In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, and with more competition than ever, ensuring brand continuity across marketing channels is crucial. Cross-channel marketing is a strategic approach that connects various marketing channels to deliver a unified and seamless experience for consumers. It not only gives your business greater online visibility, but also allows you to tailor messaging based on where individuals are in the customer journey. In this blog, we will discuss the benefits and how to implement cross-channel marketing into your business to promote loyal customer relationships and create brand advocates.
The limitations of single-channel marketing
Unfortunately, the days when marketing efforts could rely solely on a single channel to reach and engage audiences effectively are behind us. The variety of channels used by consumers and the high online competition demands a more dynamic marketing approach. It is unlikely that your potential customers are only using one online platform. Having a personalized and cohesive experience across multiple channels will help instil trust and make your business memorable.
Understanding the customer journey
The first step in creating any marketing strategy is understanding your audience. Who are they, where are they and what are their needs? Once this is nailed it’s time to think how you can reach them, and this is where understanding the customer journey comes in.
There are five stages of the customer journey and optimising each touch point will ensure the best experience and outcome.
-
Awareness
The customer is just about to or has just realised that they have a problem and they need a solution.
-
Consideration
The customer is now looking at options for the best solution.
-
Purchase
The customer has settled on a decision and is ready to purchase or get in touch.
-
Retention
Post-sale there is the opportunity to retain customers, resell to them and make them loyal to you.
-
Advocacy
Customers who have had meaningful experiences with your business will become organic brand advocates.
Leveraging each step of the customer journey
Each step of the customer journey requires strategic marketing techniques and this is where cross-channel marketing comes in.
Generating Awareness:
The awareness phase is about highlighting an issue to your audience for which you have a solution. This can be done through push marketing services such as social media ads or PR, where you can provide educational content for the customer to understand their issue and offer potential solutions.
For example, if you owned a compression sportswear company you could target gym goers through social media ads with an ad such as ‘Want to get more from your gym sessions? Understand how compression sportswear can help improve your performance and aid recovery?’
You have highlighted the issue of not getting enough out of the gym and offered your product, compression sportswear, as the solution. There is no hard-selling technique, ‘buy our product – it’s amazing’, just a potential solution for the customer to consider.
Promoting Consideration:
At the consideration stage, the customer understands their issue and is ready to compare companies that offer relevant solutions. To do this, they may search on Google, social media platforms or review platforms.
It is important that you are visible where your audience is searching and you describe the ideal solution. Marketing techniques such as SEO, Google ads and content writing can help you appear on Google for relevant searches.
For example ‘What are the benefits of compression sportswear?’. Showing organically to the customers, through useful information and related product options will make you a solid contender for their solution.
SEO traffic is also one of the highest converting marketing techniques as users don’t realise that they are being marketed too.
Enabling Purchase:
The customer has considered all options and has chosen your business as the solution to their problem. The hard part is done, so don’t let yourself down at the final hurdle. Whether you are selling a product or offering a service, having a simple ‘purchase’ option is crucial.
This could include having a user-friendly website with a contact simple form, and an easy-to-navigate e-commerce store offering free delivery or live chat for getting In touch. More often than not, a business conversion will happen on a website, so ensuring your site has good UX is vital for this phase.
Increasing Retention:
It is much more viable to retain customers and promote repeat purchases than to constantly search for new customers. Improving your customer retention rate can increase business profit anywhere from 25%-95%.
But how do you do this?
Now you know a little more about your customer and potentially have some of their details, it is time to continually nurture this relationship.
You could offer insider information through personalised email marketing campaigns or retarget them through social media ads with VIP offers. Offering existing customers exclusive information or offers will help them feel valued and keep them loyal to your business.
Creating Advocacy:
The fifth step of the customer journey, brand advocacy, will come naturally if the previous four touch points have gone smoothly. Naturally, as humans, we like to share positive (or negative) experiences with others, whether this be through word of mouth, social media or review websites.
Creating synergy across channels
Creating consistency across multiple channels isn’t just about bombarding consumers with the same message repeatedly. It’s about creating a cohesive narrative that seamlessly transitions from touch point to touch point.
Knowing where your customer is on their journey, and offering appropriate communication styles at each step is vital. Adding personal aspects to each touch point, such as a custom name field in an email or a targeted ad saying ‘thank you for your purchase’, will make the user feel valued and not just a sales opportunity.
Maintaining your brand identity, messaging and style across all channels to foster trust and credibility but also reinforce brand recognition, making it easier for consumers to connect with and recall your brand.
How can we help?
At first, cross-channel marketing can seem like a daunting, time-consuming and expensive proposition. However, we are here to take that burden off your plate and create a cross-channel marketing strategy that works for you, your audience and your bank account.
Interested in learning more about which channels could help improve your customer journey and increase conversions? Get in touch today and see how we can help.