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Peter Jones
Although confusing at first sight, ‘cross-channel’ marketing is a simple strategy in digital marketing campaigns that are often mistakenly interpreted. In an ideal world, it is possible for a business to reach vast audiences on many different platforms such as Facebook, Google and its website. But in real life, it is not that simple. You may have a presence of some sort on at least one of these platforms, but customers may not be able to relate their specific needs to your business. Therefore, you need to be on top of your strategy to serve each customer with exactly what they need when they interact with you on each of these platforms.
You must meet the customer on the platform they are at and deliver them exactly what they want, and do so at the right time. It is impossible to achieve this without cross channel marketing. However, your success does not depend on blasting out content on every platform your customer may be using. Instead, you need to interconnect your strategy on all marketing platforms into unison and provide a seamless experience to your leads.
To understand both parts of the phrase, it is easy if we define what a ‘channel’ is first. A channel in your marketing strategy could involve promotional emails, blog posts, social media ads, Google ads, Microsoft products and SEO to name a few. Essentially it is the method or platform you use to engage with your potential customer. With cross-channel marketing, each of the methods used in these platforms is brought into unison to build upon one another and bolster their effectiveness in the overall campaign.
By way of an example, let us say a lead is looking to fix a glitch on their new website. You have a fantastic article on your blog setting out every possible detail on the topic. If the lead leaves you with their email address, you could later email them with a recent troubleshooting project you did as a testimonial. When the same lead visits a social media platform, you could target your ad to include that specific website glitch without overwhelming them with all your fabulous (but irrelevant) services. This creates a unified marketing strategy on multiple (cross) digital channels to get the lead exactly what they at the right time. All your efforts and costs in cross channel marketing are tailored to actionable solutions so the customer can trust your brand as the best place for that specific problem. This could even eventually lead to sales on other services you offer, too.
In complete contrast, with omnichannel marketing, the above channels such as blog posts, emails and social media ads are treated as individual marketing strategies. The promotional emails you send out to your existing leads have a set goal and topic area to discuss. The same principle applies to blog posts, social media campaigns and even Google ads. Therefore, your marketing efforts become scattered over various channels and blur your marketing objectives Also, it blurs the accurate reflection of the ROI. This, however, does not mean that you should stop all these channels in their own right. They would still be important even if you have mastered the art of cross channel marketing.
As we just saw, customers interact on different channels for different reasons. So, preserving that either Google ads or Facebook ads to be your silver bullet for each new lead could potentially be a costly mistake. Therefore, taking your brand to all the different platforms at the right time has never been so important. But, to do that, you need to be sure of what you are trying to achieve in cross channel marketing.
As a common objective, most businesses say getting new customers is their primary goal in a marketing campaign. Although not as strong as the first goal, there are other objectives including customer retention, lead generation and brand awareness. Therefore, for most businesses a traditional sales funnel approach coupled with a customer lifecycle model would be ideal when managing their marketing goals.
Every business is unique in so many ways. Even if you take two businesses of the same size in the same industry, there may be hundreds of other factors that the same marketing decision might not work both of them equally. One key point to consider when deciding the right marketing channel is the cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on the different channels. At present, on average, Facebook leads as the most cost-effective in both these methods. However, as discussed above, putting all your eggs in one (Facebook) basket might not be the best outcome for your ROI. It is therefore clear that you might need expert cross channel marketing assistance to boost sales and growth.
Facebook, Google and Microsoft are the advertising giants. It is, however, important to remember that other smaller platforms allow you to reach potential customers at a much lower price. Of course, the reach would be significantly less, but if you plan well and create an engaging ad on these platforms, the rewards could be surprisingly pleasing. Why not try platforms like Amazon, Reddit and Capterra for industry-related marketing? The user numbers are relatively low compared with the major giants, but it will enable you to reach your exact audience with better returns.
As the starting point, be clear about your business objectives. Even if you think your business has a ‘standard’ model in your industry, there could be many unique scenarios in your business setup. Line up your budget, expectations, ideal client persona and the areas of the business you need to improve.
Once you have an understanding of these parameters, do your research into which channel suits you best. You will need to consider the implications of cross-channel and omnichannel marketing. Then consider whether you have a niche audience that can be better approached on the smaller platforms. It is worth remembering that there is no one silver bullet in marketing and it depends on your knowledge, perseverance, dedication and diversifying your marketing campaign.
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