Whether you’re starting a new brand, have taken a different angle with how you run an existing business or simply want to tap into new markets, multichannel marketing should be top of your list to plan for. If you’re unsure what exactly that looks like or how to do it, we’ll cover all the key advantages of multichannel marketing and where to focus your energy (and budget).
What Is Multichannel Digital Marketing?
Multichannel marketing refers to the concept of targeting potential customers or clients across several platforms. This can include your website (a key facet of marketing for any business), various social media platforms, email marketing and paid advertising across search engines.
Multichannel digital marketing helps you cast a wider net, re-engage with people who have seen your brand before, and explore new markets. The way in which you market or advertise across each platform will vary slightly, depending on each platform’s unique algorithms and demographics.
Why One Channel Isn’t Enough in Today’s Digital Landscape
To answer this question, think about your own media use. Are you only on one social media platform? How often do you subscribe to business emails for that first-purchase discount code? Chances are, you’re signed up to a few email lists, have a social platform (or two) of choice and likely Google new brands or products when you do your research.
Equally, if you’ve heard of the recent (albeit very short-lived) TikTok ban in the US, you’ll know how impactful losing access to one app is if that’s your only means of marketing. Influencers across every state were panicking, hurriedly trying to get their followers to move across to newly created YouTube accounts and Instagram. The same principle can be applied to your business; you don’t want to be left in the lurch when the algorithm changes, the core demographic shifts, or the app becomes inaccessible entirely.
It also takes several degrees of exposure to your brand, product or service before customers will seriously consider making a purchase. When you use tools like remarketing across the relevant platforms they frequent, you’re more likely to achieve your goals – whether that’s brand awareness or conversions on your ecommerce site. Getting your business out there takes time, which is why a broad but carefully considered approach is an important facet of multichannel marketing.
The Key Benefits of a Multichannel Strategy
While managing a bunch of different platforms, including a website, might seem like a lot of work, there are a number of advantages of multichannel marketing if you get it right. One of the most important things to remember is that marketing isn’t a set-and-forget thing; you’ll need to be adaptable and adjust accordingly over time as your business (and customer base) evolves. If you get the balance just right, there are plenty of benefits:
- Increased engagement is the first (and most obvious) benefit. Getting your name out there across a significant number of platforms with a dedicated approach that’s optimised for the demographic and format of each will mean people actually want to like, subscribe, comment and visit your website.
- Following on from engagement, when you get more interaction through your various channels, this then often leads to better brand awareness and more trust. It’s uncommon for a customer to convert after interacting with your brand just once – people need to see you a few times and learn what you’re about. Having a multichannel digital marketing presence helps to add legitimacy to what you do, making you more memorable, trustworthy and, therefore, a business they’re more likely to give their money or contact details to.
- Something people often underestimate when it comes to marketing is utilising the data they get to its fullest potential. More data across a number of different platforms helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not and customise and adapt your approach accordingly. Data-driven optimisation will mean you’re spending your time and money where it counts, giving you a better return on all fronts.
- Multichannel digital marketing boosts paid campaign performance. For example, having great ads but a hard-to-navigate website won’t do. You’ll lose those leads with a crazy bounce rate before you’ve gained any details or orders from them. While many businesses focus heavily on ad spend and boosting ROAS, you need a welcoming, useful, easy-to-use website with good information to match your stellar ad campaigns.
All of these benefits combined can generate more leads for you to follow up on, increased conversions, and more traffic to your website. Not sure where to start and which platforms to focus on? We’ll give you some pointers there, too.
The Most Effective Digital Marketing Channels to Consider
There are some essential elements that everyone should include in their multichannel digital marketing plan, along with a few optional ones that you might want to include depending on your business. Here are the essentials:
- SEO (search engine optimisation) is a multi-layered technique that focuses on the structure and content of your website. It involves looking for the keywords that your prospective customers are using to find businesses like yours. This includes ensuring you’re creating relevant content with solid copywriting and have smaller elements like meta descriptions and title tags. SEO can include updating (or adding) content to your core pages but also encompasses bonus content like blogs and guides that can help you become a stronger authority in your industry.
- PPC, aka pay-per-click advertising, is often a strong focus for many businesses. This is where you can capture the attention of new customers when they’re searching for something on the likes of Google, Bing, or YouTube and remarket to the people who have already visited your site.
- Social media advertising operates in a similar vein to PPC, though here you’ll be targeting social media users. Your ads here will generally be a lot more visual rather than text-centric like they would be on a search engine results page, requiring a slightly more unique approach.
- Email marketing is valuable for all businesses, though we especially recommend focusing on it if your goals are lead generation or if you’re a service-based business. Having access to someone’s inbox means you can share new product or service information, boost sales with discount codes, get more website traffic by sharing all your great blog posts and keep passive customers engaged with your brand.
How to Create a Cohesive Multichannel Strategy
While there are any number of channels you can explore, going with a shotgun approach of trying to hit a broad target, consider where your customers are. If your target demographic primarily exists on Google and not Bing and uses TikTok but not Instagram, you’ll want to account for these factors.
Equally, the approach you take will vary depending on whether your goals are more lead generation-centric, commonly the focus for service-based businesses, or conversion, which is more of an e-commerce goal.
While each business will have a unique approach, here are some general steps to follow to get your multichannel marketing strategy up and running:
- Consider your target market, where your audience spends their time and what kind of path they take to make a purchase or sign up for a service. It’s marketing 101 to learn your customer journey, but the way you’ll appeal across each channel will need to vary slightly.
- When you’re planning the where, you should also consider the who. Is your customer base predominantly male and over the age of 50, or are they typically women who are between the ages of 20 and 40? They’ll both spend their time in different places, so accounting for that can help you choose the right channels to invest in in the first place.
- When you’re creating content, starting your first Instagram ad campaign, or setting up an email flow, make sure you’re keeping your branding and messaging consistent across the board. It’s a good idea to have a brand guidelines document to help keep you on track, along with a clearly defined tone of voice.
- When you’re starting out or changing tact, integrating your channels and website with tools like GA4 and Google Analytics will help you get that all-important data we’ve already mentioned. Make sure you not only capture data from your campaigns, website traffic and emails but also review it regularly (at least once a month) to see what needs tweaking.
- Make the most of AI and automation where possible. Platforms like Klaviyo make setting up email marketing flows a breeze, allowing you to drip-feed emails to your customers at relevant times without your intervention. Equally, paid ad campaigns have smart bidding systems and the ability to automatically generate ad copy, which you can adjust as needed. All of these elements can save time and money and help you get the results you want.
Real-World Success Stories of Multichannel Marketing
If you’re on the fence about throwing yourself and your business into the world of a multichannel approach, we’ve done plenty of research to see just how effective it is. Our case studies don’t lie – choosing the right channels to focus on, revisiting your approach and adjusting to meet the market (and your customers) where they’re at can deliver exceptional results. From improving ROAS to expanding into new markets, dynamic marketing is the way to go.
One of the challenges of perfecting your multichannel marketing approach is you’ll need a broad skill base to get it right. At Reform Digital, we’ve got experts in each and every field – from technical SEO experts and crafty copywriters to knowledgeable ads managers and email marketers who can seamlessly run your campaigns for you.
If you’re ready to explore multichannel marketing, contact us today and find out how we can help you achieve your goals.
