Multichannel marketing

Coordination of online and offline channels

Companies that sell branded products and services through local businesses market through both online and offline channels to local audiences. Online and offline multichannel marketing campaigns can either inform one another or be executed in isolation. A proportion of companies use their online marketing efforts to inform their offline advertising (i.e. they test keywords online to understand if they fit with customer intent before printing them in offline ads). Multichannel marketing also allows businesses to maintain consistent messaging across various customer touchpoints.

Comparison with traditional forms of marketing

While multichannel marketing focuses primarily on new media platforms in marketing, traditional approaches use old media such as print sources, telemarketing, direct mail and broadcasting stations such as radio and television. Multichannel marketing does not only use web 2.0 forms but also integrates media convergence models, targeting customer interaction through different platforms such as via text messaging, on a website, email, online video campaigns, GPS to track the location of a customer and their proximity to the product or service. Being able to reach out to customers directly is an important marketing strategy because it is convenient and enhances direct customer interaction. Multichannel marketing strategies are adaptable and can evolve as new channels and technologies emerge.

Benefits

Some of the long term benefits of this style of marketing include:

• Better management of results and sales: Using many communicative platforms to reach the audience increases the chances of receiving feedback from a variety of customers on the overall performance. This feedback gives companies an idea of what the customer wants and what they can improve upon
• Higher revenues: The more diverse platforms used in trying to reach customers, the more the potential customers are likely to reach out to purchase goods and services. If the company advertises its brand only on the [internet], it will be very hard to capture the attention of potential customers who do not use the internet regularly and rely on other mediums such as the [television] for example.
• Better understanding of customers: By the response from customers, it is easier to understand what they expect from a product or service and how a brand can be improved. To satisfy the needs of a niche, it is necessary to identify the channels and platforms which work for a certain group.
• Increased brand visibility and reach: About 36% of the Online Shopper A Customer Experience Study" of shoppers search products on one channel but purchase the product through a different channel.
• Optimize media spend: Data retrieval and centralization enables companies to better target consumer segments and provide them with more effective marketing campaigns therefore optimizing media spend. ref url = https://digital.hec.ca/en/digital-and-omni-channel-marketing/

References

References

1. "Multichannel Marketing: What it is and why it matters".
2. "15-Minute Guide to Multichannel Marketing Communications," http://www.emc.com/collateral/software/15-min-guide/h5107-15-min-multichannel-mktg-comm-gd.pdf
3. Schierholz, Ragnar. (2006). "Don't call us, we'll call you – Performance Measurement in Multi-Channel Environments". Journal of Information Science and Technology.
4. "Traditional Marketing: explore the strategy of traditional marketing".
5. "Forbes CommunityVoice Connecting expert communities to the Forbes audience.What is This? 672 viewsJul 25, 2018, 06:30am The Top Five Reasons You Need To Add Online Video Campaigns To Your Multichannel Mix".
6. (7 March 2012). "The four benefits of multichannel marketing".
7. "UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper™".