A recent study by Forrester that sought to track online transactions found that less than 1% could be tracked back to social networks. Although the study did not include small businesses, and generally social media is found to have a more profound impact on small businesses, it brings up an important topic in today's world, which is the effectiveness and long-term impact of cross-channel marketing.
CHANNEL Your Energy
So what is Cross-Channel Marketing? Cross-channel marketing is many times mistakenly used interchangeably with multi-channel marketing. Multi-channel marketing is the idea that surrounds traditional campaign thinking - providing a consistent message across different type of platforms. Cross-channel marketing places the emphasis on the consumer, and follows them across the different channels and providing them with the information and if executed properly, will provide a customer service experience that will retain their loyalty - this new marketing paradigm is illustrated below:
Image Source
Please note that this diagram depicts only one arrow, and it caries the consumer across all available channels - this is key to cross-channel marketing. The consumer cannot be controlled, but rather it is necessary to ensure that all channels are available to be an active participant in the user experience, providing a unique and genuine experience that is tailored to an individual customers spontaneous needs and desire to interact with your brand or company.
So… What's Your Favorite CHANNEL?
One of the foundations of cross-channel marketing is understanding that your customers may prefer different channels at different times in their relationship with your brand. The initial purchase or contact may be at a brick-and-motor location or event, but as a relationship develops the focus may turn swiftly to eCommerce. Down the road, social media interaction may lead a consumer back to a purchase after a hiatus of activity. The important concept to understand is that customers will prefer different channels at different times in their relationship with an organization. Therefore it is essential to tailor each interaction based on that relationship.
CHANNEL the Power of Social Media
So where does social media fit into this cross-channel equation? Caroline Watts - a marketing manager at ReTargeter - feels social media's primary focus as a channel should be directed at building trust:
You can use social media to make your brand appear more human and build trust. You can also take advantage of the power of the social graph by making it easy for your users to share your brand content with their friends. After all, people trust their friends more than they trust any brand. Source
It is necessary to make your organization and brand accessible to your consumers no matter which channel they prefer - and preference really is the key. Just as consumers will flip channels in their living rooms from one show to the next, so to will they flip channels in their communication habits with your brand, understanding that dynamic and having a strategy in place to support this habit is essential to sound marketing moving forward.
Very interesting article. I haven't been in the marketing field for a while (so you know way more about it than me), but all of this sounds incredibly on point.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wonder is how hard large organizations in particular find it to structure around this idea because, at least when I used to work in it, there were different people in charge of different channels and they definitely wanted (even needed) for credit for "the sale" to go to them...
Tracking the origin of a conversion across different channels is extremely difficult. My take is that any organization that is providing compensation based on the methods you mention is missing an opportunity to service their customers. The focus should be on retaining the customer and coaxing along a long-term relationship.
DeleteObviously, when talking about reaching objectives to warrant bonuses - it inspires the need for marketing that is highly trackable and can be attributed to a unique source. However - if the combined marketing efforts for an organization are providing the desired growth - those are the types of efforts that should be compensated.
This is a very informational post. I agree that cross-channel marketing is not about the company, but about the user. It only makes sense to appeal to the user in the very place they feel comfortable and "at home." Additionally, all consumers are different, so it is important to maintain all channels to ensure that different consumers are being reached.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to "all channels" really is at the heart of this conversation. For me, I prefer Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn as my channels of choice - so a marketing effort on Facebook will not be nearly as effective in reaching me. In short, the larger "net" of channels you cast, the more relevant and available you are to your customers when they are looking to connect with your brand.
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