Reaching your customers in today’s modern market means knowing how to traverse and leverage multiple channels. 87% of today’s retailers believe that an omnichannel marketing strategy is crucial to success.
That’s because customers are constantly jumping between avenues.
They use everything from social media to podcasts, video marketing, and marketplaces.
The easier it is for your customer to encounter you on every channel and solution they use, the more open they will be to form a relationship with your brand.
So, how do you decide which marketing channels you should be embracing?
Today, we’re going to look at the steps involved in considering new marketing channels and how you can better reach your customers wherever they might be.
Revamp Your Customer Profiles
The first step in upgrading your marketing strategy is having a clear view of your target audience.
51% of today’s companies say they use a minimum of 8 channels to connect with customers.
However, that doesn’t mean you should be investing in those channels without the right amount of research.
If you’re appealing to a customer over the age of around 40, for instance, it doesn’t make sense to create an ad campaign on TikTok.
Start by looking at your current customer personas.
How much do you know about your intended audience? Which channels do they already use, and where else might they be spending their time that you haven’t considered so far?
It might be worth issuing some surveys or polls to your target demographic, so you can collect information straight from the potential customers you’re trying to reach.
If you don’t have a lot of feedback from customers to work with, you could consider looking at the kind of channels your competitors use to reach the same audience.
If competing companies are using channels you haven’t accessed yet, ask yourself why that is.
Maybe you just haven’t had the budget to try this channel up until now. Or perhaps you just recently started to attract a new kind of customer.
Either way, you might benefit from exploring this new environment.
Look For Channels That Work Together
Omnichannel or multichannel marketing strategies involve using multiple avenues to connect with your audience.
The more relevant channels you use, the easier it is to build a relationship with your chosen customer.
However, managing multiple channels at the same time isn’t always easy.
You might find that certain media pairings work more naturally together, making it easier for you to run your campaigns, and connect with your customers.
Studies into media pairings found that channels like online marketing and radio naturally work well together because they can help to spread your reach online and offline.
Computer and mobile ads also work well together.
With one, you can connect to your customers when they’re at home or in the office, while with the other, you can reach clients wherever they are.
Keep an eye open for channels that work well together in alignment.
For instance, social media channels will be great for use with your content marketing strategy, because you can share links to content on social media platforms.
When channels work well together, they should help you to reach a broad audience with the minimum initial investment.
Choose Channels That Make Sense For Your Audience
Once you know who your audience is, and which channels you might be able to access alongside your existing marketing strategies, you can begin to look into options that make the most sense.
This will depend on demographics too.
For instance, if you’re connecting to younger customers in the millennial and Gen Z landscape, and your main channel is usually website traffic, mobile apps are excellent for expansion.
A mobile app makes it quick and simple to connect with your customers wherever they are.
Unlike websites and social media channels, apps allow companies to reach their customers with things like personalized push notifications.
This means your audience doesn’t have to be actively using your app to get messages from you.
You can also use your app to improve your chances of finding new customers.
For instance, a loyalty app ensures customers can collect points every time they interact with your company and products.
In that same loyalty app, you can allow customers to invite other people to join your community through a trackable link sent over SMS or social media messages.
All the while, apps make it easier for customers to interact with your audience, offer excellent customer service, and even boost the chances of regular repeat purchases.
Coordinate Between Channels
Choosing the right channels for your marketing efforts also means knowing how to align them.
In general, today’s customers are looking for a consistent experience every time they interact with their favorite companies.
They expect the experience they get from your WordPress blog to be similar to the experience they get through social media, your business app, and even your email marketing campaigns.
That’s why it’s important to maintain a consistent brand identity.
Once you’ve chosen the channels you’re going to be using for marketing, you can think about how to align these different avenues to drive a better experience for your end-users.
For instance, customers using your app on their smartphone should be able to contact you through their social media apps with a click of a button or access the blog content on your website when they want to read up on information.
You can even integrate your smartphone app with your blog and social media pages.
72% of consumers prefer an integrated approach to digital marketing, sales, and customer support.
Therefore, try to avoid creating silos between different channels.
A more connected approach will help to strengthen your brand image among customers.
At the same time, coordinating your strategy for channel alignment will make it easier to track your customer journey.
Track Results On Every Channel
Finally, whenever you add a new channel to your marketing plans mix, you’ll need to check if it’s actually delivering the right results to your business.
With most marketing channels, from your digital blog to your social media campaigns, there are metrics and reports you should keep an eye on to ensure you’re not wasting money on a campaign with no return on investment.
Every time you launch a new marketing channel, make sure you have a strategy in place for tracking the results of the campaign.
This will mean picking the metrics that matter most to you, such as conversion levels, customer engagement, or even client retention.
Compare your new marketing channel to the benchmark results you’ve got from other avenues up until now.
You should be able to see whether this new strategy is generating positive results for your company, or whether you’re spending too much money in the wrong areas.
The more you track your campaigns, the more you’ll be able to determine which of your marketing efforts aren’t having the right impact, so you can reduce the spending in those areas.
Meeting Your Customers On the Right Channels
Today’s customers are active on a wide variety of channels, from social media, YouTube for video content, to online apps.
Knowing how to stay in your customer’s line of sight is important in a world where clients are constantly bombarded with offers from competing companies.
With that in mind, it’s worth having a campaign that allows you to leverage multiple channels and avenues at once.
Using the tips above, start to explore new channels slowly.
It’s often best to avoid jumping in too fast, as this could mean you spend too much of your budget on an untested strategy.
Make sure you can generate the right results from your chosen channels, then slowly ramp up based on your understanding of your budget.
This way, you can reduce overspending, and you should have an easier time selling the inclusion of new channels to your business leaders and shareholders.
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Heather Redding is a part-time assistant manager and writer based in Aurora, Illinois. She is also an avid reader and a tech enthusiast. When Heather is not working or writing, she enjoys her Kindle library with a hot cup of coffee. Reach out to her on Twitter.
