Life as a professional marketer isn’t as easy as it used to be. Where once, marketers could rest easy in the knowledge that they only had a limited number of channels they could reach out to in order to build their brands, today, the landscape looks very different indeed. Modern day marketing teams are deluged with a flood of new ways to reach and influence potential customers. From mobile to social, the pressure to engage with customers across all of these different channels through corporate websites in particular is intensifying.
However, despite this, we’re still seeing reluctance from brands to fully embrace and implement multi-channel solutions as part of their online presence. This is perhaps best exemplified by the increasingly yawning ‘chasm’ that exists between those looking to implement such a strategy and those who are able to do so. Indeed, research has found that although 74 per cent of marketers plan to increase their multi-channel spend, 76 per cent still say that their plans aren’t as developed as they should be. Likewise, a whopping 92 per cent of marketers say social media has fundamentally changed the way in which consumers interacts with brands, although less than half (49%) have actually integrated these tools into their marketing strategy at some level.
There are a number of reasons why this may be happening. Some may find, for example, that they do not have the tools they need to engage multiple channels, and that their existing equipment is blocking progress and impeding efficiency. Others have more fundamental hurdles to overcome. For instance, many organisations have mountains of siloed data, and find that failure to manage it effectively can not only lead to slow time to market, but also loss of context. It is not just data that is in different siloes, however, and people in different departments can often be found working in isolation. For example, it is common for the e-commerce team and marketing team in the same organisation to be working independently. This can cause inconsistencies in the brand or marketing message across the different channels.
So what’s the best way to build a bridge across this multi-channel marketing ‘chasm’ and ensure that you are able to reach the other side unscathed?
Here are five tips that might come in handy:
1. Benchmark your channel maturity to identify your biggest gaps – As tempting as it is to identify channels and then throw extra resources in its direction for the sake of it, don’t forget that your presence on and ability to affect some channels will be greater on some than it is on others. Before committing yourself, it’s worth identifying which channels are most mature, and able to help you to reach your goals in the short-term, and which still need some work. You can then slowly build your presence across channels and include them as part of your strategy when the time is right.
2. Connect technology to business goals – We’ve all found ourselves having to resist the temptation of seeing the newest, shiniest, most innovative technology and trying to incorporate them in to your marketing strategy. Unfortunately, these urges can also be very difficult to resist, and can sometimes result in money being spent on technology that is rarely or never used. The key to avoiding this is not to be swayed by these ‘wow’ features and to ensure that any technology you use can be justified by linking it back to your broader business objectives. Try also to only implement new systems and processes that ensure all teams are sharing and reusing data, where possible. The upshot of this approach will be a joined up approach that should eliminate the risk of confused brand or campaign messaging.
3. Use vendors who offer well-documented APIs – Smaller, less well-established vendors are all well and good, but if they aren’t able to sufficiently integrate information between content and application, then their effectiveness is limited. Using vendors with established APIs will ensure that this isn’t an issue and allow you to connect across as many channels as you need to.
4. Keep your content creators happy by ensuring your tools are easy to use – There’s nothing worse for those looking to develop engaging, creative content for a number of different channels than finding that the tools they need to be able to share it are complicated and confusing. As far as content creators are concerned, less is more, and it’s important to ensure that the tools they need are as simple as possible to use. It’s also worth remembering that if you have a number of different tools, and none of them are connected, then it can cause a considerable amount of extra work. Duplication and the extra steps that can result as a consequence can not only be annoying for content creators, but also costly for the company as well!
5. Avoid chronic and costly development cycles – In order to get an effective multi-channel strategy up and running, it’s important that content development cycles are kept short and sweet. Time is money, after all, and if content repeatedly takes an extended period of time to develop it can severely impact on your ability to keep up momentum across multiple channels. The best way to avoid this is to define your customisation plans and strategy for content at the outset and then plan accordingly.
Perhaps, however, the best advice is to make sure that the ‘chasm’ between your desired and actual multi-channel website strategy doesn’t exist in the first place. Through careful planning and regular audits of your marketing capabilities and how they link back to overall business objectives, you should be able to ensure that your multi-channel strategy is a smooth road, with no chasms or obstacles to negotiate!
By Tim Jenkins, UK Director at e-Spirit.
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