decisions every day. Click here to grab one of our case studies explaining how we do it. Want to get started building your own campaign with us? Contact our team today to talk about your next project.