When you are looking for ways to give your online sales a boost, a cross-channel marketing strategy is a good place to start. It allows you to take a holistic approach to the various promotional channels available to you, and how they can be used as a collective to encourage conversions in the long run.
This guide details everything you need to know about cross-channel marketing, and how it serves as a tool for enhancing the customer experience journey. Your business will be getting the most out of your ecommerce email marketing campaigns, paid social channels and other marketing avenues in no time.
What is Cross-Channel Marketing for Ecommerce?
Cross-channel marketing is the process of aligning your brand’s messaging across all of the promotional channels available to you. When similar messaging is accurately delivered in different forms, audiences end up having a more consistent customer experience. You also gain a comprehensive understanding of your audience, the analytics of which can be used to tweak future campaigns for better results.
Which marketing channels are incorporated?
With so many options available, it can be tough for marketers to decide on which channels to prioritize. Although there’s no “one size fits all” solution that applies to all businesses, it’s important to discover which channels suit your audience best for more effective campaigns.
Email marketing is always on trend, especially when campaigns are executed through a marketing automation software like the one from Sendlane. Other key channels to incorporate include organic/paid social media and search, SEO optimization, remarketing, display ads, blogs and so on.
The Benefits of a Cross-Channel Marketing Strategy for Ecommerce
A cross-channel marketing strategy can bring a lot of benefits to your online store. Here are a couple that can add great value to your operations:
1) Improved customer experience
The marketing landscape is not what it was a decade – or even five years – ago. On average, it takes six to eight marketing touches to generate a single sales lead. Improving customer experience is the best way to lower this number. A cross-channel marketing strategy showcases a high level of professionalism across all marketing channels. This enhances the overall UX and can be a differentiator between your business and its competitors.
2) Consistency across all touchpoints
By standardizing messaging across all touchpoints, a high level of consistency is introduced no matter where the lead is engaging with your brand. Creating templates for each helps with executing standardized messaging across all platforms no matter the size and scope of the campaign. Synergetic messaging encourages engagement, interactions and potentially even conversion rates.
3) Cost-efficiency
A cross-channel marketing strategy won’t just save you time and energy. It’s bound to save the business money too. If everything feeds into a single portal, it is easier to manage marketing activity, and campaigns can be tracked in a way that factors in all platforms. The result is learning more about your target audience and cutting back on costs to reach them.
Tips on How to Create a Top Cross-Channel Marketing Strategy
Once incorporated into the business, the following tips will help you to get the most out of a cross-channel marketing strategy in the long run:
Measure actions with analytics tools
Data is king, and measuring the actions of your audience across each marketing platform is a surefire way to get to know them better. From open rates and conversions to cost per lead and other relevant KPIs, analytics that have been efficiently set up can mean the difference between feeding marketing budget into a bottomless pit or generating conversions by spending even less than you might have initially budgeted for.
Modify marketing messages to fit all channels
Using the same message across all channels is a winning idea, provided that it is done in a way that optimizes its value. A text screenshot is not going to go well with Instagram’s photo-heavy reach algorithm. Know your platform, know the central message you’re trying to communicate, and do it in a way that helps you achieve the best possible reach.
Use dynamic remarketing across all channels
Once you’ve run through your first cross-channel marketing campaign, there’s an opportunity to get even more out of it before you delve into the analytics and plan your next one. Channels (or audience segments) that saw spikes in interaction are worth considering for a round of remarketing. This will help to capture sales for people who might just need one last nudge in order to buy the product they were looking at.
Equipped with everything you need to know about a cross-channel marketing strategy, it’s time to start implementing it into your business. Soon you’ll know your audience better and reap the rewards mentioned here today. Ready to get started?
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