Why you should adopt a mutli channel marketing strategy
/The recent Facebook / Instagram / WhatsApp downtime has shown us that we are subject to the higher powers and technology that if it stops working, we can’t do anything about. And when it does go down, if we were reliant on sales or leads from them then they just stop. Not putting all your eggs in one basket has never been truer in marketing.
This isn’t new and I’d say in the last year there’s been some of the most significant changes which show just how much technology changes are out of our control and need to adapt to change.
Let’s look at some significant changes in the industry recently;
iOS update - Apple’s latest privacy updates mean that users can opt out of tracking on the app so this data is now longer available to advertisers.
Google algorithm changes in organic search - There’s been quite a few algorithm updates this year; 2 core updates, the page experience update / core web vitals, a page title update and another suspected update at the start of October, so it’s fair to say it’s been a busy time for SEO’s.
Google moving more towards automation - Whilst not something new, the move to more automated strategies within Google Ads are becoming more apparent and for example, soon you won’t be able to get a Google Partner status unless your accounts reach a certain level of their optimisation score…. A score notorious for changes which won’t positively benefit advertisers campaigns.
If you relied on one of these channels for your sales and there’s big changes made overnight - you have to adapt but also should be looking to diversify with a multi channel marketing strategy.
At the same time as digital platforms making marketers jobs harder, peoples buying behaviours have changed. Our attention spans are shorter, there’s more competition & choice, and people don’t just see one advert and decide to buy.
72% of consumers say that they want to connect with brands through multiple digital platforms, and research has shown there are 7 different interactions with a brand on average. But there can be many more...
Data for one of LMc Digital Marketing client’s shows there are lots of instances of over 10 interactions with the brand before deciding to purchase. The below shows 28 different interactions for just one sale using multiple channels; organic search, paid search, affiliate advertising and direct.
The importance of getting in front of people on multiple platforms has never been greater and the clients I see have the most success are the ones that have a strong multi channel approach. But which marketing channels should you be using? Let’s breakdown some below:
Search Engine Marketing
Google (and Bing, don’t forget Bing!) search is huge, no matter what industry you’re in. The latest stats on Google searches are hard to find but there’s trillions of searches and roughly 60,000 searches per second!
There’s two ways to get people to your website from search;
Google Ads - Pay for clicks in an auction against the keywords you bid to appear for with a tailored message for prospective customers.
Pros - Instant visibility, control over what you appear for & how much you spend. Very scalable channel
Cons - Can be very competitive and expensive in some industries
Organic / SEO - The process involved in improving the natural rankings of your website through lots of different tactics and wizardry through on-page content, technical factors & off-page link building
Pros - You don’t pay to appear in the search engine results pages
Cons - Whilst you don’t pay for clicks, you pay in time or money to improve a website. Results are not instant and needs dedication and experience to achieve the best results, particularly for competitive keywords
Social media
Some sources have reported that Facebook has 2.8 billion active users, Instagram 1.4 billion users, TikTok 1 billion active monthly users and LinkedIn has 756 million members. It’s pretty safe to say that whoever your customers are, they’re using social media - and on a regular basis.
Social media provides an incredible platform to shout about what you do, get in front of a relevant audience and help build your brand.
Pros - It’s free to post, creative freedom (and Canva has made social media marketers job much easier) and your audience is likely to be on social media. Going viral, particularly on TikTok and Instagram reels is possible without paying to be there.
Cons - Organic reach is declining across social media so for some channels, you need to pay to be seen more often… which leads me onto….
Paid social media
Reach a much bigger audience (of your choosing) with paying for adverts across different social media channels.
Pros - Huge reach and impressions, generally a cheap-ish channel to advertise on and creative freedom with lots of different ad formats available. Sophisticated targeting methods can be used. It’s pretty scalable too and has a much lower barrier to entry in terms of cost.
Cons - Security challenges like iOS updates, can be competitive in peak times, return on income of paid social not as good as other channels (despite social media platforms generally overreporting on performance).
Email marketing
Often an under-utilised marketing channel used to reach both prospective and existing customers to re-engage, sell and communicate key business messages.
Pros - Relatively low cost, some sophisticated platforms available to use such as Klaviyo, Active Campaign, Mailchimp, high effectiveness to engage with key segments.
Cons - GDPR restrictions with email list, resource and skills are usually the downfall of doing email marketing well (or at all).
Affiliate marketing
An often lesser known and utilised marketing channel but a highly effective channel for ecommerce websites or lead generation. Affiliate marketing in a nutshell is the process in which a website / social media platform promotes a company's services / products and when they buy, the affiliates earns a commission.
Pros - Should be the best performing marketing channel due to the model of paying out on sales / leads (cost per acquisition / CPA) and not on clicks or advertising costs
Cons - Time and labour intensive to get it right, relatively high set up costs to start an affiliate programme
Programmatic / Display Advertising
Display advertising is essentially placing strategic adverts to users. Programmatic uses automated bidding to display advertising inventory in real-time, to show an ad to a specific customer type, in a specific context. It’s some pretty clever technology that as a consumer you probably don’t even realise is being used.
Pros - Can be creative & tell a story with you adverts, can be low cost on the Google Display Network, good at generating brand awareness and to reach a relevant new audience who are not actively searching / looking for you
Cons - Low clickthrough rates and generally lower conversions than other channels due to it being more brand than direct response focused
A final note on display advertising, the costs of this are dependent on whether you use a programmatic display partner.
Offline / traditional marketing
Whilst not a service I talk about too much as a Digital Marketing Consultant, offline more traditional methods of marketing are still so valuable and form part of a brand building exercise. A stronger, more well known brand helps every other marketing channel.
What digital marketing platforms are currently part of your digital strategy? If only 1 or 2 then it could be a great time to reassess.
Thanks for reading! Blog post written by:
Laura McDonald
Digital Marketing Consultant & Agency owner
