Brand Adaptation: a Multi-Channel Approach
There are a lot of similar strategies in marketing, but the way to approach the industry is never the same.
I always emphasize on the importance of putting customers at the heart of marketing. Supporting customers through a multiple marketing channels have become a necessity in today’s business. The question is how to do that.
Well, picture a sport team, where each member has his own role, position and mission, from players, coaches, managers, etc. A good leader has to know how to manage his team, from understanding each person’s personality and ability, motivating the members, keeping team moral up, ensuring everyone comes to a consensual alignment with the team’s vision, and pushing the team to achieve the goals in limited budget. Implementing a multi-channel approach is actually quite similar to leading a team.
Despite the nod to its value, according to a survey by IBM, nearly 40% marketers failed to adopt an integrated multi-channel approach. It also indicates that the lack of integration results in almost $83 billion of lost in sales annually, which leads to a poor and inconsistent customer experience.
Reaching out to customers in various channels is not only significant for building a brand’s reputation, but also makes perfect sense that brands should be present on each channel to maximize exposure. The struggle that every company meets to succeed in multi-channel marketing should be the challenge that need to be overcome immediately. If not, perhaps it is the nudge that a company requires to start reviewing its marketing strategy.
So, what should companies do in order to successfully implement multi-channel marketing on its business? First, marketers should understand the differentiation of each channel, be it Facebook, IG, YouTube, or other platforms. Each of these social media platforms has their own uniqueness and target audiences. Look at each channel individually and see how it can fit into your overall marketing strategy. Second, once you have all these channels, keep them as an integrated channel for your business. Again, this does not mean you should use every single one of them in both your online and offline campaigns. Mix and match the contents in between these channels to best suit your company’s goals. Third, the content of the channels can be different, but information MUST be consistent. The last thing you want to do is to confuse your customers. Fourth, regardless what channels you use, you have to make sure that it should at least contribute to the overall goal of your campaign. The messages should be present, loud and clear in any of your channels. And lastly, set an evaluation table and review the contribution of each channel periodically. This way, you can easily identity which channel works best with what kind of contents and customers.
Every sport team for sure want to optimize its performance in every single game. The same mindset should be applied to multi-channel marketing strategy. Wisely use each channel, make sure they are consistent in engaging customers, and in the end take notes of each of their performance. After all, each channel may require different types of marketing strategy because of their diverse demographics.
