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Automate Your Customer Journey With Multichannel Marketing

Automate Your Customer Journey With Multichannel Marketing

Nowadays the digitization of the customer journey has really changed consumer behavior and expectations. And following the multiplication of channels and the fact that customers are solicited from all sides, the customer journey has also become more complex. It would be wrong to think of it as a well-defined, linear journey. In reality, it is fragmented and unpredictable. It is vital that you understand how complex the customer journey has become and adapt to this new context.

What Is Multi-Channel Marketing ?

Multi-channel Marketing refers to the strategy of interacting with prospects and customers accross many channels throughout their customer journey (online and offline). A channel can be an email, a sms, a website, a retail store, an event, an app, etc... But more important the choice of the channel depends on the customer’s preference.

Today, consumers have access to multiple devices (computers, tablets, smartphones and even voice assistants) and use different channels (online or offline) where they expect their favorite brands to be.

Multi-channel marketing improves customer experience and satisfaction and, as a result, strengthens customer loyalty.

What Is Multi-Channel Marketing ?

How to Launch a Successful Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy ?

Identify your personae

Who are they? (age, sex, job). How did they find your site (recommendations, social networks, advertisements)? What do they expect from visiting your site (e.g. latest product news, client testimonials, upcoming events)? What are their pain points? (e.g. support, competitive prices), etc. This will help you personalize content in order to meet the expectations of your readers and potential clients. Of course, this content strategy takes time and also relies on proper SEO: work on the internal links of your articles to reinforce their coherence and encourage sharing on social networks. Feel free to create a content calendar to you encourage yourself to write and feed your blog with regular content. You can also automate your newsletter mailings to remind your clients of your brand.

Define your customer journey

There is no such thing as one single customer journey. The nature of your customer base or company dictates the customer journey. Though, here are the 5 big phases we usually identify:

1

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Awareness

This is the phase in which the customer becomes aware of a need or a problem and starts looking at the existing solutions. Your visitors must easily find you so you need to put in place an adapted SEO strategy. Nowadays 72% of all customers rely on Google for this. In a brick and mortar shop, you must attract them and make them want to enter. You won’t have a second chance to make a good first impression.

2

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Consideration

The phase in which the customer evaluates all the existing solutions/services on the market. Consumers then compare and analyze the offers. It is crucial that you offer your visitors the best possible user experience, both on the web or in the physical POS. You must convince them that your product or service is adapted to their needs.

3

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Decision

The phase in which the customer makes a purchase and you welcome a new customer. A new relationship is established. During this phase, you must reassure and inform your customer, informing them about how to create an account, the transaction and the delivery. You must focus on service and follow-up, to ensure the customer does not feel “abandoned”. Instead you need to focus on preparing the next phases, namely recommendation and loyalty.

Always remember that the decision phase can be interrupted if the experience is less than optimal or if the prospect is undecided. So remind customers about abandoned shopping carts, as soon as possible. In many cases, 72% of visitors order within 12 hours. Don’t just send a reminder, also offer them a discount that is limited in time. But don’t do this in your first e-mail. Remember this reminder because it can be quite lucrative!

4

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Recommendation

The phase in which you create a customer community. Your customers will become your best ambassadors, sharing their opinions and experience. Here you must develop a feeling of brand belonging. Your customer must feel that you are listening to him, that he is recognized. In return, he will want to discuss you with friends and family. Nowadays reviews help you sell. According to a study by IPerceptions, 63% of all customers are more inclined to buy from a site that contains user reviews.

Negative reviews are always a risk of course but you could also see them as an opportunity to improve your product or service, to offer disappointed customers a better experience and create a more positive image with customers who are just discovering you.

5

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Loyalty

This is the cross-sell and up-sell phase. You need to work on building long-term customer loyalty because as you know all too well, a loyal customer’s average shopping cart will contain more than that of a new customer. Loyalty is also an important way of getting to know your customer better, finding out more about his consumer habits, behaviors and reactions. It also allows you to send your customer more personalized messages. A message to wish him or his child a happy birthday is more likely to be opened than an impersonal message.

 

Create personalised messaging for your persona

Let’s put first names aside. Personalization in your campaigns comes down to more than this simple piece of content. The timing of when you send, the images you used, the message you deliver can all be personalised with the right data and the right technology in place to put it into action.

Personalization in messaging starts with putting your customer at the center; to meet their needs, reassure them and show your care. You’ll be able to see your successes with an increase to your click through rate, click to conversion rate and campaign traffic.

Here are 5 personalization examples from our Actito team to get you thinking:

  • Switch your hero image based on preferences, lifestage or recent purchase category.

  • Show you’ve been listening and personalize with information they’ve provided on their pets or their favourite band etc.

  • Acknowledge milestones like first Click & Collect order, birthday or loyalty offer qualification by activating a scenario campaign in that moment.

  • Customise the products shown based on their favourite shopping category, choice of computer type or dietary preferences.

  • Change how you message that new product release offer based on whether they are part of your ‘early adopters’ or ‘bargain hunters’ segment.

Choose the channels you want to target

Good customer knowledge allows you to identify your customer’s preferred channel and anticipate their needs. Thanks to a marketing automation solution, you can be present at each key moment of their journey.

To get the most out of each channel, it’s good to know the advantages and disadvantages of each channel:

EMAIL EMAIL Background

EMAIL

Email remains "one of the best techniques for engaging audiences" (Dave Chaffey) . An email allows you to talk to your audience in more detail than with SMS. To personalize your email communications use conditional content, based on purchasing behaviour or contextual data (like geo-location or climate) for example.

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SMS

97% of text messages sent are read (SMSmode study, February 2020). However it’s more expensive than email. Use SMS to quick updates to your audience (new opening hours, new delivery terms, exceptional promotions etc). Personalise your text message or insert a short URL that goes to a personalized landing page.

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PUSH

Push is useful for sending short, contextual or local information to your targets. They can be particularly interesting for managing micro-moments as they deliver concise and relevant content in an application or website.

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MOBILE WALLET

An interesting trend, mobile wallet is installed natively on iOS and deployed for Android through major Google campaigns. In one click, the contact adds a pass to their wallet to receive notifications on their mobile – like coupons, tickets, click-and-collect info etc.

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PRINT

Print is more traditional, but in an era when digital communication is omnipresent it’s tangible nature keeps it relevant and it often comes with a perception of higher quality.

Measure attribution

The goal of attribution is to help marketers understand what marketing actions and touchpoints generate revenue and conversion. Run some test&learn or A/B tests to produce better campaigns that are adapted to each of your targets and the channels they prefer.

A picture's worth a thousand words

We have prepared an infographic that summarizes the information. Do not hesitate to take a look!

A picture's worth a thousand words

About the author

Img_Article_Thumb_Isa_2021_FR-FR_Digit

Isabelle Henry

Head of Inbound and Growth

Always on the lookout for new skills and always ready to launch new marketing projects at Actito, I rely on my personal experiences but also on everything that is happening in the digital world to continue to learn, educate and share with you through inspiring content. My little extras? Video editing and photography!