Integrated Multichannel Marketing
Synergy in action
The numbers are eye-opening. Nearly every American – 98% to be exact –owns a television. Over 75% of Americans own a mobile phone. Nearly half – 44% own a smartphone. More than a quarter – 26% of people in the U.S. – own a smartphone, a laptop and a tablet. 278 million Americans are internet users and 212 million of those consider themselves to be active online. We have truly become a nation of multi-channel consumers.
The natural conclusion is that anyone with something to sell should be using multi-channel marketing. If you think about it, there’s really nothing new about that. For decades companies and organizations have used a variety of media to sell product or raise funds. Multi-faceted campaigns that combine direct mail with print, radio and television advertising are hardly groundbreaking.
So, what has changed and why are so many people talking about multi-channel marketing? It’s all about data and integration. The proliferation of digital media and platforms (think email, social media, mobile communication) makes it possible to capture data and leverage it to create a synergy of channel marketing initiatives. Integration, or the effective combination of channels, really does create marketing results where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Integrated multi-channel marketing is smart and sophisticated. More importantly, it has been proven to deliver outstanding results. For those who have yet to jump in, this paper will present the principles of multi-channel marketing and, along the way, provide some practical ideas about how it can be used. For those who are already multi-channel practitioners, you will find useful information to enhance your understanding and improve results.
