Switching Channels – What Is Multi Channel Marketing & How Does It Help You Find New Customers?
Heading into 2023, many businesses will be thinking about their digital marketing for the next 12 months and beyond. While digital marketing will continue to be the weapon of choice, businesses need to get more creative and versatile in terms of their approach – and this means understanding what multi channel marketing is.
For quite some time, marketers were told to pick a platform and stick to it for the best results. However, this advice is now outdated and multi channel marketing will be vital for brands that are determined to find new customers and drive traffic to their businesses. The question is where start?
Multi channel marketing – which channel to choose – Image Credit: Pixabay / Quimono
What is multi channel marketing?
As the name suggests, this marketing model involves spreading your marketing efforts across a number of different channels in order to reach your audience.
These channels can include:
- Website
- Social media
- Search engines
- Television
- Direct mail
- Blogging
- PR (online and traditional)
- Bricks-and-mortar stores
- Online shops
- Radio
- And so much more…
Omnichannel vs. multi channel – are they the same?
The differentiation here is quite difficult to understand as different sources will provide different explanations.
The simplest definition is that multi channel marketing uses more than one marketing channel to communicate your message to customers.
Omnichannel marketing is subtly different and involves using all available channels, media and devices to deliver your message.
Why adopt a multi-channel approach to marketing?
Great question. In ‘the olden days’, the thinking was that a particular audience would stick to one particular channel – and it, therefore, made sense to focus your marketing in the same way. These days, users are flipping from channel to channel at lightning speed as they attempt to consume huge amounts of content in as short a time as possible.
Without a proper multi-channel marketing strategy, reaching these customers can seem like a game of Whack-a-Mole and will rarely produce the required results.
A multi channel marketing strategy is therefore essential and enables businesses to reach customers wherever they may be.
Which channels are the most critical to your marketing strategy (US vs. UK) – Image Credit: Inbox Insight
How’s it done?
Creating a multi-channel strategy is by no means a one-dimensional task. In order to make this work for you, your strategy needs to be comprehensive and forward thinking and, so, the following is our guide to the perfect multi channel marketing strategy:
The profile pick
I’m sure we don’t need to lecture you on the importance of audience profiling – but we’re going to, anyway.
With multi channel marketing, you’ll be creating audience profiles for each different channel and platform and then conducting proper testing to see if your messaging is hitting home for each channel. During this exercise, you’ll also be researching the actual channel itself to figure out the kind of content which works.
‘Always on’ content and messaging
The next step of the strategy is to pay close attention to your ‘Always On’ messaging – this is the automated or pinned content on each of your channels. Here, you’ll be figuring out how effective this messaging is and, how you can improve it for optimum results.
Cracking the content code
On the back of your ‘Always On’ content comes your published content. This is a pivotal part of your strategy as, although it may be possible to use the same content across numerous channels, this will need to be tweaked and formatted for each in terms of length and depth.
…… And engage
Just as your content needs to be different for each channel, so too does your method of engagement. For example, while short, conversational dialogue may work brilliantly on Twitter, your email audience will require more in-depth, personalised communication.
The Funnel
When thinking about your multi-channel funnel, the following is a good rule of thumb:
- PLAN – This is the bit where you decide which channels your campaign will include.
- REACH – Here, you’re figuring out how many people you’ll reach on each channel and what the ROI of each channel is likely to be.
- INTERACT – This is the part where strong and steady engagement is necessary for keeping the attention of your audience.
- CONVERT – If you’ve done your job with the first three stages, this final stage is your ‘payday’ whereby you convert visitors into customers.
The process here is very similar to the RACE model, which is covered in depth here.
RACE planning framework – Image Credit: Smart Insights
Multi channel marketing is so much more than just slapping your content onto a load of different platforms and hoping for the best. To make it work, you need to do your research on both your audience and the channels you plan to use, and then work on your engagement strategy to make sure that your message is strong and relevant for each and every touchpoint.
Conclusion
If you came across this guide asking the question ‘what is multi channel marketing’, we hope you’ve found what you were looking for. As you’ve probably gathered from this guide, multi channel marketing can be a complex and time-consuming endeavour. Many marketers may feel that they simply don’t know where to start. At Opace, digital marketing is our ‘thing’ and we’ve created some pretty special strategies for our clients in recent months. To find out how we can take your business to the next level, get in touch with our team.
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