Cross channel marketing puts a business in touch with potential customers wherever they happen to be. Also referred to as multi-channel marketing, the campaigns are useful in reigning in top echelon customers. Cross channel customers spend more than single-channel customers.
Using single-channel marketing lets valuable customers slip through the cracks. Customers take only a few seconds to make informed decisions about a brand. Cross channel marketing exposes empowered consumers to endless decision-making opportunities. The purpose of this article is to explain what cross-channel marketing is, why it is important, and how to use cross channel marketing to better business.
What Is Cross Channel Marketing?
Cross channel marketing is a practice that uses multiple avenues to reach customers. Customer contact comes from different mediums. Users have a choice. The customer easily completes conversions on their favorite medium. The most basic explanation of cross channel marketing is attracting the attention of consumers who prefer an integrated approach to marketing. A seamless marketing approach engages customers and moves them to take action.
The most popular cross channel marketing pairs computers and mobile devices. Customers look to mobile devices during working hours. In the evening, cross-channel marketing that matches TV and mobile devices is more productive. Other pairings include computer and TV, radio and mobile devices, and computer and radio. Each pair has times that peak during the day and loses ground at night. Computer and mobile device pairing is at the lowest activity point during weekend evenings. Cross channel marketing capitalizes on usage trends.
Who Uses Cross Channel Marketing
The list of businesses that use channel marketing is constantly growing. Highlighted here are two companies that benefit from its use. VerticalResponse leverages social tools and email with the content created to generate marketing campaign engagement. The company uses various channels to inform current customers and leads of what is available. Social media posts and emails offer recipients multiple ways to access the business’s products. Forms on the website request additional information that leads to follow-ups.
Walgreens successfully implements an integrated marketing plan by using cross channel marketing. Consumers, comfortable with technology, research before making a purchase. Walgreens sees the need to give potential customers access to their products through any medium chosen by the consumer. Mobile apps, text alerts, and an optimized website expanded the line of goods and services the company provides.
Ways in Which Cross Channel Marketing Can Help Your Business
Marketing is evolving. Customers choose a path and expect companies to reach them on the their terms. There is an expectation to be where needed and to back off when not. Businesses have the task of remembering what customers tell them and anticipating needs. Cross channel marketing gives customers the experience they desire. Cross channel marketing is not hitting all available channels. Rather it is playing off the synergy of channels that you use to create useful, unobtrusive, and natural customer experience. Begin with the channels you currently use and consider channels that spark an interest in adopting.
Cross channel marketing is about more than blasting messages through multiple channels. Coordinate channels and leverage the strengths of each. With a clear idea of which channels provide leads, content creation and management becomes easy. Decide on the content that serves as your flagship. Repurpose the content to unlock the power of the other channels. Creating both infographic and white paper on separate topics takes time. Using a white paper to create an infographic is easier to manage and produces content that is cohesive and tailored to specific channels.
Six Tips for Cross Channel Marketing
Respect the preferences of customers
Customers are people with unique needs and wants. Rules that apply to all relationships are part of business/customer relationships. It is necessary to know the preference of how customers wish to communicate. Be familiar with the channels of choice such as phone, text, or email.
Utilize automation
You are also a person. It is exhausting to keep up with individual likes and dislikes on your own. In the age of technology, it is possible to be attentive and personal with a stream of customers by using cross channel marketing. You become more than a marketer when you realize you are also a person with limitations.
Create a brand experience that is seamless
All marketing channels are integrated to ensure the marketing campaign allows customers to switch between channels and experience the brand as a whole rather than several repetitive or disjointed campaigns.
Use big data leverage
All channels used to communicate with customers have a central platform that provides you with access to wonderful, rich data. It gives visibility into customer experiences, trend observation, areas that need attention and behavior patterns. You have the power to capitalize on unique opportunities in real-time quickly.
Content must be relevant
With the use of automation, creating marketing campaigns that provide personalized information to customers through their choice of channels is no longer complicated. A software platform automates the campaign and ensures addressing customers with content relevant to their position in the sales cycle.
Summing Up
Cross channel marketing resolves customer interaction through meaningful engagement. By targeting multiple mediums to spread the word about one’s product, a business makes certain that customers from different social backgrounds get informed about it. The steps above should build up to the correct way of putting this strategy into practice. For more information on the topic, do not hesitate to leave us a message in the comments section.
If this guide to cross channel marketing has helped you, your business, or someone you know, don’t hesitate to share it! The more people in your enterprise know the basics, the more they will be able to be productive when putting it into effect.
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