In today’s digital world, there is a multitude of different choices when it comes to marketing your business. More and more people spend time and money online, yet businesses are slow to pick up digital marketing and rely on traditional marketing to reach their target audience. And while finding the exact formula that works for your company can be challenging, using a multi-channel marketing strategy has been shown to produce the best results and boost ROI.

Multichannel marketing, also known as integrated marketing or omnichannel marketing, refers to using a range of marketing channels that work together to meet your business goals. You can also use multichannel marketing to help align your brand message across a range of platforms for a unified message and feel. Different businesses may have different goals for their multichannel marketing campaigns, but one element they all have in common is presenting a “united front” with your marketing that meets prospective customers where they are and build stronger relationships.

As with any marketing campaign, there are necessary components that go into a successful integrated marketing campaign. There are many different channels from both B2B and B2C marketing, and your strategy will help guide you to which ones will work best for your audience. Major marketing channels include:

• PPC and programmatic advertising
• Content Marketing
• Email marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Website (Design and Development)
• Social media marketing
• Events and Webinars
• Press Release & PR events

Here are some to keep in mind when building your strategy:

Establish the Overall Goal – This is the overarching goal of the campaign or what you want to have accomplished once it is complete.

Choose the Marketing Channels – There are many of them, and not every one is suitable for every business. If you keep the end goal in mind when selecting channels, it will help guide you in the right direction.

Define Buyer Personas – This should be done as a whole which each department; sales, business development and marketing. The personas should be well defined for the products that you are selling.

Determine Your Tactics – If the strategy is the overall plan, the tactics are the specific action steps that will take you to your goal.

Create a Lead Generation Plan – Generating leads is a must for all channels if you expect your campaigns to be successful.

Measure and Assess – It’s important to determine a method of measurement and assessment so you can troubleshoot your campaigns effectively.

Far from being just a buzzword or trendy marketing gimmick, multichannel marketing has tangible benefits for any business that wants to take the time to do it right. Regardless of your industry, your prospective customers don’t spend all their time in the same place.

Some love social media, some prefer to use search engines to find what they need, some still research each buying decision on the companies website and some watch streaming TV. With a multichannel approach, you have a much higher chance of reaching your target audience on their own terms.

Reach a Much Wider Audience – As mentioned above, not everyone would purchase your products and services from the same place, so branching out and serving multiple marketing channels will expand your reach.

Tracking Behaviors – With advanced analytics available, it’s possible to track customer behaviors like never before. As an example, you can send ads based on browsing history or send offerings via email based on how someone interacted with your website.

Stay Top of Mind – Opinions vary on how much, but attention spans have certainly shrunk and using a multichannel marketing approach can help keep you top of mind more often.

Building Trust – In modern marketing, trust is the key factor that will help you boost leads and conversions. When people see consistent messaging across multiple platforms, it will help create trust and familiarity with your brand, which will ultimately increase your sales.

Sharing Assets – When you implement cross channel marketing, you can create one piece of content and then share or repurpose it for your other channels. This saves you time and money, while still accomplishing your marketing goals.

Just like having a sound multichannel marketing strategy is important, it’s also important to have the right team to implement it for you. Be sure to include your Sales team in the process of creating a Strategic Plan, they will need to understand the timing of the tactics and be able to give valuable insights.  Remember not every channel is suited to every business, which is why having a proven team in place makes all the difference.

At WSI Healthy Digital Solutions, we have experience setting up and coordinating multichannel marketing campaigns that optimize your marketing results.