Wise business owners wanting to make their mark in this highly integrated world make use of effective digital marketing channels to promote their products, services and brands. But if business owners really want to take their digital marketing efforts to the next level and generate substantial amounts of profits in the process, they need to adopt other strategies that would produce even better results.
Enter Multi-Channel Digital Marketing campaigns – a strategy that combines various kinds of indirect and indirect marketing channels to generate favorable actions or responses from targeted audiences.
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A multi-channel digital marketing campaign may look like a complex web of distinct channels all working towards a similar end, and that is connecting with potential customers. Being able to utilize this multi-channel campaign will surely deliver more and better results for your business. The following provides a comprehensive rundown on what multi-channel digital marketing can do and how it can benefit your business.
The infographic (click to zoom):
The Importance of Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Campaign
A multi-channel approach may be the best way to get profitable results for businesses, as what the Harvard Business Review reported. This study pointed out that the average consumer go through at least six channels before they finally make the decision to purchase a product or service. This is why it is no wonder why globally, there is a 137% increase in multi-channel digital marketing and up to 500% increase in brands using display, mobile, social and video marketing simultaneously.
What these studies show is that brands moving into a multi-channel digital marketing strategy are achieving up to 300% improvement in ROI from their advertising efforts. This resulted from a 24% increase in conversion rates as more targeted customers see a campaign’s ads from multiple channels instead of just one. This is why more and more brands are ramping up their multi-channel digital marketing strategies, with businesses integrating from two to up to more than five channels in their campaigns – and so should you.
The Challenges of Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Campaign
With the opportunities presented by a multi-channel digital marketing campaign, there also come the various challenges businesses should well consider and address if they want to get the most benefits from these strategies. These challenges include:
- Finding the Right Mix of Marketing Channels
There are several digital marketing channels available out there, each of them having their own strengths and effectiveness in reaching out and connecting to targeted customers. The challenge lies however in how to find the right mix of digital marketing channels that would provide the best combination for engaging targeted audiences and generate the best results.
- Cost and Time Considerations
Choosing the right mix involves selecting the best combination that will deliver the most number of customers through the lowest CPA or Cost Per Acquisition. The lower the CPA, the greater the potential for faster and greater returns from your marketing investments.
- Targeting Your Messages
Using a multi-channel digital marketing campaign will provide you with more channels and options for connecting with targeted audiences. However, having a multiple array of marketing tools to reach your audiences will all be for naught if you don’t have the right kind of targeted messages that will connect with and generate a favorable response from potential customers.
- Choreographing Your Campaigns
Different customers may respond to different channels, and some may find one channel more favorable or meaningful over another. To get the most favorable results, business owners must learn how to choreograph their campaigns that would connect with targeted customers in the most fluid and most effective way.
- Monitoring Customer Touch Points
With multiple digital marketing channels thrown into the marketing array, it would take more difficulty and resources to track down and monitor the effectiveness of each marketing channel. It would be harder to determine what particular touch point have brought about a particular sale or conversion. Effectively establishing this system through well-established analytics can help the business owner track and monitor the performance of their campaign.
Opportunities for Multi-Channel Digital Marketing
Modern consumers now have better and stronger control of the buying process and multi-channel digital marketing offers such customers choices and options to connect. Studies also show that these kind of customers would also spend up to four times more than other customers. Multi-channel digital marketing presents a tremendous amount of opportunities for businesses to connect with these customers and generate profitable results as shown in the following examples.
1. Media Channel Pairings
A good example is the study conducted by MediaPost, reporting the most popular digital marketing pairings to the 18-64 adult age group according to particular days of the week, and particular periods within the day. What this information show is that people respond differently to various marketing channels, so it would be best to capitalize on this behavior using a multi-channel approach.
2. Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Campaign Examples
The following shows other examples of how multi-channel digital marketing can produce favorable results for different industry applications.
o AdWords PPC + Ad Extensions:
Stretching the capability of PPC ads through various ad extensions can provide your campaign with a highly targeted multi-channel marketing campaign. One is the PPC Offer Extension which interested audiences can simply click on to receive a coupon that they can download, print and exchange for a special offer that they can retrieve from a physical store.
o Direct Mail + Special Codes:
Mail order catalogs and other direct mail campaigns that are received by potential customers offline may integrate special codes that users can use to retrieve discounts and other special offers online. Many consumers still prefer browsing through these printed catalogs but are more than eager to avail of special discounts they can get through the Internet.
o Television Hashtags:
Traditional media like television broadcasting are incorporating social media elements like hastag overlays on TV shows. This provides their viewers information on how they can connect with the show or production through digital channels like Twitter or Facebook accounts. The use of hashtags in broadcast television is becoming more popular that Twitter even provides a very comprehensive guide on how to launch a successful hashtag campaign on television.
Strategies for Developing a Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Campaign
A report from Mashable indicated that 72% of consumers prefer getting connected with brands and businesses through integrated marketing strategies. But despite this information, many businesses are still slow in integrating a multi-channel digital marketing campaign into their strategy due to various challenges and reasons. But for those who would like to tap into this power can successfully do so by adapting best practices and effective strategies like the following:1
1. Know Your Targeted Audience
With various marketing channels available, business owners only have a small window from which they can connect with targeted audiences. Knowing who your targeted audiences well and the various aspects that can influence their purchasing decisions will enable you to select the right marketing mix for your campaign.
2.Set a Balance Between Multiple Channels Available
The key to success in a multi-channel marketing campaign is how effective you are in maintaining a good balance in your digital marketing mix, particularly in cost and resource allocations. Putting too much resources on one channel can affect the full effectiveness of your campaign.
3. Test the Effectiveness of Your Campaign
It would be wise to test your campaigns by setting up control groups together with your multi-channel efforts. This way you will know the true effectiveness of your digital marketing mix and allow you to make adjustments as necessary.
4. Retargeting
In a multi-channel digital marketing campaign, retargeting would be a very effective strategy in following through with prospective leads and generate conversions or even sales which may not have taken place the first time they visited your site, landing page or marketing channel.
Digital marketing campaigns are effective in reaching out to a targeted audience and generate a favorable response that can convert them into leads or even customers. While each digital marketing channel is effective in their own individual way, business owners can generate better and bigger results through a combined, multi-channel digital marketing campaign that makes use of the best of what these channels can offer.