Managing a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Multi-channel marketing can seem overly complicated; after all, it’s marketing multipled many times, across different channels and avenues.

However, switching to multi-channel in today’s marketing landscape is not only a smart move; it’s necessary. No one can afford to be left behind, especially when your comeptitors are all engaging massive audiences across a host of different channels.

James sits down with Kale one more time to talk multi-channel, sifting though even more data and getting the most out of your different campaigns.

Interview

James: So you touched on something there, and I think this is a nice segue point. We’re talking about obviously the measure of success, to then measure all the different channels, and multi-channel marketing.

So, multi-channel marketing: we’ve briefly touched in the past about omnichannel, I just want to talk a little bit about multi-channel marketing. What are your thoughts around multi-channel marketing, and how can it be effective even for a small business?

Kale: The thing I like to say is that it’s very rare for the most effective strategy for a marketing campaign is…from day one, to day end, one channel with the same strategy, with the same ads, with the same variables throughout. It’s so rare that it’s pretty much impossible that THAT is the most effective strategy.

What’s more likely is that the most effective strategy is a combination of things. Permutations based on who the users are, where you’re finding the users on their user journey- closer to making a purchase, closer to looking or researching- all of this data that we have now shows that the most effective way to market IS with multi-channel marketing, because people are multi-channel users. No one, any more, has one sole form of mass communication.

James: So you mentioned before that it’s never the same strategy from day start, to day end. It’s not the same creative, the same message, the same audience, the same variables; it’s very unlikely that is the case. There’s things that change throughout the life of the campaign.

With that being said, with different variables and different channels being introduced, can you sometimes see success in one channel only being success in supporting another?

Kale: Absolutely, and that’s something that people need to keep in mind with regards to multi-channel funnels. Not all channels, not all mediums, not all strategies are created equal. And they shouldn’t be created equal, because they serve different goals.

“Certain channels are great at raising brand awareness, getting impressions, getting reach. Other channels are great at giving more information to the user if they’re in the right kind of mindset. All these things need to work in concert.”

If someone is complaining that one channel is really only a support player to another channel, they shouldn’t be complaining: they should be celebrating because they’ve found the most effective use for that channel. It turns out that the most effective use for that channel, when combined with another channel, makes them greater than the sum of their parts. And that’s something that people should be celebrating. 

All this comes back to testing, experimenting, trialling iterations of all sorts, both within space, i.e. different channels, as well as within time. Knowing how to sequence channels and knowing which one’s better at certain times. All this stuff should, in an ideal world, be tracked and measured. Your ultimate goal should be figuring out the most effective combination of these channels.

James: I think this is one of the challenging things for business owners and marketeers, is that there is a lot of data, and I think your points are really, really good that they can understand what channels are they currently using, what are the end goals that they’re trying to achieve, and then measuring the different iterations of information that’s available for each of those, and seeing if it’s a channel that’s bringing success, or is one channel supporting the other?

And that’s like you said: through trialling and testing and making sure that we do measure everything.

So if you had one piece of advice to give to a business owner or someone who is a marketeer, what would that be?

Kale: Data is your friend. Everything that you said there…perfect points and definitely stuff that we need to keep in mind, and all of that is driven by information. You need information to figure out what you want users to do; that’s your first goal.

You need information to figure out what types of channels will be effective. You need information to figure out what IS effective. Where the rubber meets the road in terms of ‘how does my expectation of a channel’s effectiveness’ match with the reality. And you need data to effectively test. Testing definitely is something that can’t be done without effective measurement, because otherwise you’re just rolling a dice and hoping that the number you happen to roll is better than the previous roll.

So I would say that- if I wanted to be efficient- the best thing that a business owner can do in terms of marketing is embrace this idea of digital data and information, because the whole system can’t be run without it.