There are a number of ways to reach out and market to your current, as well as potential clients. Choosing the right methods and creating a consistent and cohesive message across multiple mediums can seem like an overwhelming task. Successful Digital Cross-Channel Integration, can be a challenge but there are ways to make it work. The following will present the first 4 of 9 ways to maximize your digital marketing across multiple digital channels for retail, online, B to B, mobile and social.
What is Digital Cross-Channel Integration?
To understand how to execute successfully, you first have to understand what it is and how it works. Digital cross-channel integration means to incorporate engaging and consistent digital marketing material across multiple channels for maximum impact. The following infographic shows what the top twelve channels are, for greatest impact:
Things to consider:
You’ll want to make sure that you are delivering a consistent and cohesive message and experience across all of your channels. The benefit of integrating multiple channels means you are allowing your customer to decide how they are going to receive the message. This creates a comfort level with your customer by offering them choices. No one feels left ‘in the dark’ and everyone feels like they are being catered to.
How do you do it?
Start with Social Friendly Content
Generation C (the connected consumer) is now the generation we need to be thinking about – they have a very strong social influence. It is crucial you make your content engaging and get those Gen C’s talking! Focusing on only a few social-channels will not get you the return you’re looking for. The good news is there is a way to market to all of these platforms in an effective manner, and that is by creating content that is ‘share-able’.
Consider your key message and create article content that people really want to read or learn about. Lists, bullets and numbered items are great for readability and tweetability, not to mention SEO! Once you have a great article, create some appealing graphics to go with it. Add a widget, poll or quiz. Can you turn your lists into an awesome infographic? Can you visualize those images animating and coming to life? Great! Now you have enough to cover almost every social platform.
Align Your Retail, App and Web
The rise in digital retail marketing is changing the face of retail and online shopping. It has created a need to fill the gap between the experience at home and in the store. Take for instance a product selector as a case study. There is opportunity there to align your message for when the consumer is at home, in the retail setting, and travelling in-between. That message could simply be, ‘take your kiosk home with you’.
To standout from your competition, you want to be able to provide your clients with useful customer service inside and outside the retail setting. Make their decisions easier by allowing them to compare products and features using simple language, imagery and video, all in the comfort of their own home. Create an app and bring the products to them while they are on the go. In-store kiosks will provide the knowledge that sales representative’s lack, to help educate the consumer of their choices. They will also provide more insight to products and features available when real estate in retail settings are limited and costly. Kiosks and other digital retail forms, take up little space, but pack a lot of priceless customer service punch.
Get Your Client's Attention with Video
There are many styles of video, so you’ll first have to decide which is the best one to deliver your message. Some styles include animation, infographics, testimonials, case studies, and demos.
Watch the animated version of our above infographic and see the content come to life:
Adding music and voice-over when appropriate is also a big part of the message. You will want to consider how you can reuse your video in different channels, like in a retail or branch environment. Maybe a shorter and silent version will work best. If this is so, then you’ll need to tell your story with text on screen in an easy to understand way. The opposite will be true when you plan for your video to play on a mobile device. You can take full advantage of audio, but you’ll want to make sure any text on screen is legible on the smallest device.
And what about those social platforms? Is there a way to create a very short version for Instagram or Vine? You will also want to consider making your videos fully accessible. Close captions are of course important, but you also have to think about descriptive video for b-roll footage, important graphs or charts, or other key actions happening on screen.
Create a Customized Experience
It is not enough anymore to have a well-designed, but generic digital experience. Customers expect you to understand that they’re busy, and that there is a lot of competition for their attention in almost every channel. Remember that it is the Gen C people we want to impress – they’re the ones who will become ambassadors for your product and will share, tweet and post about their experience with your organization. Creating a ‘user-generated’ experience across desktop, tablets and phones, will engage your customer and make them feel taken care of.
The advancements in technology has created a higher demand for the customer experience to be simple, quick and high in quality and accuracy. Customizing will help with these needs. Ask questions to narrow down options. A good customer experience is all about context. The more you know about your customer the better services you’ll be able to provide to them. Are they on-the-go type people? Then offer them an app. Are they weighing their options? Then provide them with a tool to make their decision easier. Incorporating a login system so that data can be saved and shared is a great way to build long-term relationships. Providing options will create a custom experience and give the Gen C’s something to talk about!
The potential to gain new customers and maintain current customer loyalty is everywhere, so you need to be everywhere too! We live in an interconnected world, so your marketing strategy should be interconnect too. In the end, learning ways to create efficiencies and achieve quick time-to-market will give your customers an awesome rich experience. Stay-tuned for Part 2 of the 9 Ways to Maximize Your Digital Marketing Across Channels!
