Effective customer acquisition marketing campaigns come down to a simple mantra: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Beyond the obvious risk management advantage to this approach, advertisers need to be open to diversification in order to increase their chances for successful customer acquisition. Marketers must take advantage of multiple advertising channels to enhance their brand’s awareness and optimally reach their target audiences.
More and more people are becoming multichannel media users and consumers. According to the latest Nielsen survey of connected U.S. device owners, nearly half of smartphone owners (46%) and tablet owners (43%) said they use their devices as second screens while watching TV every day. Twenty percent of those surveyed reported that they purchase a product or service on their second screen tablet or mobile device based on the program they’re watching.
Engaging consumers across multiple media channels and devices can increase their awareness of your brand, as well as their willingness to join your customer base. Multichannel consumers spend three to four times more than single-channel customers, according to Wordstream. These are the types of consumers your brand should place its focus on reaching in 2014.
How you reach the right consumer at the right time with the right offer, product, or service is now compounded by the dynamic of needing to reach them on the right device. To achieve that requires treating online marketing like an integrated, multichannel ecosystem. You need to work with partners and agencies that will provide you with a single gateway to Web, mobile, and social advertising solutions.
Where do you begin and how do you maintain focus in the large sea of multichannel marketing opportunities? Here are a few key strategies and tips:
1. Take the time to properly plan your multichannel marketing campaign. Get to know your target customers, select the right digital media channels where you can find them, and create creative campaigns to attract them across these channels.
2. Implement a robust measurement and analysis program. Measure your campaign’s effectiveness through all channels to monitor performance. Optimize your campaigns and plan for future ones based on the data you collect.
3. Consider simplifying the process by using service providers. Planning, integrating, and monitoring multichannel marketing campaigns can be quite challenging and time-consuming. We work with a number of advertisers that want to launch a multichannel marketing campaign but either don’t have the time or don’t have the resources to do so. Find reputable marketing companies that specialize in your channels of interest to help guide you throughout the process.
Some highly recommended channels that have proven effective for many of our advertisers include (but are not limited to):
Email remains one of the most effective digital media channels ever created. Whether through direct mail campaigns or third-party services, email marketing enables advertisers to target specific consumers on any desktop or mobile device by vertical and behavioral characteristics.
- Display advertising
Working with a global display advertising network to deliver monthly impressions of your product on popular websites, and/or implementing remarketing campaigns for greater exposure can help boost your brand awareness and improve customer acquisition and retention.
- Affiliate marketing
Affiliate networks offer a performance-based model for customer acquisition through a network of global affiliates tailored to each campaign. Many advertisers enjoy paying for each valid lead or sale, thereby ensuring the media channels they employ are successful in recruiting new customers.
- Search engine marketing
Paid search marketing campaigns can help you target those who are actively searching for products or services on search engines similar to those you are offering.
- Don’t forget mobile!
Did you know that more people worldwide own mobile phones than toothbrushes? Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in the success of customer acquisition campaigns. Make sure your website is mobile-optimized and allows for a quick and easy transaction or exchange of information from the consumer. Keep in mind that mobile marketing isn’t the same as desktop marketing. Respect mobile’s unique differences and opportunities in order to improve performance.
Today’s marketing techniques and media channels are so diverse and easily accessible that it would be a shame not to benefit from what’s out there. Given the dynamic nature of the online industry today, at some point multichannel marketing becomes more than a “nice to have” technique.
Companies that do not expand their reach through more than one marketing channel are at risk of being left behind. A unified, multichannel approach to online marketing, utilizing the Web, mobile, and social media will put your brand on the path to improved customer acquisition performance.
Keren Marom VP of media at Matomy Media Group. She can be reached at [email protected].
