Cross-Channel Marketing 101: What It Is and How to Use It

Are you curious about cross-channel marketing, but you’re not 100% sure what it is (or if it’s right for your business)?. Cross-channel marketing can really help you boost conversions.. That’s because it allows you to connect with your audience from the platform(s) of their choice. But for it to work, things need to run smoothly.. Most marketers already use various platforms to attract new leads, but we’re talking about something different. The goal is to target the same person as they visit new channels throughout the customer journey.. So, in today’s post, we’re going to clarify why you need to start cross-channel marketing, the benefits of doing so, and how you can track all of your success.. But first, let’s get crystal clear on exactly what cross-channel marketing is.. What Is Cross-Channel Marketing?. Cross-channel marketing is exactly what it sounds like: creating a marketing strategy that lets you connect with your target audience across multiple platforms with consistent and accurate messaging.. Let’s say a potential customer stumbles across a great post of yours on Facebook. She wants to know more, so she clicks through to your website – perhaps to a blog post that elaborates on the same theme as the Facebook post.. While she’s there, she subscribes to your mailing list. And is automatically sent an email that includes more information about the same issue she was reading about earlier on your site.. Later she goes on Google or social media and sees a targeted ad showcasing how your company can help her solve that same issue.. This is cross-channel marketing. It means that your leads and customers move smoothly from one channel to another, with consistent and complementary messaging on each platform.. Cross-channel marketing differs from multi-channel marketing in the way it marries up all your different messages.. While multi-channel marketing simply means you are using a range of channels to promote your company, cross-channel marketing goes a step further to make sure customers receive cohesive messaging across all platforms.. Why Consider Cross-Channel Marketing?. Multi-channel marketing is pretty common these days – it is a rare company that only markets itself via one medium.. Cross-channel marketing is rarer, although growing in popularity. It requires some extra effort in matching up all your different channels and messages.. So, why bother with it if it takes more effort? Here are a few of the reasons that you should consider moving to cross-channel marketing.. a) Give a Better Customer Experience. Your customers think of your brand as one single entity. While you know that behind the scenes there are different teams doing a variety of roles, the customer’s experience should always be one of unity and consistency.. They don’t care that their initial interaction with you was via social media, their nurturing happened via email marketing, and it was a blog post that sealed the deal. They just want their needs met and their problem solved.. By focusing on a cross-channel approach, you give your customer the consistency of experience they expect. And that means better customer engagement and, ultimately, more sales.. b) Make It Personal. The sheer weight of marketing that most of us see daily makes it harder for your brand to stand out from the crowd.. But consistently sharing content that is relevant to your potential customer will help you catch their attention. And cross-channel marketing is all about this approach.. You don’t distract your customer with irrelevant information, offers, or products. Instead, you reliably demonstrate how you can meet their needs.. That makes for a more personal experience. And personalization works. 75% of customers say they prefer it when brands send messages and offers tailored to them.. c) Build Brand Loyalty. Humans tend to be creatures of habit. Once we trust a company to provide us with what we want, we are likely to return to them again and again.. It is gaining that trust initially that is the challenge. And cross-channel marketing can help you succeed.. When your customer receives consistent messaging from you, regardless of which platform they are on, they begin to build a clear idea of who you are and what you do.. If you’ve tailored your messaging correctly, customers will also start to associate you with the solution to their problem. And that means they are more likely to choose your brand over your competitors.. If you can keep it up, they are also more likely to stay loyal for the long term.. Tips for Successful Cross-Channel Marketing. I’ve hopefully convinced you that cross-channel marketing is the way to go if you want to engage and retain your customers.. But how do you get started? It can seem like a daunting challenge at first. Like most things, however, taking those first few steps is the hardest. Once you’ve put the basics in place, the rest will follow in time.. My top tips for taking that first step are as follows:. a) Understand Your Customer from the Start. Cross-channel marketing heavily depends on a consistent customer journey that works across multiple platforms. To create that, you’ll need an in-depth understanding of who your customers are, what problems they are trying to solve, and how they interact with your brand.. Begin by defining your buyer personas. Then take the data from your existing marketing activities and use it to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t for each persona. This will give you a starting point for mapping your customer journeys.. With this information in hand, you can get stuck into your messaging and how it will work on different channels.. b) Start Simple. Don’t feel like you have to get cross-channel marketing right for everyone and every platform straight away. You can start simple, perhaps by focusing on just a few channels, or on your most lucrative buyer persona.. Once you have one or two cross-channel journeys set up, you can use what you’ve learned to make your approach more sophisticated over time. Add more touchpoints to the journey or branch out into targeting different personas.. As you test, evaluate, and test again, you’ll gather data to help you make your cross-channel approach more complex and nuanced.. The slow approach gives you more time to refine your practices, instead of jumping into the deep end straight away.. c) Track Everything. The only way you can tell if your cross-channel marketing is working is to put a tracking system in place and evaluate your approach regularly.. Without solid metrics, you can’t tell where results are coming from, what is going well, and what needs a rethink.. You also can’t understand your customers’ journey without proper data. You need to be able to track them from channel to channel, and around your website, so you can see how they interact with your content. Without this understanding, you won’t be able to create that consistent messaging.. This means you’ll need a tracking system in place that works across all your marketing channels, including your website. And that brings us perfectly to our next topic…. How to Track Your Cross-Channel Marketing Results. As I mentioned a second ago, cross-channel marketing requires a systematic tracking strategy to make sure you’re getting the results you want.. And for that, there’s simply no better tool than Metrics Watch:. Metrics Watch is one of the best report building tools on the market. That’s because you can pull data and build automated reports that include sources like:. Google Analytics Google Search Console AdWords Facebook (paid and organic) LinkedIn (paid and organic) Instagram (paid and organic) And more… Plus, it comes with a drag and drop builder to help you create and personalize your reports in minutes.. Once you have the KPIs you need in place, then you can select who needs to get this information. Then the reports will run on auto-pilot on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.. But here’s the best part: when you’re sharing reports, there’s ZERO friction.. That’s because, unlike most report building software, Metrics Watch shares reports directly via email.. That means no more PDF attachments to organize and no more sharing report dashboards that require user-role management.. Instead, you get the right KPIs to the people who need them in a format they already know. It just doesn’t get much easier than that.. Ready to see it in action? You can start a 100% risk-free Metrics Watch trial with no credit card required. All you need to do is click below:. Start Your Free Trial Today!. And that’s it!. We hope you found this guide on cross-channel marketing helpful. If you did, you would also enjoy the following resources:. How to Make a Marketing Report That Actually Boosts ROI Lead Lifecycle: What It Is & Why It Matters How Report Automation Saves You Time, Money, & Headaches These posts will have everything you need to learn more about your audience’s customer journey and how you can use marketing reports to save time and boost you profits.

Still puzzling over something?