46% of marketers struggle with getting actionable insights from reports, a golden opportunity to collect the amount of data necessary for multichannel campaigns. While multi-channel road is a curvier one, it is absolutely worth the effort. Multi-channel campaigns deliver a 37% higher response rate and a 24% greater return on investment over single-channel campaigns.
Let’s dive into the three critical steps to making this happen.
Master your landing pages
Multi-channel campaigns can be as basic or as advanced as you wish. For example, you might use email, Facebook ads, and SMS messages to drive users to the same goal of making a purchase while you’re running a 20% discount on all products storewide. For this type of multi-channel campaign, you only need a single landing page for your chosen channels. This is ideal for limited-time offers, but also for ongoing occurrences, like Starbucks’ reward program:
(Sources: outdoor banner, display banner, website)
Alternatively, can assign each channel a unique landing page to ensure you’re making the most out of each platform.
For example, you could begin with an email campaign that sends your audience to a landing page. With the help of Facebook pixel, you then show Facebook ads to those who have visited the landing page but haven’t converted, directing them to even more targeted landing page. Finally, you send a push notification, an email, or a Facebook Messenger campaign to those who have added items to their cart but haven’t completed their purchase.
The options are endless; it’s up to you to determine the importance of reaching your audience during specific moments in their journey, or using time-limited offers to gently nudge them towards a specific action.
Whichever approach you take, make sure your goal is singular and obvious to for the visitor. Your landing page(s) should ask for only one action at a time and the process should feel as easy as possible. Sharpen your multichannel efforts with cross-device directions, clear copy and calls-to-action that reflect your messages.
Knowing your channels
Different types of messages work better on different channels. One of the best ways of putting each channel to work is by understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Look at a specific channel through the lens of cost, attention, design, and how annoying it is for customers.
(Source)
From here, dig deeper. Want to kick off a campaign with personalized messaging for a local business? Look into push notifications. Want to retarget users who’ve already visited a specific product page? Try Google Display Network. Want to cast a wide net early in the campaign? Twitter Tailored Audience might be a good start.
(Source)
The path to your campaign goal will be unique for each customer, and it’s your job to uncover the specifics of their stages in the journey, select the best channel, and tailor the message accordingly.
Integrate and attribute
One of the toughest aspects of using multiple channels is accurately measuring and understanding how they impact each other. Here are two key steps that simplify campaign tracking:
First, you’ll want to make sure your channels are able to talk to each other—without this, you’ll have a hard time pointing to a channel that aided a specific customer action. Luckily, you can do this in several ways, starting with integrating search and social audiences as the team from Wolfgang Digital uncovered:
- Take keywords from your Google URL builder and input them into Facebook Custom Audiences, to use for remarketing or lookalike audiences
It’s crucial to create and maintain a single customer view by attributing cross-device and cross-channel activities to the same individuals. Only 30% of marketers use advanced attribution tools and there’s lots of room to still get ahead; UTM parameters, User-IDs in Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel are a good place to start.
Finally, Google Analytics provides insight into each channel’s value. There are seven attribution models in Google Analytics: last interaction, last non-direct click, last AdWords click, first click, linear, time decay, and position-based. Use the Model Comparison Tool to check which model suits your campaign the most. Here’s an example from Google’s Merchandise Store:
(Source)
Clicking further into each of the listed channels will give you additional insight; for example, Social Networks sections breaks down the numbers from YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, and more.
You can now use this centralized overview to unlock a deep understanding of those average six touchpoints to purchase. Use it to maximize the impact of each channel in your campaigns and dedicate the necessary resources to each stage of the campaign to drive your bottom line.