We
live in an era of gadgets. Research shows that 94% of people have their
cellphone within arm’s reach at all times, consumers are shopping on tablets
while watching television, and more email is opened on mobile devices than a
desktop. Customers continue to move into
a multichannel world, and responsive marketers need to go there, too.
Channel
integration isn’t something marketers can afford to ignore. According to Target Marketing’s Media Usage Survey, 37%
of marketers’ 2016 budgets went to online marketing, 29% went to print (direct
mail, magazines, newspapers), and 21% went to live events. The rest was split
between radio, television, and space advertising.
Even
as direct mail remains the bedrock of highly effective marketing campaigns,
digital components are increasingly part of the mix. According to Target Marketing, the following digital
channels are growing the most rapidly:
• Online advertising (54%)
• Email (49%)
• Mobile marketing (38%)
• Search engine marketing (41%)
• Search engine optimization (43%)
• Social media engagement (55%)
• Social media advertising (49%)
Consumers’
lives are multichannel, so marketing is increasingly multichannel, too.
The
multichannel approach also produces better results. In a data analysis of
retailers, McKinsey found that the more channels customer use to engage with
the store, the more they spend on an annual basis. Customers who shopped both
in store and who used catalogs spent three times more than those who did not.
When Internet marketing is added to the mix, revenue grows by four times.
Likewise, customers who shopped online spent four times as much when catalogs
were added to the mix and six times more when they also shopped in store.
Why
does multichannel work so well? One reason is that it provides repeated
exposure and reinforcement of the message. Another is that different media play
different roles in moving customers along the sales funnel.
What does your channel mix
look like? Why not talk to us about adding, not just more channels to your mix,
but creating the optimum mix of channels to keep your message in front of
customers, move them through the sale funnel, and get them all the way to a
sale. Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
Or visit our website here for more information.
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