Want to Connect with Your Audience? Use Multichannel Marketing.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a consumer who only uses one platform to serve their needs. Most people are motivated by convenience, so they’ll use different channels to make finding information or buying as easy as possible. Multichannel marketing makes it easier for them to find and engage with you.

“We see the most success when brands stop trying to do everything and focus on the channels that actually matter to their audience,” said Kara McGaharan, Director of Program Strategy for MadAve Marketing Management. “It’s less about quantity and more about being intentional with where and how you show up.”

Once you know where to find your target audience, you can refine your tactics and improve the likelihood of serving them the right messaging at the right time.

What is Multichannel Marketing?

Multichannel marketing is the use of two or more digital or physical channels to engage your ideal customer. You create multiple opportunities for your audience to discover and interact with your brand at different touchpoints.

Here’s an example:

• You see a billboard showcasing Nike’s newest shoe.
• You search for the shoes on their website looking for a special deal. When you don’t see one, you sign up to receive their email promos.
• You receive promo emails and start to see Nike ads pop up on your social media feed and Google results pages.
• You click on one of those ads, which takes you back to a product page with discounted prices on the Nike website, and you buy the shoes.
• You see a billboard showcasing Nike’s newest shoe.
• You search for the shoes on their website to see if there are special deals. While there, you sign up to receive email promos because you don’t want to pay full price.
• You begin to see Nike ads pop up on your social media feed and Google results
• You click on one of those ads, which takes you to the product page on Nike’s site, and you buy the shoes.

The billboard, website, emails and social ads are all pieces of a multichannel marketing strategy. Those assets put the decision-making power in your audience’s hands by providing them with different content to serve their interests.

Start by Understanding Your Audience

Before you select marketing channels, do some research. Start by looking at your existing data – website analytics, sales data, ad platform metrics and social media analyses – to discover where your audience is engaging with your brand. That will also provide demographic, buying behavior and lead generation insights.

You’ll be able to uncover:

• Pain points
• Buying motivation
• Content preferences
• Drop-off points
• Channel-specific behavior

Choose the Right Channels

Taking the multichannel approach doesn’t mean you have to use every platform. In fact, doing so can result in wasted time, money and resources. Rely on the information you gathered on your target audience to guide the selection process. You’re more likely to see consistent returns by investing in two or three channels that are most relevant to your audience than spreading yourself thin over a half dozen.

Consider the following questions:

• Where does your audience spend most of their time?
• What type of content do they consume on each channel?
• What channels do they use for discovery and decision-making?
• Can you produce suitable content for each platform?
• Do you have the time and resources to optimize multiple channels?

Maintain Consistency

Imagine seeing a powerful Nike graphic in a social media post, then receiving an email from Nike that lacks the same tone and defined persona. That differentiation would likely leave you confused and may even drive you to unsubscribe. While content must be crafted specifically for each channel, the message should be the same, regardless of where your audience encounters it.

Here are some rules to remember:

• Define your value proposition and brand differentiators.
• Establish guidelines for content tone, word choice and visual style.
• Rework content format for different platforms.
• Align your internal teams on messaging.

Personalize The Experience

People expect relevance,” Kara said. “If your messaging feels generic or disconnected across channels, you lose audience interest. When it’s aligned and personalized, it builds trust faster.”

Each encounter with your content should feel relevant, not generic.

Remember these tips:

• Segment your audience based on their interests and position in the buying cycle to create targeted messaging.
• Set up trigger-based steps, like follow-up emails, to re-engage people based on their interactions.
• Use surveys, emails and social media to learn which channels your customers prefer, so you can create appropriate content.
• Use automation to connect channels based on consumer behavior.

Measure, Optimize and Refine

It takes more than setting up a strategy to make your marketing successful. You’ll need to continuously measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, optimize what’s working and adjust what’s not. While your multichannel strategy may only include certain channels initially, you can – and should – adjust your approach as you collect data.

That’s why it’s important to identify key performance indicators (KPIs). Consider the following stages of the buyer’s journey when determining which KPIs to track:

• Awareness: Monitor impressions, engagement rates and page views.
• Consideration: Optimizing channels for the consideration stage means you must track time spent on a page, email subscription rates and return visits.
• Conversion: Assess whether your efforts are producing results by reviewing the number of leads, cost per acquisition and conversion rate.

Let MadAve Marketing Management Bring Your Multichannel Strategy Together

It takes time and dedication to execute and enhance a marketing strategy. Whether you need support with a few steps or want to leave it all to the experts, MadAve Marketing Management can help. You’ll also have access to our sister agencies at MadAveGroup for a full-scale approach to multichannel marketing.

Learn about what we do and contact us to schedule a consultation.