When it comes to marketing between each of your channels – regardless if they’re online, offline, direct mail, etc. – cross-channel marketing is something that needs to be in your lead generation strategy. However, it can be tricky to figure out how to approach these multi-channel relationships, especially when you ask yourself the following questions:

• How much money should I set aside for each channel?
• Am I getting the most out of each channel?
• How can I see how they’re doing on platforms like Google, Facebook, etc.?

What Is Cross-Channel Marketing?

“The ultimate goal of cross-channel marketing is to create a consistent, personalized experience across all of your channels,” says Nicholas Pugh, a marketing blogger at Eliteassignmenthelp and Simplegrad. “With 73% of businesses relying on cross-channeling marketing to gain conversions, it’s not surprising to see that this marketing strategy has helped them make all of their channels successful, including online communications and offline communications, as well as in the traditional route of sending direct mail ads to consumers.”

But why not multi-channel marketing, if channels are being looked at, at the same time?

“Both marketing strategies differ, due to their levels of interchangeability,” adds Pugh. “Multi-channel campaigns may have a presence on multiple channels, but prospects will immediately find that the experience isn’t always consistent. Cross-channel marketing, on the other hand, lets channels be interchangeable so that prospects can get enough consistency.”

Just keep in mind that certain strategies work for multiple channels, while others may only need one strategy. In this article, we’ll show you the four steps on creating a strong cross-channel strategy that will make your advertising channels successful.

1. Have a Full-Funnel Paid Strategy

First, look at how platforms like Google, Facebook, and Bing do their advertising. With paid strategies, consider the baseline results that can come from each platform. Despite the complexity, you should still map out the typical cost per conversion for each channel by reviewing analytics and (if needed) averaging out your results. To estimate the performance of offline channels, such as direct mail, consider mail automation software. It can supply you with detailed insight into mail marketing metrics, run A/B testing, and help to include direct mail in a cross-channel marketing strategy.

Once you have a baseline, learn how this standard cost translates to the rest of your funnel, since your baseline costs will tell you what promotions to use for each channel.

Many low-funnel offerings (i.e. specific search queries) will yield higher quality leads for a lower cost; but advertisers would have to expand their paid search efforts to try and scale the channel, causing them to spend more money on an equal or higher-funnel offer. Whereas, the higher funnel offer will generate more leads for a lower cost, while search does the rest in the funnel.

When categorizing your offers into different parts of the funnel, determine the level of intent that each provides, when generating revenue from the user. Then, you’ll know how much to spend on ad campaigns.

2. Track and Report Results

Tracking your results from each channel is essential. Although you might consider using Google Analytics, it’s not necessary for all scenarios. Note that offline interactions are tracked differently.

However, you should still measure the landing page performance for each channel, since that’s used to collect leads.

Google Analytics can be used to set up goals and track UTM that’s specific to your channel and marketing goals. Just take the landing page that you’re using for each promotion, and make UTMs to attach to the end of the URL.

Here are some key areas to consider when comparing promotions within channels:

·       Conversion rates tell you how ads are converted against a particular audience or ad group. This helps you spot any low conversion rates that are problematic in your ad/promotion or targeting.

·       Landing page conversion rates form when you use identical but separate landing pages for the same promotions across channels.

·       Cost per conversion lets you calculate new customer acquisition costs from all lead gen efforts.

·       Lead Quality relies on your internal system for interacting with leads. You can even filter out junk, so that you can get a true acquisition cost, while gaining active leads.

3. Know What’s Best for Your Budget

“As much as we want to have an unlimited budget to test various strategies for our campaigns, it’s not possible,” says Harvey Potts, a tech writer at Uk Writings and Bestbritishessays. “So, with a limited budget, you’ll need to prioritize what you try out in promotions.”

Test your campaigns with either paid social and paid search. However, to determine which marketing option will best suit your campaign, consider the general strategy behind each platform.

·       Paid Social is a push marketing option that has you “push” promotions to people on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) because some targeted audiences might not know who you are and what your business is.

On a limited budget, remarket to users who have already visited your website. As you use remarketing, that will eventually introduce you to newer customers.

·       Paid Search is a pull marketing option. When users search for something on Google or Bing based on specific keywords related to a product or service, you’re essential “pulling” leads in by capitalizing on their intent. In fact, some keywords and search queries garner more popularity than others, depending on your industry.

·       There’s also direct mail, a highly effective campaign strategy that lets you get your ad out directly to local people who are interested in your product or service. Since direct mail has much better response rates than digital channels, it’s used to get in touch with potential leads that ignore online communications. It also feels more personalized and can boost any stage of the conversion funnel, not just lead generation.

On a limited budget, narrow your campaigns down to the most relevant and important keywords related to your product/service.

4. Be Able to Measure the Conversion-To-Sale Cycle

The conversion-to-sale cycle can be the most difficult metric to measure (especially if you’re a smaller business). Therefore, it’s important to track your leads from conversion, during the funnel stage, and all the way to sales – you can do so by having an internal infrastructure that will track leads for you. As you use this data to your advantage, you’ll know which channel – whether Paid Social, remarketing, Paid Search, or direct mail – has the best conversion-to-sale, and how long it takes each channel to turn a lead into a customer.

Although this process will be different for every business, it’s still important to have a sales cycle that helps you make the most sense of scale.

Conclusion

When building an effective cross-channel strategy, make sure that the foundation of your marketing operations is efficient. And, with these tips and tricks, your company will be able to not only use multiple channels to reach prospects and increase conversions, but also give visitors a consistent experience on any channel of their choosing.

To learn more about the use of automated direct mail, follow our blog or contact us for a talk.Beatrix Potter writes and edits for Big Assignments and Write My Paper. She is also a manager at Top assignment writing services in New South Wales. As a writer, she specializes in topics on hiking and traveling.