5 mistakes that ruin your multichannel marketing

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Copyright © Digital Alchemy 5 MISTAKES THAT RUIN YOUR MULTICHANNEL MARKETING
THAT RUIN YOUR
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MISTAKES
MULTICHANNEL
MULTICHANNEL
By Digital Alchemy TeamMARKETING

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GET MULTICHANNEL MARKETING RIGHT…
ultichannel or cross channel marketing has transformed the
way we reach our customers. It offers brands a way to align and
build their presence, messaging, offers and community engagement
across multiple delivery points.
However, developing consistent and successful multichannel
campaigns or marketing strategies isn’t easy and many brands either
go half way in or don’t do it well.
Here are some of the common mistakes businesses make, and
ways to improve them.
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It’s a very easy and common mistake to
make. When companies first start out or
older companies learn about new marketing
channels, they are quick to jump on them.
This could be because:
How many times have your campaigns or
marketing messages gone awry, where your
SMS messages or direct mails are never
opened or reach their target? How many
times are your customers receiving your
messages at the wrong time or place?
It’s not about which channel you
SHOULD be on, it’s about which channel
your CUSTOMERS are on, and delivering
personalised information to them.
Imagine your ideal customer is sitting
at a meeting and they keep getting text
messages about a new retail or bank loyalty
program. Pretty certain they would rather
get those in an email that they can look at
later at a more comfortable time.
They see everyone else doing it
They want to build their presence
wherever and however fast they can
They focus on the cost instead of
marketing ROI and tend to choose the
cheapest channel but not the most
effective one
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These brands then start investing a lot of
time and money to understand and learn
these channels without really knowing if it is
the right choice for them.
FOCUSING ON THE CHANNEL RATHER THAN THE CUSTOMER1
The solution is simple. Stop focusing on
which channel you should be on and
instead spend the effort to understand
where your customers are and how
they are using it.

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NOT INTEGRATING PROPERLY
It also means being able to handle all your
channels from a centralised platform to
increase efficacy.
Good integration of multichannel for
your campaign means understanding
your audience (where they are and
how they use it), choosing the right
message, through the right channels,
at the right time, to the right customer,
and using the right data.
In retail, the multichannel
marketing has evolved into
the omnichannel retailing,
which allows marketers to
use and operate all channels
simultaneously, creating a seamless
customer experience.
Example
This doesn’t mean you send out your
content through five different channels with
five different messages, but rather that
the various components of your campaign
should be tied together through images,
branding, messaging and overall themes.
Many brands and companies believe that
multichannel marketing means it is a way
for them to blast their promotions and offers
across all channels. This tends to utilise
the ultimately disastrous, “one-size-fits-all
marketing strategy”.
The problem is that it simply does not work
- marketing strategies must be flexible in
order to best represent your unique brand,
meet specific business objectives and of
course cater to the target audience.
You have to understand how to use
each channel and design optimised and
consistent communication strategies so
that it fits holistically in the overall marketing
strategy or campaign.
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Consumers are increasingly shifting their media time from desktop
to mobile. Alluding to the previous point, consumers are also
interconnected with their devices and switch between them to
make purchases or engage with brands. This gives evidence of why
integration is more important than ever.
Problem is that content is often not optimised for mobile, which poses
an enormous loss of opportunity for brands – and for many reasons!
Think of yourself as a consumer. How often are you on your mobile?
You take it to your office, during lunch and even to your bathroom.
Today’s consumers walk, talk, and even sleep with their phones.
It is clear that implementing optimised mobile communication and
messages is something you just can’t ignore. What would fit in an
email for desktop may not work on mobile. What would be included
in direct mail may need to be truncated and designed differently for
mobile. Also think loading time, screen utilisation and ease of user
experience – are they generating leads or causing users to drop out?
The figure shows the importance of mobile and how active users are on them.
It’s a big mistake to not optimise for mobile and just rely on email
or direct mail marketing. Making customer experience on mobile as
seamless as on desktop is critical – whether it is a website, a blog,
an online store or a marketing campaign.
NOT OPTIMISED FOR MOBILE3
Source: Kemp, F. 2015. Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015.We are social. [Online] Available at <http://wearesocial.net/
blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/> [Accessed 1st
July 2015]

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FORGETTING THE OFFLINE WORLD
Despite the fact that we are living in a digital age, we cannot forget that we still interact in the
offline world. A common mistake is to forego the latter and concentrate only on the digital.
Even if your business is primarily digital, such as an e-commerce, you still have to consider
delivery and customer service that comes with it.
Similarly, if you are running a campaign
to launch a new product, don’t omit the
opportunities of live events and meeting
prospective customers in the flesh. You can
still integrate the online aspect by doing live
tweets or booths that connect the social
with the real.
Zalora is primarily a digital
retail store. It does all its
marketing and offers through
websites, e-newsletters,
and even SMS in a very efficient and
personalised way. However, if its delivery
service is slow or the products that reach
you are incorrect half of the time, the
entire business crumbles.
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DELIVERY

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NOT CREATING A RESPONSIVE MULTICHANNEL
The biggest mistake that brands can
make in multichannel marketing is the
inconsistency in not just branding but also
in creating a two-way communication.
Companies get caught up in being “Jack
of all trades, but master of none”. They
blast promotions and offers without being
responsive to the customer’s needs.
If you send out a marketing campaign to
your prospect, make sure you follow each
channel and make them responsive based
on customers’ reaction to your message.
What does this mean? If you send out an
email and it bounces, then you send them
direct mail. If they open the email, then you
call them the next day to follow up.
To learn more about responsive multichannel, check out this video on
how to enhance your marketing campaign performance.
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So are you making any of these mistakes in your
multichannel marketing? Are you making sure they
are responsive and cater to your customer’s needs
rather than yours?
It’s easy to make these mistakes. But if you
understand your customer and your channels,
then fixing it is even easier.
THINK CUSTOMER AND CHANNELS

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Visit our blog
www.digitalalchemy.asia | info@digitalalchemy.asia
www.digitalalchemy.asia/blog
www.digitalalchemy.asia | info@digitalalchemy.asia
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Digital Alchemy Team
Digital Alchemy Limited (DA) is Asia Pacific’s leading Database
Marketing Services Provider. DA’s team of professionals are dedicated
to working with clients to improve their marketing efficiency and to
capture latent customer value. Established in 2003 and operating in
Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Nanjing, and
Singapore, DA has been contributing to the success of an expanding
breadth of clients including leading companies in financial services,
telecommunications, retail, motoring services, media, and other
industry sectors.
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Copyright © Digital Alchemy | August 2015

5 mistakes that ruin your multichannel marketing

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