Why Cross-Channel Marketing Can Go Wrong So Quickly

Every business engaging in cross-channel messaging faces the challenge of keeping branding and messaging consistent between channels. However, it can be difficult to do so when different channels have different best practices and requirements.

If you roll out a new product, every channel must be updated and customized to fit those requirements, all while maintaining a seamless brand experience. Plus, you’ll want to monitor customer engagement across channels. That tends to get cumbersome.

Unfortunately, failing to ensure consistency can give your customers a bad impression of your brand. If each channel isn’t connected and experiences aren’t personalized, customers may lose interest and switch to a brand that provides more positive interactions. Furthermore, your messaging not only needs to be consistent but also engaging. If customers aren’t engaged, they won’t act.

Today’s consumers demand a seamless experience across all channels, but many businesses treat each channel as its own silo. Companies that understand their customers and effectively engage in cross-channel marketing, such as Blueshift customer LendingTree, have been able to increase engagement and purchase rates through intentional customer journeys.

Customers expect an integrated experience, whether they are researching product information on mobile, checking inventory before going to the store, or interacting with customer service on a brand’s website and social media channels.

The success or failure of cross-channel marketing directly affects customer retention. In fact, businesses with effective cross-channel customer engagement strategies are able to retain 89% of their customers on average, versus 33% for companies that don’t have effective cross-channel customer engagement strategies.

Surprisingly, only 45% of retailers think cross-channel marketing is a top priority. Yet 87% of customers think businesses need to make more of an effort to provide a seamless experience.

Customer engagement and retention are vital when you consider how customer expectations, browsing behaviors, and shopping methods are shifting. In fact, forecasters expect sales across multiple channels to make up close to 46% of all ecommerce sales by 2023, up from 40.3% in 2019.

Poor data practices are one of the most significant causes of ineffective cross-channel marketing. Many companies lack a central platform to activate their customer data, and the majority only use one or two sources of data to inform email campaigns.

In the digital age, customers will simply switch to another company if your business can’t provide a seamless experience across devices and platforms. That’s why data practices — and having an AI-powered platform that can target the right customers across channels — are paramount.

Do you know how your customers behave across every channel? Can you identify a single customer’s interactions with your brand and personalize your messages for that specific customer? If you can’t, you’re falling behind.

It’s never been more important to be at the forefront of technological advances in marketing. Leveraging real-time data makes all the difference. Here at Blueshift, we believe that ensuring your channels are connected directly to your data sources is critical for building the best customer-centric, cross-channel campaigns.

There’s a reason why Blueshift is recognized as a CDP and marketing automation leader. Our platform provides a 360-degree view of your customer and uses AI to activate customer data based on key insights. This allows you to reach customers at scale with truly personalized messaging across the most relevant channels throughout their journeys.

If you want to see how Blueshift can transform your brand’s cross-channel marketing, schedule a demo with one of our experts today.