Multichannel Marketing: How to Combine Channels Effectively
Multichannel Marketing: How to Combine Channels Effectively
Category: General
By combining multiple channels intelligently, the effectiveness of a marketing campaign can be significantly increased. Photo: Pixabay
The central element of such a campaign is often a main platform that brings all components together – for example, a landing page. The target audience is reached across several touchpoints and guided there. Next, it’s important to determine how many channels to use. There is no universal ideal number. However, a study by the U.S. market research company Gartner suggests that a campaign using four or more channels can be up to 300 percent more effective than one relying on only one or two.
More Effectiveness in B2B Marketing
Increasing effectiveness by 300 percent sounds impressive, but it also presents a challenge for companies: the more channels are in use, the harder it becomes to maintain them over time and populate them with relevant content. Complex campaigns often can only be managed effectively through automation. While this is currently mainly available for email marketing, direct mail, and SMS in the B2B sector, it is likely that WhatsApp and other messaging services will also be integrated in the future.
A Solid Data Foundation as a Prerequisite
It is therefore advisable to gain a clear understanding of the target audience in advance, to know which message reaches the customer most effectively through which channel. A solid data foundation is essential for this. Channel-specific communication is virtually impossible without insights into potential customers. To personalize communication, it is also recommended to treat contacts as individual segments. This segmentation can be done using analytics tools, allowing customers to be addressed dynamically in real time.
Communicating Messages Precisely
When planning, marketers should also keep online opt-in processes in mind. Regardless of whether the company communicates via email, social media, or an app, customers must first give their consent. Only then, since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is everything legally compliant. This requirement makes personalized and valuable communication particularly important.
The strategic and conceptual planning of a multichannel campaign represents a significant additional effort for companies, as the different channels must be interconnected and coordinated to fully realize their marketing potential. With the right knowledge of channels, data collection and analysis, as well as various tools, a company’s messages can be communicated precisely and effectively.
