Multichannel marketing 101: How to develop a meaningful multichannel strategy

Everyone involved in e-commerce has heard of multichannel marketing. Sounds great too. But what exactly is it all about? In this blog, you can find out what characterizes multichannel marketing and how you can develop your own successful multichannel marketing strategy. Let's get started!

What is multichannel marketing?

It wasn't so long ago that there was only one way to get everyday necessities from a discount store - by going to the discount store. A market opened its doors to customers at a certain location and that's where customers had to go to satisfy their shopping needs.

The game of supply and demand also worked in this monodirectional way at other levels of commerce: Tools were available at DIY stores, medicines at pharmacies and games at specialist electronics stores.

And that went well for a long time. But in recent years in particular, a change has set in that has been driven primarily by digitalization. Today's consumer market has diversified and demands more flexible fulfillment of needs. More than ever before, salespeople need to focus on their customers. And their wishes can be summarized succinctly as: "always and everywhere".

This is why discounters are now selling in their online stores and have their own mobile apps with which they present offers, offer loyalty cards and the like. This is why drugstores are also networked with social media, and why traditional brick-and-mortar stores link their offerings with Amazon, eBay In other words, they are pursuing a multichannel strategy.

The aim is to give customers the opportunity to act via the channel of their choice, to become aware of certain offers and ultimately to buy a product or service that they would not otherwise have come across.

What are the goals of multichannel marketing?

But what's the point? The overarching goal of multichannel marketing is, of course, to open up additional or new sales markets. To achieve this, the entire customer journey, from the pre-purchase to the transaction to the post-purchase phase, should be as pleasant as possible. And multichannel marketing creates options for this so that customers can interact with the company anytime and anywhere.

But retailers also benefit. More touchpoints also mean more and better information about customer behavior and preferences. This facilitates cross-selling and upselling. For example, when customers prefer different channels for higher-value products than for everyday goods.

The multichannel strategy and the corresponding sales channels

A distribution channel is the way in which products and services find their way from the supplier to the customer. This can happen directly, i.e. when manufacturers sell directly to end customers. This is usually referred to as "direct-to-consumer" (D2C). Indirect sales channels involve intermediaries such as wholesalers or specialist retailers.

The ingenuity that retailers have shown over time in inventing sales channels is enormous: from Tupperware parties and teleshopping to social selling, where the development and maintenance of customer relationships function as part of the sales process.

The classic example of such a combination is to supplement the existing retail store with an online store. And this very simple definition of a multichannel strategy can always be developed further. Think of a supermarket chain:

• You can, of course, go to the store and shop there.
• You can also order by phone and have your purchase delivered.
• Or you can put together an assortment online and then collect it yourself from the store of your choice.

Such concepts lead multichannel marketing in part to cross-channel marketing and omnichannel marketing:

Multi-, cross- and omnichannel marketing

The concepts of cross-channel and omnichannel marketing are often mentioned alongside multichannel marketing. They can hardly be treated as separate concepts. Rather, they are a kind of evolution of the multichannel idea, a continuous further development. The main features are

• Multichannel marketing: The individual channels stand separately next to each other like silos. Example: Either buy in the store or in the online store. The flow of goods and information remain separate.
• Crosschannel marketing: Here, customers can act across channels because the individual channels are connected. Example: Your shopping cart created in the app is also displayed in the online store.
• Omnichannel marketing: This is the latest stage in the evolution of multichannel marketing. All channels are networked with each other and also with the customer. But the approach is more comprehensive, as the Latin "omni" ("all", "everywhere") indicates. There is also a common database behind everything.

The distinction between these three concepts is somewhat artificial, especially the distinction between cross-channel and omnichannel. The key is not to lose sight of what is ultimately always at stake, no matter which approach is chosen: Providing customers with the channels and the experience they want.

Advantages and disadvantages of a multichannel strategy

Multichannel marketing can be a powerful tool. When implemented correctly, it brings you a number of valuable benefits:

• Competitive advantages: With a multichannel approach, companies can identify gaps in their competitors' strategies and focus on channels that others are leaving unused.
• 360-degree view of the customer: Multichannel marketers spread their message across as many channels as possible to get feedback from different customer segments. This allows marketing measures to be adapted according to which channels are best suited to which segments in order to meet their needs.
• Better visibility and more sales: The more recognizable a message is, the more potential customers a company can address, expand its customer base and increase loyalty.

In addition to these benefits, multichannel marketing also presents some challenges that you need to overcome when developing your own strategy. Among the most important are:

• Inconsistency: Each channel is unique and places its own demands on marketing. This can make it difficult to convey a consistent message across all channels and brands.
• Technology disruptions: Channels with different technological requirements need to access different resources. This makes coordination between the channels more difficult. For example, if a channel provides qualitative data, this must be interpreted using different tools than quantitative data.
• Measurement: It can be quite tricky to measure aspects such as reach across multiple channels.
• Integration: It must be possible to link a new marketing channel to your existing merchandise management system in a meaningful way.
• Service: If you create additional contact points, it may be necessary to support them with the corresponding services. Can you cope with the extra work?
• Payment transactions: Customers also prefer certain payment methods on certain channels. Social shopping, for example, must be seamless and fast with integrated payment service providers such as PayPal so that interested parties are not slowed down and drop out at the last moment.

How to successfully introduce multichannel marketing: 4 basic principles

Which multichannel marketing approach you choose, which channels you decide on and how you combine them depends on your available resources, of course, but also on the product you offer and, above all, on the preferences of your customers.

You should definitely take these four basic principles to heart:

1. identify your buyer persona(s).

A clearly defined buyer persona (or several) that contains information about the ideal buyers is essential. This information will help you decide which channels to use and how to deliver your messages.

2. select the appropriate channels

Wouldn't it be nice if you could be present everywhere at the same time? The fact is, however, that effective multichannel marketing incurs costs that should not be underestimated and which must be in a healthy proportion to the profit achieved. That's why you shouldn't use all channels indiscriminately, but rather set promising priorities.

3. stay consistent

In multichannel marketing, it is important that the experience offered is coherent across all channels. Otherwise, your audience will be irritated or confused when they switch from one platform to another.

4. integrate the customer experience across channels

Whichever channels you choose, it's important that they work together harmoniously to attract and win customers. Individual consumers move fluidly from one place to another. Your strategies and analyses must adapt to this.

Conclusion: Why you need multichannel marketing

Multichannel marketing is important for one simple reason: because you need to be where your customers are. And they are everywhere. Customers who shop via multiple channels spend three to four times more than those who only use one channel.

There is no doubt that customers today have much more control over the buying process than marketers. The multitude of available channels allows them to decide for themselves what information they want to receive and how.

Conversely, this means additional opportunities for retailers to reach customers - far more than anyone could have imagined not so long ago. And since the number of channels will continue to increase, multichannel marketing is not a nice-to-have, but a critical success factor for your company.