How to Use Multi‑Channel Marketing to Increase Sales

What is multi-channel marketing?

So what is multi-channel marketing? Multi-channel marketing is an integrated marketing strategy that attempts to engage with customers on their preferred medium or channel. There are many different multi-channel marketing examples and this strategy may incorporate both online and offline channels. When this happens, additional opportunities are created if the business is able to engage the consumer through the particular medium they feel comfortable with.

Mailchimp Director of Product Marketing Damon Petite says that one way to look at multichannel marketing is to think of certain channels as destinations. A website or a landing page, for example, is a destination. Other channels like email, postcards, digital ads, and social media are drivers—they get your customers to the destinations.

“The destinations are where customers sign-up, make a purchase, or take some other important action for the business,” Damon explains. “And those other channels can be used together with a unified message to motivate customers to take that first step to reach the destinations.”

For example, you could try pairing digital advertising with a shoppable landing page. Start by setting a clear goal with your digital ads, such as promoting a new sale, event, or product. That’ll maximize your chances of converting the customers who are driven to the landing page that showcases your product.

Benefits of multi-channel marketing campaigns

Multi-channel marketing makes it possible to boost engagement, promote brand consistency, expand outreach, and streamline the customer journey. Below, we go into more detail about how launching a multi-channel marketing campaign can positively impact your brand.

• Reach more customers: Reach is expanded with the use of multiple channels, as you’re able to connect with more people in different areas.
• Boost engagement: When you launch a multi-channel marketing campaign, you’re able to reach users on their preferred channels. As a result, you can connect with users on channels where they’re more likely to actually engage with your content.
• Promote brand consistency: Multi-channel marketing involves creating a consistent image across channels so that customers become familiar with your brand image and personality.
• Streamline the customer journey: With a multi-channel marketing campaign, you can create more points along the customer journey and, as a result, more easily guide them through the marketing funnel and toward a desired action.

Constructing multiple channels of commerce is a worthwhile pursuit for just about any company. With multi-channel marketing, you can show the different sides of your brand via different touchpoints. Whether it’s email or landing pages or digital ads or social media or postcards or automations or sign-up forms or websites or—see what’s happening here? Each channel gives you a unique way to let your brand shine. You might even use a slightly different tone of voice depending on the channel.

How to create an effective multi-channel marketing campaign

A deep understanding of marketing data combined with access to advanced marketing analytics and insights are great ways to begin an effective multi-channel marketing campaign. The next steps are to select a multi-channel platform, identify the target market, engage in cross-channel promotion, and then measure the results.

Choose a multi-channel marketing platform

Select multi-channel marketing platforms that will help align current customers with their favorite mediums. Keep in mind that finding the right marketing channels may take a bit of trial and error. Experiment with different channels—from social media to email marketing to digital ads—to see where you can most easily reach your target audience and establish a digital presence.

Identify your target audience

The next step in building a multi-channel marketing campaign is identifying your target audience. Identifying and honing in on your target audience is an essential part of any marketing strategy. When you have a target audience in mind, you can make your ads more personalized and better appeal to that audience’s pain points.

Engage in cross-channel promotion

Cross-channel promotion is an essential part of any multi-channel marketing campaign. In order to engage in cross-channel promotion, you must coordinate posts, messages, content, and so on across a variety of marketing channels. This provides your target audience with an integrated experience and reinforces your brand voice and authority.

Measure your results

Companies continue to amass increased amounts of data to better understand customer behavior, and this data can be leveraged for data-driven decision-making. Using the marketing analytics you collect from multi-channel campaigns, you can identify segments within your audience, which can then be used to drive strategies and messaging going forward.

Multi-channel marketing example

17th Street Athletic Club in San Francisco found that by using a combination of channels they could better grow their audience and encourage more people to join their gym. Co-founders Marissa and Shannon used landing pages, Facebook ads, and welcome automations to attract new customers to 17 Street. Best of all? It was easy.

“That was a simple, linear way for a prospective member whom we've never talked to get on our radar,” Marissa says. “I didn't have to have a marketing degree to use it. I didn't have to have a coding degree to use it.”

Grow your brand with a multi-channel marketing campaign

Once you start dipping your toes into multichannel options, the most important next steps are to test, learn, and adapt. Start with a few channels at first, keep an eye on the results, and then shift or increase your budget depending on the outcomes.

“Once you feel good with one channel, try adding another,” Mailchimp Senior Director of Integrated Marketing Stephanie James says. “Give yourself time to get it right on one or two marketing channels and create a marketing calendar and cadence that works for you, as seamlessly stitching multiple channels together takes time and could take time away from other more important tasks.”

Keeping the momentum going, playing to your strengths, and repeating where successful is paramount to moving your customers to action with multichannel campaigns. Before you know it, your messaging will be standing out in a world with too many ads. And your customers will thank you for it by buying your products.