Understanding Multi-Channel Marketing and Its Advantages

Did you know modern households owns an average of 7.2 internet connected devices and typically uses 3 or more devices on a day to day basis? This equates to the number of opportunities businesses have in promoting their brand in front of potential customers. So, if you are a business owner who wants to get ahead of your competition and capture your target market’s attention, you may want to engage in multi-channel marketing?

What is Multi-Channel Marketing?

Multi-channel marketing is a marketing strategy that aims to engage customers across different channels or platforms, including TV, radio, online, social media, and email among others. It involves implementing a single strategy with a mix of media to promote and sell a brand, product, or service. Maximizing opportunities to connect with potential customers.

According to Marketing Week, it takes at least 6 channels for an average consumer to decide to make a purchase. The goal of multi-channel marketing is to give consumers time and choice to allow them to buy whenever and wherever they prefer. Because a single marketing channel may come and go, showcasing your brand in multiple platforms can help establish brand recall and encourage customers’ intent on taking action.

Advantages of Multi-Channel Marketing

If your brand is only using one channel like social medial, consider multi-channel marketing. Here are some reasons why a multi channel approach is more important that ever.

1. It increases awareness.

The multi-channel approach is an effective way of reaching a wider set of audience and maximizing customer engagement. For example, if you settle on TV ads alone, how would potential customers who spend most of their time on social media learn about you or your business? By targeting different channels, you are engaging them.

2. It establishes consistent messaging.

Marketing is all about communicating the benefits and values of a certain product or service to your ideal audience. Through multi-channel marketing, you have different opportunities to send your message across in an accurate, consistent manner. This way, wherever your customers are, they can hear your message over and over again.

3. It boosts sales.

In a study made by Advertising Research Foundation, brands are able to increase their ROI by 35% using a 5-channel campaign instead of just one. This is because potential customers have different opportunities to make a sale — whether it’s through a physical store, online, telephone, or email.

4. It provides competitive advantage.

According to Gartner Research, campaigns using more than 4 digital channels outperform competitors that are only using single or dual channel campaigns by 300%. This means, if you want to outdo your competitors and capture a bigger market share, make sure to tap different channels when launching marketing campaigns.

5. Multi-Channel Marketing provides more data and better insights.

More channels means more data. And for every marketing personnel, data is gold. It can provide excellent insights about what your customers want, what features they are looking for, how much they are willing to spend, what influences them to purchase a product, or what causes them to choose your competitors over you? All this information can be helpful in improving your business.

While multi-channel marketing may seem to be the perfect approach in reaching your sales targets, know that it comes with a few challenges. These include identifying the right marketing mix, adjusting your message to the type of channel and audience you are targeting, as well as spending more marketing budget and time in executing your campaigns.

Of course, all these challenges will be worth it when you start seeing your business grow by implementing the right multi-channel marketing plan.