Cross Channel Marketing Definition Benefits and Challenges Update

There are many channels in the market through which you can engage with customers.

Marketers have a variety of channels to engage with their customers, from the billions of users on social media to the thousands who view outdoor ads. Marketing strategies that are developed based on strong execution often rely on cross-channel marketing.

What is the cross-channel marketing strategy?

Today, customers expect a consistent journey across channels. In cross-channel marketing, brands and businesses use various channels to send a cohesive message to the customer to provide a seamless experience across the customer journey.

For example, a cross-channel marketing campaign for a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand would include sending messages about abandoned shopping carts via email and WhatsApp.

Cross-channel marketing campaigns vs. traditional marketing approaches

Today’s major brands prefer to engage with their customers across all marketing channels. CMOs for these brands rely on harnessing the different marketing channels available to them. This is where cross-channel marketing comes in.

Personalization, consumer intent, and changing trends

Brands are looking to increase personalization to meet consumers' needs. Google data shows that 78% of holiday shoppers turn to online media for research. They seek information to help them plan their shopping and make purchasing decisions. When brands engage with customers across multiple channels, the key is to deliver an integrated brand experience across the customer journey.

For example, a customer might see your ad in the newspaper tand hen visit your social media page. They might visit your store and speak with a customer service agent from there. The agent might offer them a deal, and they might complete the purchase.

Studies show that two-thirds of shoppers use more than one channel to make purchasing decisions. Holiday trends show that cross-channel marketing is the best. Here are three things to remember when developing a cross-channel marketing strategy for your brand:

1. Consistency is key in a cross-channel marketing strategy

While maximising your marketing ROI is important, you also need to ensure you’re delivering a consistent experience across channels. This includes brand principles, content strategies, and communication style. Customers expect a consistent experience when they go from email to search. 60% of millennials expect brands to be consistent across all marketing channels.

2. Optimize your marketing funnel for better ROI

The marketing funnel is key to improving your ROI for many marketers. Cross-channel marketing can help you optimize your marketing funnel with contextual messaging. Direct marketing helps create a seamless customer experience as they move from one channel to another. You can also effectively retarget your customers across channels.

For example, when setting up retargeting campaigns to reach people who have dropped off your website, use social media and email. This multi-touchpoint strategy will help you optimize your marketing efforts and increase conversions.

3. Measure Results in Cross-Channel Marketing

There are several ways to measure the impact of cross-channel marketing. Many marketers consider the first touchpoint to be a key strategy for measuring success. However, this approach may be less effective in cross-channel marketing. It’s unlikely that the impact of a pop-up notification can be equated with the impact of a CRM message.

Benefits of Cross-Channel Marketing Campaigns

Cross-channel marketing provides a comprehensive and personalized customer experience across multiple channels. A cross-channel marketing strategy ensures that customers in each path have the opportunity, time, and freedom to have a seamless and holistic experience.

1. Increasing brand awareness

As the name suggests, a cross-channel marketing approach allows brands to reach customers across all marketing channels, including email, web, physical stores, apps, and social media.

For example, a brand can schedule email marketing campaigns offering a discount on a purchase in a physical store. You can also use a landing page that directly prompts visitors to initiate a conversation.

2. Unifying customer data

The cornerstone of any successful cross-channel marketing strategy is to have all your leads in the same data center. Having a single central server to store your customer data helps you consolidate your leads in one place for easier communication. You also don’t have to worry about how or when your customers interact with you, as it’s synchronized from anywhere in the data center.

3. Winning customer loyalty

Customer loyalty can be earned when you provide a comprehensive product experience from the start. A cross-channel marketing approach allows you to create an immersive online experience that encourages engagement and helps you build customer loyalty.

4. Increasing engagement

The right cross-channel marketing strategy helps break down barriers, unify your brand message, and ultimately, ensure increased engagement.

However, don’t overpromise your audience; instead, send personalized messages in your cross-channel marketing campaign and use technology and social media interactions to communicate. For example, a cross-channel marketing strategy might include LinkedIn communications encouraging users to sign up on a landing page.

5. Getting more customer data

If your digital marketing strategy includes cross-channel marketing, it means delivering personalized customer experiences through a marketing automation platform.

This means that marketing teams now have greater access to customer data, enabling them to provide a consistent customer journey across all channels.

How to Create a Powerful Cross-Channel Marketing Campaign?

It pays to focus on multiple channels through a cross-channel marketing approach. The first step towards a consistent and well-thought-out cross-channel marketing process is to create a clear roadmap of what each channel will accomplish, how they work together, what customers expect from each channel, and how they interact with it.

A clear roadmap of each channel's role allows you to create the ideal buying experience. The roadmap and cross-channel marketing approach can form a seamless marketing path from one channel to the next.

Documenting your marketing approach from inception to final payment is a good practice for any marketing approach. You can use different channels to form a clear roadmap that helps you customize your approach to each channel.

Channel Marketing Campaign Example

In its Destination Roulette campaign, Heineken targeted display advertising with spinning wheel ads (with a twist) at several strategic airports. The condition was that if customers won an all-expense paid trip, they had to leave immediately. To promote this unique campaign, Heineken used several cross-channel marketing tactics, including creating interactive videos and promoting them across social media and web platforms.

Challenges in a cross-channel marketing strategy

To effectively implement a cross-channel marketing strategy, you need to better understand your customers. You need to know how they interact so you can use this approach to create personalized messages that are relevant to them.

However, the more you know your customers, the more difficult it is to implement an effective cross-channel marketing approach. For example, if you only know your customers by their email addresses and regularly send them marketing messages, you will find it difficult to build a consistent and engaging experience on WhatsApp alone.

Moreover, a cross-channel marketing approach requires measuring and monitoring emails. It also requires using an email marketing service, such as MailChimp or SendinBlue, to manage emails. Finally, it requires the right technology, such as a data-driven customer engagement platform that helps drive the various marketing efforts required across these marketing channels.

In Conclusion

Cross-channel marketing is one of the most important strategies for effective customer communication in the digital age. This approach helps brands boost customer engagement and loyalty thanks to its ability to deliver an integrated and personalized experience across multiple channels.

Despite its implementation challenges, its benefits outweigh those difficulties in improving ROI and enhancing customer experience. It has become imperative for companies to adopt this approach to achieve sustainable success in the world of marketing.