With your customers being bombarded with so many different channels daily, how do you pick the right channel(s) to get your message across? In an ideal world, you'd use every channel your customers interact with. In the real world, however, very few companies can make that happen. Fortunately, there are some simple guidelines for maximizing your multichannel efforts regardless of your level of time, resources, and expertise.
1. Start with the goal in mind.
What's your end goal? Do you want to gain new customers? Cross-sell or upsell to existing customers? Boost signups for a loyalty program? Once you have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish, you can work backward to choose the proper channels to make it happen.
2. Play to each channel's strengths.
Each marketing channel has its strengths and weaknesses. Understand where to use direct mail, email, or mobile and social media. Create a plan that capitalizes on the strengths of each one.
3. Include the entire team of stakeholders.
Your customers are diversified, as your campaign development should be. Tap the insights of your employees involved in other company areas, including sales, customer service, and business development. Draw in people from different ages and backgrounds so you can gain deeper insight into how different customer groups react, what they need, and how they perceive different types of messaging.
4. Use it or lose it.
Test the different elements of the campaign. Ask a focus group or objective members of your team (those not involved in the development of your campaign) to open samples of your direct mailers as if they were a customer. Ask them to respond to different subject lines in the emails. Scan QR Codes and download files. Let them test the usability of your marketing elements before your customers do.
5. Build in metrics.
Use tools that will help you track which elements in your multichannel campaigns are most effective. Use barcodes on printed coupons. Different landing pages or 800 numbers for various offers. Find out which messaging, offers, and landing pages are most effective.
Cross-channel marketing doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be strategic. How can we help?
