.
.
.
.
.
Multichannel Marketing: Mindset and Program Development
.
The article, “Multichannel Marketing: Mindset and Program Development”, says that 65-70% of today’s shoppers are multichannel shoppers identified as those who utilize a variety of different purchasing channels such as the telephone, internet and retail stores. Therefore, it is critical for organizations to adopt a multichannel mindset and develop a multichannel marketing program to enhance profitability, customer experience and satisfaction.
. .Multichannel systems are highly complex and require integration, coordination and the oversight of components that previously functioned in an independent manner. The article mainly provides guidance in designing a multichannel marketing program. Three major actions have been identified in this regard:-
. . . 1. Creating a holistic strategy that leverages value propositions across channels – Companies should take a holistic approach and view how different channels work together rather than focusing on specific advertising and marketing campaigns. .. . . 2. Design organizational structures and incentives to enable multichannel marketing .
- The internet creates opportunity – with emphasis being placed on web advertising and customers overwhelmingly communicating via email, internet is the key driver in multichannel marketing opportunities. Organizations have shifted their focus to one-to-one marketing as online traffic has begun to exceed that of some traditional channels such as telephone. The diversity of needs any customer can have is used in developing the nature, structure and integration of channels.
- It’s the value and not just cost – value is a function of both cost and benefits and should be taken into account when an organization allocates its channel mix resources. An organization’s focus should be to enable customers utilize channels that are most valuable to them. Most organizations have begun to shift to online channels mainly because of the low cost associated with them. However, this is not recommended. The firm should consider its overall marketing objectives and decide whether low cost should be the main driver of success to the firm. Differentiation is the key and some firms have chosen to drive their customers away from online channels for this purpose.
- Focus on customer experience, journey and lifetime value – successful multichannel strategy requires thinking about the customer experience holistically and satisfying customer needs throughout the product/service life cycle. The firm needs to understand consumer behavior, the buying process and advancing the customer from one stage to another. It needs to recognize human characteristics when designing online-related experience processes find a balance between technology and human interaction and exercise caution in pushing internet applications too aggressively.
- Create a super-additive effect through synergy – the super additive effect occurs by integrating different channels and relies on the notion that a multichannel shopper spends more than the single channel shopper. Multichannel synergy can also help maintain a customer’s interest in an organization’s goods or services. It can also be realized post purchase by using an online channel as a buffer against offline issues.
- Communicate one brand and create a shared experience – It is important for firms to be consistent across channels and present a single company view and a single brand image.
- IT is important in multichannel marketing – the IT systems of most companies are not designed with multichannel marketing in mind. As firms record more data, security and privacy issues become significant. Therefore, firms need to examine their existing IT structures and understand the amount of investment that is needed for a multichannel IT architecture.
- Develop cross-channel interaction at all levels – Establish and maintain connections between channels and product groups for successful multichannel marketing. Employees or group representatives called brokers or liaisons need to be unified, coordinated and well connected. Cross channel coordination needs to be ensured at the lower operational levels of the firm.
- Design incentive systems – incentive systems need to be created to mitigate channel conflict. For example, reward salespeople for directing customers to the company website and create incentives for driving customers from a website to a physical store.
.
.
.
3. Create metrics that measure impacts and overall performance of multiple channels.
.
- Think holistically across channels and choose the right metrics – companies should start slowly and try to measure value as they move along with implementing their multichannel strategy. Metrics should be decided based on what is meaningful to a business manager such as customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. As there are numerous channels, firms should measure the impact of only two channels at a time.
- Leverage web-based analytics- Firms now have the ability to track metrics such as website traffic, catalog products viewed, no. of page views and click-through conversion rates. This can be used to measure multichannel effectiveness. For e.g., a company observed an increase in conversion rate from search stage to purchase stage regarding consumers who used online chat.
.
.
Follow-me On:
.
.
.
Tags: advertising, click-through, conversion rate, holistic approach, marketing campaigns, Multichannel Marketing