Information comes from various marketing communication channels. People no longer rely solely on traditional media such as print, TV, and radio to get information. Digital technology has allowed people to access information through their phones and computers while an event unfolds. Marketing through all information channels will greatly impact your brand’s success.
Updated March 31, 2022
Have you heard of multi-channel communication?
It is important to have a multi-channel communication campaign or a multi-channel marketing strategy that suits your brand’s needs and your customers’ lifestyles in this day and age.
A strong multi-channel communication strategy keeps current customers updated about your brand’s offering and reaches potential customers through different ways and platforms.
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What Is Multi-Channel Communication?
Multi-channel communication is a strategy used by companies to communicate and engage with their customers through various platforms. Some of the platforms include:
- Social media
- Mobile applications
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Online store
- Brand and product websites
- Direct mail
- Mail-order catalogs
- TV and radio advertisements
- SMS
Successful multi-channel communication leads to an effective cross-channel or multi-channel marketing campaign.
Why Is Multi-Channel Marketing Important?
Technology has allowed everyone to access information whenever and wherever they are. People can check the news or look for information through their digital devices even as they are doing another task.
Taking advantage of people’s access to information through various channels will impact your brand’s success. Being present in multiple channels helps your brand reach and engage with your customers in the communication platforms they prefer.
This article covers the benefits, challenges, and steps for a multi-channel communication marketing campaign:
Benefits of Multi-Channel Marketing
There are many benefits to launching a multi-channel marketing campaign. Companies should review the following benefits to align upcoming efforts with their business goals:
- Expansive reach
- Increased engagement
- Marketing on cross-channel touchpoints
- Improve customer experience
- Recollecting brands
- Boost of customer loyalty
Expansive Reach
Marketing on multiple channels means customers can get information on your brand through a platform that is convenient for them to use.
Multi-channel marketing and communication ensures greater audience reach.
Increased Engagement
When your brand can be reached through various means, your customers can engage with your brand in the ways they want.
Your customers can choose the channel that suits them. This will lead to increased engagement with your brand.
Cross-Channel Touchpoints
Marketing on multiple channels allows for more touchpoints through which data can be collected.
When you have more data you can better understand your customers and how your products and services can be improved to meet their needs.
Opportunity to Improve Customer Experience
Through multi-channel marketing communication campaigns, customers can inform you of their experience with your products and services.
With this information, you can improve your customer’s experience.
Higher Brand Recall
Marketing strategies that involve advertisements in traditional media such as print and television and social media have a higher brand recall. Social media ads reinforce television and print advertisements by reaching multiple people.
Additional Reading: '5 Advertising Medium Types for Businesses'
Customer Loyalty Boost
With the feedback and data from your customers, improving their experience becomes easier. When customers see that their concerns are addressed, they will trust your brand.
This will boost their loyalty to your brand.
Challenges of Multi-Channel Communication
While there are several clear advantages to multi-channel marketing, there are also a good number of challenges. Marketing professionals should look out for the following challenges when undergoing a new campaign.
- Impact cost and efficiency
- Branding consistency
- Compatibility of brand platforms
- Leverage analytics
- Keeping up with trends
- Customizing messages
Management Efficiency and Increased Expenses
Managing multiple channels can be overwhelming so hiring a team to handle the channel would be needed to ensure efficient management.
But this will entail additional costs for your company. Your business will have to assess the importance of your multi-channel communication campaign within your business budget.
Consistent Branding
Your brand should have a consistent look and messaging across all the platforms you are present. Having inconsistent branding will affect how customers view and recall your brand.
In order to keep your branding consistent for campaigns, create and abide by a branding kit that includes logos, color palettes, and more.
Source: Johnson Banks
Many companies, such as Duolingo, rely on brand guidelines to keep their visual aesthetic uniform and memorable across channels.
This will be a challenge when managing multiple communication channels.
Platform Brand Compatibility
You need to identify which platform is most compatible with your brand. Tapping into other channels to expand your reach but neglecting your most effective platform can prove disadvantageous for your brand.
With multiple channels, you will also need to properly manage the distribution of your resources so that all your channels are attended to efficiently.
Leveraging Analytics
Having multiple communication channels will be a challenge for your marketing specialists.
They might have difficulty handling analytics. One must ensure that the team is trained to analyze the data from multiple channels and effectively leverage the data to your brand’s advantage.
Keeping up With Trends
Trends and innovations change very quickly, especially when it comes to multi-channel communication campaigns.
Keeping up with market trends and innovations can be challenging. You need to evaluate which trends and innovations are compatible with your brand identity.
Be careful that you are not simply joining a bandwagon.
Read This: 'Brand Parity - Impact on Consumer Perceptions'
Customized Messages
Customizing messages to suit your target audience can be difficult when managing multiple channels.
But do not take communication for granted.
Your messages and content must be appropriate to the platform you are using to communicate.
How to Structure an Effective Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign
Once your team has reviewed the benefits and potential challenges of a multi-channel campaign, it is time to get started:
- Break down organizational barriers
- Optimize a multi-channel marketing platform
- Create several touchpoints
- Understand your audience
- Ensure consistent messaging
1. Break Down Organizational Barriers
People naturally develop loyalty to their department or team and may refuse to share information with others.
Break down organizational silos by uniting the entire organization through a cause they all value. This is important for your brand to create a cohesive message across different channels.
2. Optimize a Multi-Channel Marketing Platform
It is essential to have marketing technology tools that help track how campaigns are doing across all channels.
Marketing measurement and optimization platforms provide marketing analytics that promotes precise marketing attribution and helps collect relevant behavioral insights across your channels.
3. Create several touchpoints
Multiple touchpoints creation is one of the benefits of multi-channel marketing. It provides data that can be used for future marketing endeavors.
Touchpoints can be surveys, email newsletters, social media, among others.
4. Understand your audience
Understanding your target audience is important for your marketing strategy.
The preferences and behavior of your target audience determine which marketing strategy will be more effective.
Setting up control groups and doing test runs will help you understand your customers’ preferences and behavior.
For example, knowing your customers’ preferred channel will help to determine which communication platform you should pay more attention to when developing content.
5. Ensure consistent messaging
Streamlining the look, feel, and services of your brand across all platforms allow for better brand recall.
A consistent brand image is important even while the message is adjusted to customers’ attitudes or media format.
Expand Your Reach with Multi-Channel Communication
The goal of an effective multi-channel communication campaign includes expanded reach, increased engagement, improving customer experience, higher brand recall, and boosting customer loyalty. Multi-channel communication helps ensure the growth and success of your brand.
To get started on a multi-channel communication plan or for advice on a marketing communication strategy, check out our list of trusted digital marketing teams.
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