In today’s world, customers frequently use different channels at different points when making decisions and purchases. Customers may research products on a computer but purchase in a store. Or they may switch from a computer during the day to a mobile phone in the evening. If businesses don’t want to lose these types of customers, engaging in multi-channel marketing is essential, but doing it correctly is critical. Although multi-channel marketing has the potential to bring exponential growth to your business, it can quickly go wrong if badly implemented.
Branding and Messaging
Every business engaging in multi-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 the impression of your brand. Plus, you’ll want to monitor customer engagement across channels. That can quickly get cumbersome.
Unfortunately, failing to ensure consistency can give your customers a bad impression of your brand. If the channels aren’t integrated, customers may lose interest and switch to a brand with better consistency and integration.
Furthermore, your messaging needs not only to be consistent, but also engaging. If customers aren’t engaged, they won’t act.
Integration
Today’s consumers demand a fluid experience across all channels, but many businesses treat each channel as its own silo. In one study of 97 retailers, only five were able to offer their customers a true integrated experience.
Companies that understand their customers and effectively engage in multi-channel marketing now bring in an average of 6% more annual revenue than companies that don’t.
Customers expect an integrated experience, whether they are researching product information on their smart phones in the store, checking inventory before going to the store, or interacting with the same customer service agent across channels.
Customer Engagement and Retention
Success or failure of multi-channel marketing directly drives customer retention. In fact, businesses with effective multi-channel customer engagement strategies are able to retain 89% of their customers on average, versus 33% for companies who don’t have effective multi-channel customer engagement strategies.
Surprisingly, only 45% of retailers think multi-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 is especially vital when you consider that multi-channel customers spend three to four times the amount that single-channel customers spend.
Data Practices
Poor data practices are one of the most significant causes of failure for multi-channel marketing. Most organizations lack a central repository for 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 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.
What Can You Do?
It’s never been more important to be at the forefront of technology. Leveraging AI and 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 campaigns.
Blueshift offers the only CDP with multi-channel activation. We provide a 360-degree view of your customer and use AI to activate customer data and react to key insights. This allows you to reach customers at scale with truly personalized messaging across channels.
If you want to see what Blueshift can do for your business, schedule a demo today.
