What is Multichannel Marketing?

As marketers, we should never get too comfortable. If you find yourself reading this with your feet propped up on your couch ottoman eating bonbons while your organic Facebook campaign runs automatically in the background, take this as a sign that you might have hit “too comfy” status.

It’s time to move to a standing desk and think about a multichannel marketing strategy. They’re both uncomfortable at first, but good for you! A great marketing campaign begins at the end of your comfort zone and at the beginning of your next channel. 

If the thought of managing more than one channel at a time scares you, you aren’t alone. But the benefits of expanding your marketing strategy through different networks are too good to pass up.
 

What is multichannel marketing?

Multichannel marketing involves promoting the same (or similar) marketing strategy or campaign across multiple channels. These channels can include any combination of digital and traditional, including social media, email, paid digital advertising, direct mail and more. 

Placing your messaging on multiple channels maximizes your strategy and allows you to reach a wider audience with the same campaign. It is also designed to give the user freedom of choice in how they want to interact with you. Maybe they love seeing your fun posts on Instagram but will set an advertisement on fire if it ends up in their mailbox.

Most marketers are already conducting some form of multichannel marketing, especially for larger campaigns or activations. After all, when was the last time you launched a campaign entirely on TV or through email? 

But it always seems like the second we get the hang of balancing our message on both platforms like Facebook and Tik Tok, more channels pop up. This expansion of channels requires marketers to adapt and buckle down to better reach the right audience.

The benefits of multichannel marketing

Many marketers fear going multichannel. After all, it feels hard enough to keep up with content generation, management and reporting for one channel. But there are a variety of benefits that come with adopting a multichannel marketing strategy.

• Wider variety: Marketing across different channels allows you to reach a variety of users on their favorite channel. This also means you’re meeting your customer where they are. Odds are your entire sales database will not be found exclusively on Instagram. Switching up your channels or trying new traditional or digital methods leads to a wider audience and variety of targeted consumers.

• Increased frequency: A presence on multiple channels increases the chances of a consumer receiving more touchpoints or frequency in interacting with your brand. This leads to higher brand awareness and recognition, which in turns leads to higher conversion rates in the future.

• Beat the competition: At the end of the day, using more than one channel makes it more likely that you will show up where your competitors are not showing. If your competition is not using a channel where your audience can be found, you should 100% be active on it.

• Integrated strategy: Marketing on multiple channels results in a more cohesive, integrated strategy from the top of the funnel all the way to the bottom. Deploying the same or similar messaging to your wider audience drives new demand for your product or service and helps build brand awareness and conversions. Think about it: If a veterinarian only promoted grooming services on Facebook, they wouldn’t receive as many annual appointments. If they only promoted their annual appointments via email, they would have a hard time reaching new audiences. Cross promoting both services on multiple channels increases the audience and makes for a more unified message.

Before you go multichannel, consider this

If you’re exclusively using email or only a handful of channels to reach your audience, a multichannel strategy may sound pretty good to you right now. But before you dive into increasing your presence, build a foundation by thinking about the following:

• Budget: Do you have the monetary, time or labor capacity to take on another marketing tactic? If you can’t put energy and effort into making the channel its own beautiful creation and not just copying and pasting the same message in different spots, it might not be a good time. Especially if you’re looking to take on paid advertising, which can get expensive!

• Audience: Don’t put time and effort into establishing a new channel where your audience won’t be found. Take time to revisit your buyer personas and interview your current customers and look for gaps. Is there a marketing channel that keeps popping up in your conversations that you have yet to take advantage of? That new channel should become your first priority. 

• Messaging: Take a moment to also consider your campaigns. If you run many campaigns that have landing pages, forms or other lead generation tactics, then platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram that don’t allow for links in the caption may not be right for you without heavy adjustments. 

• Creative Assets: Oftentimes, going multichannel means diversifying your creative assets. If you don’t have (or aren’t able to easily procure) content in multiple forms like display, audio, video, etc. it can be difficult to generate enough content to keep up with differing platforms.

Launching a multichannel marketing strategy

Once you’ve got a firm foundation ready to go, it’s time to build your multichannel mansion. Set up your new channel and integrate it into your next campaign.

Here are the steps we recommend for construction:

1. Start with a marketing strategy or overall campaign concept. Know the audience you’re targeting and develop general messaging you want them to retain.

2. Start small and add one new channel at a time per campaign. This keeps things manageable and makes tracking easier. 

3. Strategize. Determine how you will tweak messaging to fit each different channel. Keep it overall the same while putting a unique spin on each platform. Twitter may seem inherently different from Instagram, but copying and pasting your message dulls the impact of a multichannel strategy.

4. Triple check your analytics and tracking are set up correctly on all channels. Track assisted conversions and user engagement to help you allocate your budget and time on each channel. If a new channel receives consistently low ROI and engagement, this may indicate you should backtrack on your multichannel strategy.

5. Launch your campaign and analyze performance on each channel. Determine what’s working and what’s not and consider expanding into new channels or mediums that are familiar to your audience but new to your marketing strategy.

6. Rinse and repeat.

The biggest pro-tip we can give you when it comes to multichannel is to start small. Even smaller than you think you should start. Don’t play it too safe, but determine some indication of success vs. failure before adding an entire new channel to your campaign strategy. 
 

Marketing done right 

With a little time and practice (and we won’t lie—the right automation tools), you’ll find that multichannel marketing isn’t nearly as intimidating as you may think. Expanding your presence into different channels helps you reach a wider audience and shake up your messaging to attract new users.

Keep things interesting with new strategies and channels! If the very thought leaves you feeling overwhelmed, we have your back. Drop us a line and let’s talk multichannel.