How to create a multichannel digital marketing strategy

Marketing has been complex, but it was never easy. The way businesses and consumers interact with each other has changed dramatically thanks to modern technology. Social media platforms and smartphones enable customers and brands to communicate more than ever. Furthermore, technology has revolutionized marketing strategies by turning every decision data-driven.

All of these changes have made it imperative for brands to implement a multichannel digital strategy. A brand must have at least thirteen interactions before a potential lead can be identified. Businesses should make the most of every marketing opportunity to increase their reach with consumers.

But, it is not the best way to market. Digital marketing campaigns can be expensive, so businesses need to be strategic and wise when using multichannel strategies.

Consumers today expect more from brands they interact with. This higher expectation is both the result and the reason content marketing succeeds. You can focus your marketing efforts on the channels that are most customer-centric and prioritize them. This gives you a clear goal for your marketing strategy – the ultimate brand destinations.

How can companies create a multichannel digital marketing strategy that is smart?

Quick Takeaways

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  Do not join any digital media platform simply because it is popular. To find out if there are ROI, dig deeper.
  
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  Find the solutions and tools that can help you automate and set up digital processes.
  
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  Do not spread yourself too thin. Learn one thing first, then move on to the next.
  
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  Keep an eye on your KPI dashboard.
  

Multichannel marketing is important.

Because your customers search for information everywhere, and you must be there to help them find it.

Our customers increasingly use multiple channels to get the information they require. Your website is less important to them than the relationship they have with you, their sales representative. They are also finding the information they need to make business decisions more easily .

Is there a gap between the two? Yes! Mary Meeker says there is a gap of $20 billion in digital channel spending. This gap can be seen by the ratio of advertising dollars spent online and on mobile channels to the time that digital consumers spend in these channels.

This means that businesses aren't spending enough money on channels where people spend increasing amounts of their time.

Forrester calls their report “The Multichannel Maturity Mandat.”

The customer today has more control than the marketer. The Web and social media have become part of almost everyone's everyday life. This means that buyers have more options (more outlets, more sources, and more opinions) to choose from.

Multi-channel marketing is the future of how businesses can better serve customers through the many choices and content they have.

Multi-channel marketing, to me, is the 2nd core component of content strategy. It seeks to provide the content audiences are looking for at all places they search.

Study concluded that multi-channel marketing maturity can lead to significant business benefits. This is mainly due to the increased reach of an optimized marketing mix.

This is in line with the best content marketing practices, which show how to get more engagement early in the buying process by creating targeted content that targets the buying stage.

The study showed higher customer satisfaction from companies that were more mature. Multi-channel marketing is a great way to engage more people and increase customer satisfaction.

These are the five main findings

• Multichannel marketing is a popular area for marketers. 40% of respondents regarded themselves as experienced practitioners of multichannel marketing.
• It is not a matter if you have the will to do it, but rather if you have the skills. The main barrier to integrated marketing that is more efficient was the skill gap.
• Marketers who identify themselves as mature have shown significant business benefits in campaign performance and ROI.
• Mature multichannel marketers were more likely than younger ones to adopt innovative technology early, to have good relationships with IT colleagues and to align with sales.
• Even multi-channel marketers with years of experience considered that their marketing programs were not fully integrated and believed further optimization was possible.

The Company Website can be Elevated

A brand website can be more than just a digital face for a company. With a strategically chosen selection of content on the website, such as blog posts, case studies and videos, it can be a way to create an experience. Brand websites are rated as the best channel to market products by 44 percent of consumers.

However, this channel is essential if your website wants to be noticed. It should provide a destination that consumers want to return to time and again, not just for the content.

Organizations with more advanced content marketing strategies are better equipped to master the content hub. This can be used on-site or separately. This is a step beyond a simple website that contains content. This creates a space for your best content, which makes it easy for visitors to find what they are interested in. You can also show them more of your content, keeping them interested and hooking them with a “what's in the for me” that exceeds their expectations.

This is the look of Equinox's hub, Furthermore. This luxury fitness company is more than just information. They offer a lifestyle that inspires their customers.

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Apart from creating a hub, you can also create a learning resource portal that will help your company's niche. You can also offer educational tracks and courses that will give your visitors something to aim for, in addition to the well-organized content found on a hub. You can guide them on a specific learning path instead of bombarding them with endless content. A video series or set of eBooks could be combined to create a complete learning module for potential buyers.

HubSpot Academy is an excellent example of this extremely useful educational website experience.

It's easy to feel like there is endless information available. It's all completely free. This is a compelling reason to join HubSpot's online world of brands.

These techniques of using the company website to create extraordinary value are not only practical for lead generation but also establish thought leadership. These methods are part of building a brand world that wants to be a part. It's a stage that goes beyond utility and quality. It inspires a lifestyle that B2C buyers aspire to, and the level of efficiency and success that B2B buyers seek.

Identify your Audience and Determine Their Preferences

Businesses make the biggest mistake in digital marketing by thinking they must use every platform to reach customers. There are many marketing channels that may not be appropriate for all businesses. Some businesses don't need to market on LinkedIn and Snapchat. While some businesses would be successful with blog content, others will do better with audio or video content such as vlogs and podcasts.

