Channel Surfing: Multichannel Marketing Defined

A committed yet adaptable multi-channel marketing strategy is key to surviving in the new economy. Allocating resources to align marketing messages across multiple channels, and moving fast enough to adopt new marketing practices as they appear, must be coupled with well-defined performance indicators and metrics to track return on a brand’s engagement with consumers.

Different strokes for different folks – Multiple channels for greater brand reach

Not everybody sifts through weekly circulars to find the hottest deals, but some people do. Not everybody watches TV and actually pays attention to the commercials, but some people do. And not everybody researches products by searching Google, but some people do. I could go on, but it would get redundant. Essentially, there are countless channels where companies can market their goods and services, and consumers have preferences with regards to which channels they surf – and not all consumers have the same preferences. The Internet alone is a vast repository of channels, and each Internet user prefers specific sites and online activities. So it would not make sense, then, to restrict growth by only marketing your brand in few channels, ignoring the rest. And where many of your lowest cost channels exist online and these are often your lowest cost channels, taking time to investigate the channels most beneficial to your brand makes for a sound investment.

Multi-channel marketing vs. Multiple channel marketing – It’s all in the cross-channel marketing

But multichannel marketing does not end with employing multiple channels in a brand’s marketing strategy, it is important to align campaigns across channels to allow for cross-channel marketing benefits. Ensuring that marketing messages are conveyed seamlessly across channels for greater convenience and more targeted and actionable information for consumers. This requires sound marketing practices and an organizational commitment. When playing cards, games that allow you to collect and almost daunting amount of cards in a hand often become quite confusing as you try to coordinate and organize the different elements. It is no different here.

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