Being successful in the marketing world today requires more attention to detail and advanced planning than ever before. It's not that the goals of marketers have drastically changed, it's that today's consumers have changed how they ingest marketing content. And in order for modern marketing campaigns to be most impactful, consumers need to be reached across a variety of channels and the messaging across these channels must be cohesive and drive action.
This interconnected approach to reaching consumers is what cross-channel marketing is all about. Cross-channel marketing enables marketers to guide consumers on a fully controlled buying journey. It differs slightly from omni- and multi-channel marketing in that rather than sending the same content/message across many channels independently, cross-channel marketing provides consumers with varying content/messaging that work together to send consumers down a purchasing path.
One of the key aspects for cross-channel campaign success is a clear understanding of your customer base, which today means data-driven customer data analytics. Here's a look at some of the important areas where the use of customer data supports more effective cross-channel marketing.
Better customer targeting
Today's customers have more choices in where they shop than ever. This is why it is extremely important that marketers connect with their customers on the channels that they frequent and also have an actionable understanding of how customers are using these channels. By analyzing data on behaviors such as email engagements, visits to a company page, or usage of promotional materials, marketers gain direct knowledge of the content that appeals most to their customers and their preferred channel(s) for receiving it.
With a customer data platform, marketers are able to better target their customers based on their preferences and maximize the effectiveness of their cross-channel campaigns. This cuts down on superfluous work for marketers and ensures that marketing resources are being used to their maximum potential. More importantly, it provides customers with the content they want where they want, and contributes to an overall positive customer experience, which has been proven to help with customer retention.
Improved customer engagement
Better customer targeting also helps drive customer engagement. Why? Well as previously noted, engaging customers on their preferred channels with their preferred content helps to build a positive customer experience, which itself is a huge factor in customer engagement.
For example, say a company sends its customers a weekly, fairly generic email about new products it has added to its lineup. That email will likely always attract some opens and click-throughs, but its frequency and plain nature has likely desensitized a large portion of the customer base and resulted in a snowball-effect on overall engagement. Lower engagement leads to fewer sales which leads to smaller profits. Not exactly a business model to strive for.
This desensitization and lower engagement can impact other mediums besides email (like social media posts or blog posts), which puts a huge damper on cross-channel marketing efforts. This is why analyzing customer data to uncover insights into engagement is so critical to campaign success.
Struggling to analyze your customer data?
Customer data analysis is a necessity for successful cross-channel marketing, but it can be a challenging task given the amount of data and number of systems marketers typically use. Here at QuickPivot, we believe that managing and analyzing customer data doesn't have to be difficult, which is why we designed our customer data platform to make those tasks intuitive and easily accomplished.
If you're a marketer and struggling to get a handle on your customer data, or would like more information on how a customer data platform can help support your marketing needs, reach out to us today. We'd love to hear from you.
