Marketing has been complex, but it was never easy. The way businesses and consumers interact with each other has changed dramatically thanks to modern technology. Social media platforms and smartphones enable customers and brands to communicate more than ever. Furthermore, technology has revolutionized marketing strategies by turning every decision data-driven.
All of these changes have made it imperative for brands to implement a multichannel digital strategy. A brand must have at least thirteen interactions before a potential lead can be identified. Businesses should make the most of every marketing opportunity to increase their reach with consumers.
But, it is not the best way to market. Digital marketing campaigns can be expensive, so businesses need to be strategic and wise when using multichannel strategies.
Consumers today expect more from brands they interact with. This higher expectation is both the result and the reason content marketing succeeds. You can focus your marketing efforts on the channels that are most customer-centric and prioritize them. This gives you a clear goal for your marketing strategy – the ultimate brand destinations.
How can companies create a multichannel digital marketing strategy that is smart?
Here are some quick tips:
Do not jump on any social media platform simply because it is popular. You need to dig deeper to determine if there are ROI. Identify the tools and solutions you will need in order automate digital processes. Don’t be too scattered. You should master one area before moving on to the next.
Multichannel marketing is important.
Because your customers search for information everywhere, and you must be there to help them find it.
Our customers increasingly use multiple channels to get the information they require. Your website and your relationship with your sales rep are less important to them than they were previously. They are also finding the information that they need to make business decisions more easily.
Is there a gap between the two? Yes! Mary Meeker says there is a gap of $20 billion in digital channel spending. This is evident in the ratio of advertising dollars spent online and on mobile channels to the time that digital consumers spend in these channels.
This means that businesses aren’t spending enough money on channels where people spend increasing amounts of their time.
Forrester calls their report “The Multichannel Maturity Mandat.”
The customer today has more control than the marketer. The Web and social media have become part of almost everyone’s everyday life. This means that buyers have more options (more outlets, more sources, and more offers) to choose from and also more opinions (from peers to pundits) to consider.
Multi-channel marketing is how businesses can better serve customers through the many choices and content they have.
Multi-channel marketing, to me, is the second core component of content strategy. It seeks to provide the content audiences are looking for in all places.
Study concluded that multi-channel marketing maturity can lead to significant business benefits. This is mainly due to the increased reach of an optimized marketing mix.
This is in line with the best content marketing practices, which show how to get more engagement early in the buying process by creating targeted content that targets the buying stage.
The study found that customers were more satisfied with mature companies. Multi-channel marketing is a great way to engage more people and increase customer satisfaction.
These are the five main findings
Multichannel marketing is a popular area for improving marketing ROI. 40% of respondents said they were familiar with it. Skill gap was the biggest obstacle to integrated marketing. Only 40% of respondents said they were familiar with multichannel marketing and that their programs did not have true integration. However, they believed further optimization was possible.
The Company Website can be Elevated
A brand website can be more than just a digital face for a company. With a strategically chosen selection of content on the website, such as blog posts, videos and case studies, you can create an experience all by yourself. Brand websites are rated as the best channel to market products by 44 percent of consumers.
However, this channel is essential if your website wants to be noticed. It should provide a destination that consumers want to return to time and again, not just for the content.
Organizations with more advanced content marketing strategies are better equipped to master the content hub. This can be used on-site or separately. This is a step beyond a simple website that contains content. This creates a space for your best content, which makes it easy for visitors to find what they are interested in. You can also show them more of your content, keeping them interested and providing a hook that will blow their minds.
This is the look of Equinox’s hub, Furthermore. This luxury fitness company is more than just information. They offer a lifestyle that inspires their customers.
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Apart from creating a hub, there are other ways to elevate your company website. One way is to create a learning resource portal – a Library of Alexandria for your industry. You can also offer educational tracks and courses that will give your visitors something to aim for, in addition to the well-organized content found on a hub. You can guide them on a specific learning path instead of bombarding them with endless content. A video series or set of eBooks could be combined to create a complete learning module for potential buyers.
HubSpot Academy is an excellent example of this extremely useful educational website experience.
It’s easy to feel like there is endless information available. It’s all completely free. This is a compelling reason to join HubSpot’s online world of brands.
These techniques of using the company website to create extraordinary value are not only practical for lead generation but also establish thought leadership. These methods are part of building a brand that buyers want to be a part. It’s a stage that goes beyond utility and quality. It inspires a lifestyle that B2C buyers aspire to, and the level of efficiency and success that B2B buyers seek.
Identify your Audience and Determine Their Preferences
Businesses make the biggest mistake in digital marketing by thinking they must use every platform to reach customers. There are many marketing channels that may not be appropriate for all businesses. Some businesses don’t need to market on LinkedIn and Snapchat. While some businesses would be successful with blog content, others will do better with audio or video content such as vlogs or podcasts.
