Getting ahead with Multichannel Marketing

Not getting the right results from current marketing channels, not sure on the right approach?

How often do marketers stop and think about their campaigns? I mean really stop and have a full review. You may think that you do this all the time, but the reality is that you are running the same types of campaigns, time and time again. Great if they are working for you, but if they are not then don’t worry, I am sure you will make some tweaks and then run the next one, hoping for some success.

I have spoken to plenty of other Marketers throughout my career, who get excited about the latest trend or new social platform, stating this is game-changing for them and their business. But in reality, they are running the same campaigns just on a new platform. When is it the right time to stop, and re-address exactly what the goals are for your campaigns and more widely the companies strategy?

The way I see it is there are two types of marketing departments, one that has different teams/team members covering different channels, and the other is the more all-encompassing marketing position where every channel and strategy runs from the one team.

Both of these are perfectly acceptable and can become incredibly successful when handled correctly. Yet in reality, most brands will find that their marketing department is more disjointed then they realised.

For marketing departments housing multiple teams, there is a real need to have an overriding strategy that will ensure all of the channels are aligned with the brand’s message and that there is some unity and clarity for the customers. On the contré, brands with the one marketing team will be more likely to run more combined marketing campaigns across channels, however, these will likely be carbon copy campaigns just posted in the different locations and on different channels.

Ideally, a marketing department will have the time and resources to fully understand their customers on every engagement channel that they use. This would provide them with the right information to create a more personalised and unique experience for their customers. Again, in reality, this isn’t as easy as it sounds and will often be left for guesswork and assumptions that are much less time-intensive and resource heavy.

With this in mind, it is clear to point out that short-term success is great for those quick wins. But a well-executed marketing strategy that works across multiple channels,  will take time to implement and refine. When you look at your main competition, do you look at their marketing with envy, amazement or contempt? Be honest, I am sure most of you reading this post are not working for the biggest player in your respective industries. Don’t worry that is not a bad thing, but I am sure you will see how they are marketing and it will become a heavy influence on what you are doing. I am sure a conversation has been had with senior management about whether your brand wants to fit in or stand out.

The main factor that will be stopping you to reach the same level of campaigns as the leaders in your industry will be linked to time, budget, resource and experience.

Personalisation boosts business

It is easy to understand that if a customer is receiving communications that are of interest to them, they are going to be more engaged with a brand then if the messages are generic and not always of interest or relevant.

Looking just at email to highlight this, the average order value via email is $140.74 yet when these emails contain personalised products and content this increases to $148.06. And it goes beyond looking at the average order value, the conversion rates increase from 3.5% -3.7%, the Click Through Rate increases from 16.2% to 17.1% and the Open rate increases from 26.9% to 27.6% (source). A clean sweep of increases for personalisation.

Customer who have a personalised shopping experience, 44% will likely become a repeat buyer, 39% will be likely to tell friends and family, 32% will be likely to lease a positive review and 22% will be likely to post a positive comment to social media (source).

Customers know that they can have a more personalised experience from brands. In a study of over 2000 customers, 81% state that relevance is a key deciding factor in whether or not they will redeem a promotion. And 75% state that they are unhappy if the offer received is just generic (source).

The Multi-Channel World

Marketers have always had to be adaptable to the channels available, however as more and more innovation has taken place, especially in the digital marketing world, that pressure on time has been stretched. Now with the two types of marketing department identified, different challenges are clear. For the all-in-one department that covers the whole marketing mix, the ability to create tailored content for each channel is more demanding. Yet this is necessary, as posting the same content across different channels isn’t necessarily going to be the most effective use of time. Taking the main channels like email, web, app social and SMS. Sending the same information using all of these tools is counterproductive, and can lead to an unfriendly customer journey.

Analysing customers and users will enable brands to fully understand not only where they are most active, but also when too. Yet going beyond just segmenting the data, how can brands provide a fully personalised customer journey? Automation has been a big driving force within the marketing industry, not only streamlining some processes, but also enhancing the marketer’s ability to create a personalised journey to the customer. Now marketers have the ability to serve the right message to the customer on the right platform at the right time, all because of platforms like Xtremepush that use AI to support the marketer.

Example

Customer A

Customer B

Looking at these two customers, there is only one hour in the day that they are on the same channel at the same time, with App between 6 pm – 7 pm. It is unlikely that there will be an exact time to catch all of your customers on the same channel at the same time, so it is important to have a personalised journey for them, so you can give them the right content when that can actually use it. This becomes more important when the information supplied is time-sensitive as you need them to see it quickly to be able to action it. Like within the Sports betting and gaming industry, that may be highlighting a special offer for tonight’s big match. If the customer doesn’t see this until after the game, it is too late. So it is important that the message is communicated to them on the platform that they will be on.

Using a platform like Xtremepush, marketers can create campaigns that will be delivered to the customer on the platform that they are most likely to be on, at the time they are most active. Increasing engagement and ultimately sales and revenue.

It isn’t just time-sensitive messages that are best used in this way, it also works for the users preferred channel. How do you engage customers who rarely open your emails, but are active within the brand’s app almost daily? It will be easy to make the decision to stop communicating with them via the email channel and serve their message to them through the app. If they have enabled push notification, like 50% of users do then you are going to maximise the engagement opportunities with that users. However, the opportunities are still available for users without push notifications enabled by the use of in-app messaging or a message inbox housed within the app. Both of these require no opt-in as they are only seen from within the app.

See the Results

The Irish Independent use Xtremepush’s Multi-Channel Analytic and Engagement platform to provide them with a robust app analytics solutions, allowing for real-time insights. These insights enable them to analyse how effective their push notification and in-app campaigns, which drove a 300% increase in app usage, are. Discover more about how Xtremepushworksk with The Irish Independent in this case study.

It is clear that in this day and age, consumers are looking for a more personalised experience, and brands need to be providing this now, or risk losing market share. Speak to Xtremepush and see how they have helped multiple enterprise brands to achieve success with their Multi-Channel Analytics and Engagement platform.