Multichannel marketing is the way of the future for ecommerce businesses. Recent statistics show that 91% of retail brands use two or more social media outlets. Plus, 51% of companies use at least eight channels to communicate with customers, and 95% of marketers know that multichannel marketing is vital for targeting customers.
Modern buyers see the value, too. 86% of shoppers hop between at least two channels before making a purchase. 72% of them would rather communicate with brands via multiple channels.
Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy.
Multichannel marketing requires companies to target their time, resources, and efforts into best practices. As new trends and ideas gain traction, businesses have to adapt and evolve.
Part of the challenge comes from the ever-changing digital world. The more your business can stay on top of the relevant multichannel marketing practices, the more likely you will succeed in your endeavors. That's why we've put together this blog. Below, we'll give you five of the most important tactics for multichannel marketing you can start implementing today.
Automate Your Pricing
Pricing is an essential part of online sales and marketing. Price points are one of the top determining factors for consumers in the US, with 87% saying it is either very or extremely influential to their buying decision.
Pricing is hardly static, though. Changes can happen for any reason. Maybe you have a sale for a holiday weekend. Maybe you offer a special price to celebrate your company’s anniversary. Or maybe you need to adapt to new competitors. Whatever the reason, ecommerce brands should expect to adapt their prices.
With a single sales channel, this doesn't end up being too complicated. You can easily go in and manually adjust the prices when you need to. But as you incorporate more channels, things get more complicated. Now, you have to monitor and change each marketplace.
Having the tools in place that enable multichannel pricing management can save businesses time and manual effort as the technology automates the work for you. Pricing will adjust according to a number of factors you establish, so you can ensure that your most influential piece of marketing stays fresh and up-to-date.
Advertise Across Channels
Multichannel selling requires you to list products on various marketplaces and online stores. Multichannel marketing involves utilizing ad space on various platforms. Online businesses typically start with digital ads. Print media, billboards, or even radio and television ads have largely lost their pull. Over half of all ad spend in the US is dedicated to digital channels.
There are different ways to advertise your product online, but the goal always remains the same: getting your product in front of people first. Think about the last time you visited the third results page after a Google search or the last time you scrolled through dozens of options when online shopping.
If you're like most people, you hardly ever do these things. The majority of consumers want to find what they're looking for quickly no matter where they look. Paid advertising is a great way to make this happen, and you can advertise your products on pretty much any major digital platform including:
- Bing
- Amazon
- Walmart
- Etsy
Each channel has different pros and cons, but the basic premise remains the same. You provide a set budget, provide parameters for targeting your audience, create the ad, publish it, and monitor the results. You may not utilize every available channel – especially those that your audience ignores – but spreading your ads across multiple, relevant channels helps expand your reach.
Utilize Email Campaigns
Email is one of the longest-standing channels in the digital world. In a space full of progression, newness, and innovation, email has stayed relatively the same. It's like one of those rare athletes who can keep up with the young prospects long past their expected prime. (Did someone say Tom Brady?)
Part of what gives email its staying power is its simplicity: you send a message directly to another person. Marketers have found incredible results with this channel, seeing a return of $36 for every $1 spent.
Email campaigns can be a great way to personally reach out to your audience. Any of the top email marketing tools enable you to easily customize your design, personalize your address, and write simple copy to send messages to your audience. Email campaigns shouldn't just be thrown together, though.
Use the following best practices to see the strongest results:
- Personalize the content
- Include content your customers want to read
- Use catchy subject lines
- Keep things short and simple
- Optimize for mobile
- Segment your audience
- Incorporate visuals
- Have clear calls to action
Like any of these marketing opportunities, emails operate best as part of a larger, multichannel approach. Engaging social posts can drive customers to your email list, which can then guide them to the next stage of their buying journey, establishing trust and building awareness along the way.
Maximize Your Social Media Reach
Social media hasn't been around quite as long as email, but it sure has had a similar impact. The most recent report shows that there are 4.55 billion users today, over half of the world's entire population. It's a huge market to capitalize on when done correctly and strategically.
Social media strategy is key to maximizing your reach. You can't just go out there and post an occasional picture and expect to see great returns. You need a plan in place that includes content creation, audience engagement, post scheduling, and influencer marketing.
It can be tempting to expand your social efforts beyond your limitations. With so many platform options out there, how do you know which to pursue? The key is to know your audience, and to know them well. If you primarily sell products to baby boomers, TikTok probably won't be worth the investment. Likewise, if you want to showcase the visual side of your products, you may want to prioritize Instagram over Twitter, and if you have a largely B2B customer base, you might use LinkedIn more than sellers who don't target professionals.
There really is no one-size-fits-all method with social media. All that matters is that you post consistent, quality content in places where your ideal customers will see it.
Prioritize Consistency Across All Channels
The more you utilize various channels, the easier it is to get lost with consistency. You use a certain message on one outlet and change it when you post on another. Your images or tags differ from platform to platform and each listing looks a little different from the other.
This mistake is common for a reason. Managing multiple channels often feels disorienting, especially if you're adding new ones as you go. Sellers may be in a totally different headspace when they create a listing compared to a social post or an email. Because of this, the language, the visuals, and the general feel of each touchpoint may differ.
These inconsistencies can frustrate consumers. 90% of customers expect to have consistent experiences with their brands no matter the channel they're using. It's critical, therefore, that online sellers promote consistency in the following areas:
- Messaging and copy
- Images
- Design elements
- Color scheme
- Product descriptions
- User experience
There is one challenge worth noting: some marketplaces have specific requirements. Consistency doesn't mean that you have to copy and paste everything verbatim. You might find that certain copy works better for certain marketplaces. Content management systems like WhyteSpyder can help you monitor and compare your content to get the best results for each channel.
Closing Thoughts
Multichannel marketing will continue to have an impact on the ecommerce industry as more customers engage with online sellers across various platforms. Siloing your marketing efforts to individual channels will only reduce your potential reach and result in missed opportunities.
The multichannel marketing tactics outlined above will help you reach new and existing customers with content that builds trust, raises awareness, and leads to greater conversions.
Monitoring your multichannel efforts can be much simpler with the right tools. If you'd like to hear about how StoreAutomator can help you customize your listings, collect product data, manage inventory and more, request a live demo with us today.