To ensure your digital efforts have the greatest impact, it is important to identify and understand your audience. Audience preferences are influenced by demographic factors. Consider social media usage as an example. According to Pew Research, younger consumers prefer platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, while older generations use Facebook and YouTube more frequently.
Snapchat is not the best channel for marketing if your audience consists primarily of people over 40 years old.
Look at the demographics of your audience to see where they consume most content and advertising. This will help you determine where your brand can best meet them. Pay attention to the content they consume. Are they more likely to read blogs than they are to watch YouTube tutorials? Do they prefer visual content or informational content such as case studies?
To get this information, you may need to do your own market research with your target audience. You might also need to survey a few focus groups. You can also look at benchmark studies and industry reports to get a better understanding of the consumer behavior within your niche.
Strengthen Your Martech Stack
The right tools are necessary to establish a presence and track results. You also need to keep track of key metrics and customer accounts. It takes a lot to create a supportive martech environment that supports your efforts.
When you are developing your multichannel strategy, be sure to pay attention to which areas will most benefit from technology. There are many tools available for digital marketing. However, there may be a benefit to using tool “suites”, or solutions that can be used across multiple channels and industries.
Marketo has a variety of products, including Engage (for brand building), Bizible for revenue attribution, and Adobe Experience Cloud (for improving CX). These products enable organizations to automate email marketing and mobile marketing, manage leads and implement ABM practices. They also allow them to create and distribute content using predictive analytics.
Start with a Pilot, and Expand
A lack of focus is one of the biggest pitfalls in multichannel marketing strategies. It can become overwhelming to introduce multiple channels and it can have a negative effect on the quality of your team’s efforts.
Too many changes are a common mistake made by many digital marketing teams. This can lead teams to make costly mistakes by trying to implement too many changes at once.
You don’t have to overload your marketing team by trying too many strategies at once. Start small with simple, but effective marketing strategies like building an email list and creating an email trigger-based system. Next, focus on SEO-focused content like blog posts and videos. You can also expand into paid sources such as social ads, PPC or televised commercials.
The order in which the most effective methods are used will depend on the audience of your business. Therefore, it is important to research the preferences and behaviors of your target audience to determine which methods will have the greatest payoffs.
Keep an eye on things, but give them time
Marketing strategies that work are not easy to implement can take time. Marketing is a nurturing process that moves customers through the sales funnel by providing relevant content. Don’t give up if you don’t see immediate results with these digital channels. These marketing strategies can take some time to bring about conversions.
It is essential that your team has real-time access to tracking programs in order to monitor KPIs. These strategies should be allowed to develop over time. However, it is important to look for signs of growth and stagnation over long periods of times to determine where adjustments are required. If the method does not produce results after a few weeks, you can look for ways to improve it rather than abandoning it.
These are the questions that you should ask for each channel:
What consumer segments are you targeting? How will your product be positioned? Will you establish sales targets? What happens if you fail to meet your sales targets? How will you keep customers who you acquire through that channel satisfied?
Connect with Buyers through Live Experiences
Event and experiential marketing are another marketing channel with the most potential to influence your customers. 41% of consumers rank live experiences as the number one way to help them understand a product’s purpose. This makes events an essential part of a marketing strategy that delivers real value. Events are essential if you want to generate substantial revenue and provide brand-boosting benefits.
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Event and experiential marketing can have the most impact if it is integrated with the larger content marketing strategy.
Interview speakers for blog posts, podcasts, or videos. Use your social media channels for live streaming of the event, as well as to engage participants. You can use event tools to measure the event’s value and collect data for future white papers.
Events and other experiences offer more than just value. Events and other experiences can also be used as a foil for digital content. They put a face on your brand, giving it a more authentic feel than digital content. Even for those who were not directly involved, this is true. People who are exposed to photos and videos of the experience indirectly still benefit from it. It shows that there are real passions and real ideas behind the brand.
Get Your Tentacles In
Bottom line: If you want your products and services to resonate with your audience, ensure that you connect with them through the channels that they are most comfortable with.
Businesses have an opportunity to connect with customers at every turn digitally, as the world has become more connected than ever before. If done properly, a strong multichannel marketing strategy will be the best way to build relationships and convert customers.
To get things off to a good start, you must:
You need to get to know your audience and find the best ways to connect with them.
Don’t rush to get into multichannel marketing. Instead, make use of your data to identify the areas that have the greatest impact. This could be targeted email marketing or stronger social media presence. You can slowly start to integrate other channels and methods while still monitoring your revenue.
Our Content Builder Service can help you get more visitors to your website by providing quality content that is consistently published. Contact me to set up a consultation and I will send you a PDF copy of my books. Get started today and generate more leads and traffic for your business.
Marketing Insider Group’s post How to Build a Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy first appeared on Marketing Insider Group.
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By: Michael Brenner
Title: How to Build a Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/marketing-strategy/how-to-build-a-multichannel-digital-marketing-strategy/
Published Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2022 15:00:58 +0000
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