Advertising.com outlines how to run a successful multi-channel marketing program.
The concept of multi-channel marketing is not new. You can find success stories across the industry about specific multi-channel strategies that worked effectively. What's harder to find is a clear roadmap of which programs to introduce and when. So, here we've pulled together the basic components of a winning multi-channel strategy that virtually any business can implement online.
People: Hire the best you can afford.
Multi-channel marketing isn't for the faint of heart: it's challenging, complicated and demanding. When assessing candidates, role-play to understand how they would handle difficult situations. Decide if they can motivate and interact well with your team. Ask tough questions and get candidates thinking outside the box. The more specific you can be about a "day in the life" of your business the better.
Strategy: Plan six to 12 months ahead.
Some organizations and agencies employ dedicated strategy teams to focus on the big picture, 24x7. Whoever is responsible for your strategic planning should outline a six -to 12-month plan, highlighting business changes, ideas for growth, and specific types of programs to test. Be sure to incorporate promotions and keep messaging consistent across channels. Have your strategy team meet regularly to keep everyone accountable and synchronized.
Pulling it all together: Use an analytics package to gather and make sense of your data.
Critical to any multi-channel program is the ability to monitor the success of your programs and how they affect one another. Testing without integrated measurement doesn't offer the visibility you need to plan for the future.
It's wise to determine how you will measure the success of your campaigns before you begin. How will you measure changes in site traffic? Can you communicate these changes internally or to a partner and tie them to a specific campaign? How will you avoid double-counting a conversion? How does performance vary from search to web? What is the effect on your search traffic when you run a web campaign?
Finally, outline a series of customized reports to pull all your data together and present the big picture. Base these reports on what is most important to the growth of your business and also what data your stakeholders need to see to determine success.
Programs: A suggested cross-channel roadmap to test.
- Search: You are probably already doing PPC and Organic Search; keep it up. Make sure your cross-functional teams are tied into branding and product changes to keep your campaigns fresh and relevant. ($$)
- Re-targeting -- web: This is a logical next step. Leverage pre-qualified traffic coming from search and your offline campaigns to conduct re-targeting using banner ads on web networks. Networks with broad reach can find "lost" customers, and bring them back into the fold. Done right, re-targeting can boost conversion rates as much as 10x. ($$)
- Direct response -- web: Follow your re-targeting program with targeted banners you pay for on a CPA basis. Quality networks normally offer this no-risk program, which reaches users who have a higher potential to convert on your site. The network handles all ad placement and pays out publishers. ($$$)
- "Roadblocks"-- web: Roadblocks are a good next step to reach the masses. Many networks offer CPM/CPC banner campaigns where you can monopolize a portion of that network for a short period of time. The goal is to reach as many people as possible with an attention grabbing message. ($$$$)
- Video -- web: Video ad networks with significant reach can distribute high-impact ads with the sight, sound and motion of TV. Supply is limited, but you can reach specific content segments and use various targeting methods to reach the right audience. ($$$$)
Summary
Pulling together your people, strategy, programs and analytics is not easy, but a phased approach will make the process more manageable. Layering one program on top of another has been proven to yield dramatic results in site traffic, sales and overall conversions.
So begin your due diligence today, hire the right people and plan your 2008 budget to accommodate testing some of these multi-channel programs.
Julienne Hood is director of outreach at Advertising.com. Read full bio.