To ensure your digital efforts have the greatest impact, it is important to identify and understand your audience. Audience preferences are influenced by demographic factors. Consider social media usage as an example. According to Pew Research, younger consumers prefer platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, while older generations use Facebook and YouTube more frequently.

Snapchat is not the best channel for marketing if your audience consists primarily of people over 40 years old.

Look at the demographics of your audience to see where they consume most content and advertising. This will help you determine where your brand can best meet them. Pay attention to the content they consume. Are they more likely to read blogs than they are to watch YouTube tutorials? Do they prefer visual content or informational content such as case studies?

To get this information, you may need to do your own market research with your target audience. You might also need to survey a few focus groups. You can also look at benchmark studies and industry reports to get a better understanding of the consumer behavior within your niche.

Strengthen Your Martech Stack

The right tools are necessary to establish a presence and track results. You also need to keep track of key metrics and customer accounts. It takes a lot to create a supportive martech environment that supports your efforts.

When you are developing your multichannel strategy, be sure to pay attention to which areas will most benefit from technology. There are many tools available for digital marketing. However, there may be a benefit to using tool “suites”, or solutions that can be used across multiple channels and industries.

Marketo has a variety of products, including Engage (for brand building), Bizible for revenue attribution, and Adobe Experience Cloud (for improving CX). These products enable organizations to automate email marketing and mobile marketing, manage leads and implement ABM practices. They also allow them to create and distribute content using predictive analytics.

Start with a Pilot, and Expand

A lack of focus is one of the biggest pitfalls in multichannel marketing strategies. It can become overwhelming to introduce multiple channels and it can have a negative effect on the quality of your team’s efforts.

Too many changes are a common mistake made by many digital marketing teams. This can lead teams to make costly mistakes by trying to implement too many changes at once.

You don't have to overload your marketing team by trying too many strategies at once. Start small with simple, but effective marketing strategies like building an email list and creating an email trigger-based system. Next, focus on SEO-focused content like blog posts and videos. You can also expand into paid sources such as social ads, PPC or televised commercials.

The order in which the most effective methods are used will depend on the audience of your business. Therefore, it is important to research the preferences and behaviors of your target audience to determine which methods will have the greatest payoffs.

Keep an eye on things, but give them time

Marketing strategies that work are not easy to implement can take time. Marketing is a nurturing process that moves customers through the sales funnel by providing relevant content. Don't give up if you don't see immediate results with these digital channels. These marketing strategies can take some time to bring about conversions.

It is essential that your team has real-time access to tracking programs in order to monitor KPIs. These strategies should be allowed to develop over time. However, it is important to look for signs of growth and stagnation over long periods of times to determine where adjustments are required. If the method does not produce results after a few weeks, you can look for ways to improve it rather than abandoning it.

For each channel, here are the questions that you should ask:

• What consumer segments are you going to target?
• What position will you take for your product?
• Are you willing to set sales goals? What happens if you fail to meet your sales targets?
• What amount will you spend advertising?
• How can you retain customers that you have acquired through this channel?

Connect with Buyers through Live Experiences

Event and experiential marketing are another marketing channel with the most potential to influence your customers. 41% of consumers rank live experiences as the number one way to help them understand a product's purpose. This makes events an essential part of a marketing strategy that delivers real value. Events are essential if you want to generate substantial revenue and provide brand-boosting benefits.

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Event and experiential marketing can have the most impact if it is integrated with other content marketing strategies.

• For your podcasts, blogs, or videos, interview event speakers before or after the event.
• Use your social media platforms to live stream the event and engage attendees
• Event tools can help you measure the value of your event, and ensure that your brand is providing exceptional customer service.
• You can use surveys to gather data for future white paper development if you have enough participants
• Align your tone, messaging and goals for your experiential campaigns and live events to the rest of the content marketing strategy

Events and other experiences offer more than just value. Events and other experiences can also be used as a foil for digital content. They put a face on your brand, giving it a more authentic feel than digital content. Even for those who were not directly involved, this is true. People who are exposed to photos and videos of the experience indirectly still benefit from it. It shows that there are real people behind the brand, with real passions and real ideas.

Get Your Tentacles In

Bottom line: If you want your products and services to resonate with your audience, ensure that you connect with them through the channels that they are most comfortable with.

Businesses have an opportunity to connect with customers at every turn digitally, as the world has become more connected than ever before. If done properly, a strong multichannel marketing strategy will be the best way to build relationships and convert customers.

To get things off to a good start, you must:

1. Learn about your audience and how you can best reach them.
2. To determine where your focus should be, look at all the data sources that you can find to collect demographical and behavioral information.
3. Find the most lucrative channels and find the technology and tools that will benefit your team.

Don't rush to get into multichannel marketing. Instead, make use of your data to identify the areas that have the greatest impact. This could be targeted email marketing or stronger social media presence. You can slowly start to integrate other channels and methods while still monitoring your revenue.

Our Content Builder Service can help you get more visitors to your website by providing quality content that is consistently published. Contact me to set up a consultation and I will send you a PDF copy of my books. Get started today and generate more leads and traffic for your business.