The smartphone is a marketer’s dream come true. Based on a sample of 65% of the world’s population, smartphones have a penetration rate that is expected to reach 66% this year. In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, the rate is well over 80%. Soon enough, it will be hard to find a person that’s not carrying, most of the time, a device marketers can use to communicate with them.
The number of ways businesses, brands, and marketers can communicate to consumers via smartphone is incredible. There’s the traditional way, by calling them. Texts will also do the trick. People with social media apps can be reached through social media advertising. In-app ads are also a possibility, as are push notifications. Search engine marketing is also viable, as is email marketing.
Smart marketers will, of course, use multiple channels to communicate with consumers. The smartest marketers will unify those communications under a single, multichannel campaign. If you’re planning to develop a successful multichannel campaign of your own, here are a couple of tips that will help you create a good one.
5 Tips for Developing a Successful Multichannel Campaign
1. Know the Consumer
Good marketing campaigns have at least one thing in common — they know who they’re talking to. You cannot have a campaign without knowing your audience. That’s probably the starting point of your multichannel campaign.
There are a couple of things you should look for specifically. You want to find the type of message your audience will be most receptive to, that’s a given. But you want to learn which channels fit which audience segments the best. You also want to make sure that you include all generations in your audience research. Baby Boomers use digital technologies, too.
One way you can get to know your consumer is by creating detailed buyer personas. Buyer personas are essentially profiles of your ideal customer. As you flesh out your campaign, you might want to take the hybrid digital-physical approach to build it. This means you’ll use pen and paper to work out the kinks, and then transfer that information online for later reference, tweaking, and sharing.
When you create a buyer persona, print out a picture of what you believe each ideal person will look like. If you sell hand-sewn, high-end handbags, for example, one buyer persona might be a successful corporate woman in her 40s. As you create buyer personas for each portion of your target market, use Facebook Ads to see how big your audience pool is. Here’s what you should consider for each ideal consumer:
- Location
- Age
- Income bracket
- Interests
- Hobbies
- Education level
- Relationship status
2. Develop Key Assets
You might need to develop new assets specifically for the campaign, or at least update the old ones. You can both, develop targeted landing pages for the campaign, and update the website to the latest trends in web design. You should also find new ways to extend the usability of existing assets. Social media, for example, an effective customer care channel, especially when you consider the use of chatbots in today’s marketing campaigns.
The consumers of today need to make quick decisions about a service or product and expect brands to be able to meet those expectations. Adding a live chat or message bot can be an incredible asset to your business. Not only will it help boost your conversions, but enhance your customer service success, too. In fact, according to renowned digital marketer Neil Patel, adding an on-page chat feature can increase conversions by 45% or more.
Each channel and asset will present you with a lot of possibilities. You should be able to develop them to enable and support communication that will be relevant to your audience. Being easily available also allows you to quickly notice any pain points your business may be experiencing and allows you to forecast potential problems.
3. Multichannel Is Not Every Channel
Relevance is a word marketers know all too well. If the message you’re sending to consumers isn’t relevant, you cannot expect them to take it in. It also helps to market a product or service that’s relevant to consumers, too.
Channels can also suffer from a lack of relevance. Different segments of your audience will prefer different channels. You don’t want to use ineffective channels because that will be a waste of time and money you could spend on channels that matter more. So don’t try to reach your customers on every channel possible. Focus on the channels they like the most, and make sure to keep the messaging and experience as uniform as possible.
The proper industry-specific research will help you determine which channels are best. For example, during your research, you might discover that Snapchat will actually be much more effective in marketing to your target audience (high school kids) than Facebook. Or, if you run a home goods store, you’ll quickly discover that Pinterest can actually be more lucrative than Facebook. Do your due diligence before you start working on your campaign to prevent your marketing efforts from falling apart.
4. Use CRM Software
A campaign that requires communication with consumers over several separate channels can quickly become too complicated to manage. Even if you keep the channels to a reasonable number, you’ll still find it challenging to keep track of every interaction.
Luckily, there are tools that can make it much easier for you. Customer relationship management software can be used to keep track of every touch point between your campaign and the customer. It can serve as a central hub where all the data comes in, ready for analysis. An added benefit is that, if you have to work with a sales team, all of you can have access to the same data in one system. This can significantly increase the success of your campaign.
CRM software also makes customers easier for each member of your staff to assist every customer that comes their way. Because these platforms hold such valuable information for each client, no matter what employee communicates with them, the customer will get the same level of service. This is large because the employee will be completely up-to-date with all previous interactions, as opposed to starting from scratch.
5. Monitor and Adjust
With a CRM system in place, you can have a better overview of the performance of your campaign. You can use other tools to perform specific analytical tasks and get valuable real-time insights into your campaign.
No matter how well you plan it and implement it, a multichannel campaign can develop in unexpected directions. If you monitor the data that’s coming in closely, you’ll be able to react to new developments quickly. You can take advantage of new opportunities, or cut back on underperforming segments.
Any great business relies on the ability to pivot based on results, and this has happened time and time again in the business world. When something isn’t working, you have to be flexible enough to fix it, even if it means you’ll stray from your original concept. Case in point: Facebook was originally only for college students, and users couldn’t join without a college email address. Imagine where Facebook would be today if it wasn’t willing to pivot based on need and long-term success potential.
The way businesses communicate with their customers is constantly changing. The marketing channels that rely on traditional print and broadcast media still have their place in a marketer’s arsenal. But you cannot deny the convenience and reach of digital marketing. The digital landscape, with its many channels, can easily get crowded and entangled. But if you know what you’re doing, and you manage to develop a successful multichannel marketing campaign, you will engage consumers on a whole new level.
See also: Why Should Social Media Be Your First Customer Care Channel?
