Years ago, all a company needed to do was mount a billboard or run a commercial on TV, and leads would soon start rolling in. But times have changed.
These days, you need to put in more effort to lure customers your way. Modern technologies and social media platforms represent challenges as well as opportunities. Typical customers are active on numerous platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, and so on. As a result, marketers may find it hard to know where to spend their time and advertising dollars.
Consider this: every 24 hours, the average consumer uses four devices to access at least seven different platforms. This means that, to get the attention of potential customers, your marketing efforts need to cut across a number of channels.
That’s what multi touch marketing is all about.
Killing One Bird with Many Stones
Imagine a customer has been looking for fitness-related content online. Thanks to those browsing habits, the customer is targeted with a Facebook post by Nike about its Training Club workout app. The customer clicks through and downloads the app, signing up to the mailing list in the process so that they will start receiving Nike’s email campaigns.
Later, the customer visits Youtube. The algorithm suggests some home workout videos and as the customer watches, they realize that many of YouTube’s successful fitness influencers are wearing Nike.
Soon afterwards, the customer receives a direct mailing about a major sporting event in their city that is being sponsored by – you guessed it – Nike. Now, I have a question for you. If this customer is considering buying some sportswear, which brand will they think of first? This is multi touch marketing in action.
Most customers do not buy products the first time they hear about them. Usually, it takes a number of reinforcements to pique their interest and persuade them to take the plunge. Because of the fast-paced digital age we live in, customers have numerous channels at their disposal. For marketers, this is a double-edged sword.
The Double-edged Sword
Since there are now so many channels available for marketers to explore, marketing monopolies functionally no longer exist. Unlike decades ago, where only the most affluent businesses could afford consistent TV adverts, you can now promote your products or services across countless channels – from direct mail and email marketing to social media and niche interest blogs – to reach your target audience.
Despite the opportunities it presents, the multiplicity of available platforms also makes marketing harder. Try listing all the digital channels and social media sites you can think of. Chances are you thought of email, and of social media sites like Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. But that’s only the beginning, and new platforms are launching all the time. With so many channels available and limited time and money to spend on marketing, you might feel overwhelmed and not know which marketing methods you should choose.
The Solution
Instead of choosing just one channel, you can select a number of appropriate channels that appeal to your target audience and advertise to them on those platforms. Multi touch marketing, at its core, is about reaching customers with a consistent message in a variety of ways. To subvert an old expression, we could think of it as “killing one bird with several stones.”
Remember: the key is in sending a consistent message. Marketing across different channels does not mean that you need to change your messaging. Of course, you may need to tweak your message to fit the limitations and rules of each communication channel, but the overall messaging remains the same.
For example, Facebook allows for long posts. On Twitter, however, you’ll need to reduce the length of your content to 280 characters or less (plus images or video). If you want to send that same message to Instagram, you’ll need to focus primarily on an enticing image or video that can grab the attention of your audience.
Despite the advent of social media, it’s vital not to forget older marketing strategies that are still tremendously effective, such as email campaigns and direct mail. Many companies now ignore the latter because direct mail costs more than email or social media campaigns to initiate. However, studies show the results are worth the extra expense. It can form a critical part of your multi-touch marketing campaigns.
Benefits of Multi Touch Marketing Campaigns
Multi touch marketing campaigns have several benefits for companies and organizations. Let’s walk through a few of them:
It Enhances Your Reputation
Customers are cautious creatures. That’s why traditional advertising methods are losing their bite. These days, customers prefer companies who express genuine interest in helping to solve their problems. Additionally, they prefer companies who have consistent visibility and a verifiable track record.
That’s why review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Yellow Pages have become go-to platforms for consumers before they make a purchase. Whether they’re deciding which hotel to stay at or which brand of shampoo to use, consumers want to use brands that are well-known and well-regarded.
Did you know that direct mail is particularly powerful in enhancing customer trust? According to The Drum, 87% of consumers consider direct mail communications to be “believable”. So don’t neglect this often overlooked channel in favor of a purely digital strategy.
A brand that is just using one or two channels for marketing won’t get the same results as another that is using five or six channels (or more). The more methods you have at your disposal to engage your consumers, the more you’ll pique their interest and move them further along their buying journey. At the same time, you enhance your business’s reputation and visibility.
It Offers More Choice
Multi touch marketing campaigns offer customers more choices in how they engage with you. For a business, this can only be good news. Using a variety of platforms allows customers to engage with you wherever they feel most comfortable. And that increases your chance of making a sale.
Additionally, once your marketing is spread across various channels of communication, it becomes more and more robust. In other words, it’s easier to keep customers’ attention if they see your content in their email inbox, in their social media feeds, and even in their physical mailbox. If a customer decides to stop using or paying attention to one channel, you can still reach them in other places.
It Increases Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on investment (ROI) is about how much money your campaigns bring in versus how much they cost. The more people you reach out to, and the more effective your campaigns, the higher your chance of generating leads and making conversions.
Putting all your marketing eggs in one basket is a poor strategy where ROI is concerned. Instead, choose and strategically focus upon several key channels to create a multi touch experience.
How to Run a Multi Touch Marketing Campaign
While a multi touch marketing campaign sounds like a complex venture, it is fairly simple once you know what to do. In this section, we’ll run through the key steps to running a successful multi touch marketing campaign.
Let’s go!
Understand Your Customers
Multi touch marketing rises and falls on the tastes and preferences of your target audience. That’s why the first step to running a successful marketing campaign is to understand the needs and desires of your customers.
Conduct thorough research on your customer’s demographics, interests and buying preferences. Hubspot has an exhaustive guide to understanding your customers’ behavior.
Select Your Channels
Once you understand them, you can start to determine what platforms they use and what messaging will resonate. For example, if you’re targeting college students you might focus on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. On the other hand, if you’re a B2B company targeting high level executives, LinkedIn will be a key part of your strategy.
Email marketing cuts across all age groups and demographics, and – despite the stereotype that millennials are glued to their phones – 30% of millennials consider direct mail effective. This method enjoys the strongest response rate amongst those aged 45 – 54, at an impressive 14.1%. (Stats: Smallbizgenius).
Multi touch marketing draws on the old marketing “rule of seven”. This idea states that a customer is more likely to make a purchase after they’ve seen or heard about your product at least seven times.
Don’t panic – that doesn’t mean you have to use seven different channels (which is a lot, unless your marketing budget is huge). Instead, choose a few different platforms and ensure they’re the most appropriate for your target audience.
Tweak Your Message
Although your brand message should be consistent, be ready to make small adaptations as necessary. Adjust your messaging to the channels you choose.
While some platforms require a more corporate or professional tone, others lend themselves better to playfulness and irreverence. Digital channels and paper-based channels each have their strengths and weaknesses. Choose a core message, and then adapt it to suit each platform.
Run Trials and Be Ready to Innovate
Before you scale your multi touch marketing on various platforms, run trials to see how consumers respond. A/B testing different versions of your messaging will help, too.
This way, you’ll know whether to scale up your efforts on any particular channel, or cut your losses and consider another platform. Don’t be afraid to explore channels that you are unfamiliar with. It can be lucrative and rewarding to be an early adopter when new channels pop up!
The Perfect Mix
Multitouch marketing is all about getting the right mix of channels and ensuring that your prospective customers see your messaging in multiple places.
It may take some time to figure out which platforms work best for your clients and deliver the best ROI, but keep at it. Once you find the perfect mix, your marketing campaigns will start seeing results like never before!