What You Need to Know About Multi-Channel Digital Marketing

We hear about multichannel marketing all the time, but we can’t pinpoint what multichannel is and what it should be.

Moreover, this one of the most overlooked topics in advertising, and apparently, this is embraced by hardcore marketers and advertisers only.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the subject, and see what multichannel marketing is, and how to make it work.  

Multi-channel marketing refers to a combination of interactions using indirect and direct communication channels.

Often misunderstood or completely ignored by many marketers, people tend to focus only on one channel at a time. They seem to ignore the bigger picture. The marketing channels can differ from one product/service to another.

However, they all have a common goal and follow the same metrics, conversions, sales or leads.

 

Multi-Channel Digital Marketing

 

Ideally, online marketers aim to get a high volume of quality traffic at low costs but in truth, there is no single channel that can offer you this.  

A good strategy is to use multiple channels such as email, social media, direct mail, search engines, banners, as well as pay-per-click ad campaigns. The use of multiple lead-generation tactics individually can have a good impact.

However, using them simultaneously will generate a trickle down effect that will make the positive effects of one marketing tactic boost the performance of the others as well.

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While working for 36monthloans.com, a B2B personal loan provider, I found out that when it comes to marketing tactics, one plus one does not necessarily equal two but rather three, and the more directions you target your customers from, the more likely they are to consider your products.

It’s not a question of “how can I do multi-channel marketing?”, most likely you are already doing it. You probably have some organic traffic, a facebook page, a twitter account, and do send out some emails from time to time.

The real challenge is to understand how the user interacts with your different channels, establish your top converting paths, and try to optimize the process as much as you can.

The Multi-Channel Report in Google Analytics is a good place to start. I won’t get into details about this report just now but be sure to check it out.

 

Every channel has it’s own challenges

 

Individually, all marketing channels have their own flaws. For example, email marketing in the lending industry is often perceived as spam, social media should be used to compliment all other channels and in general is used to maintain relations with existing customers. And only later on the acquisition, while the organic search is unpredictable as it is influenced by too many factors.

PPC campaigns are by far the most effective but also the most challenging.

 

What to expect from your competition?

 

 

It should be quite clear to any digital marketer that you need to keep a close eye on your competition at all time.

A simple research about your potential competitors is not enough to determine the exact state of the market, especially if you want to expand your multi-channel marketing efforts through paid advertising. 

For example, when dealing with online loans, the most challenging part came from Adwords campaigns, where new advertisers pushed the bar higher than the actual line of profitability should have been. Most pressure comes in waves, advertisers come and go, but overall they kept pushing the costs higher and higher to a level almost impossible to maintain.

This makes it difficult even for the most experienced marketers to maintain a good performance.

Most of the advertisers eventually back up after a few months, but by then the harm is already done as a few months of unjustified costs can throw your campaign off course.

 

Work more on your product.

 

Never assume you have a good enough product or service.

A well-defined product is crucial when dealing with aggressive competition, that’s why it’s a good idea to focus your efforts on maximizing your income from your existing traffic.

 

Conclusion

If you can earn more from the same source of traffic as your competitors, you will eventually overtake them with fewer efforts, giving you a significant advantage whenever you find yourself in troubled waters.  

If you have any questions about multi-channel marketing feel free to leave them in a comment below, and i will try to give you an answer as best as I can.