Friday, September 17, 2010

Internet is a real multi channel marketing tool

I have always been taught during my studies that since Internet appeared, multi channel marketing campaigns were the most effective as they were able to reach customers with different approaches, which make the overall communication more efficient.

This is true. Media have different purposes and advantages. You can't design a TV commercial as you would define a direct marketing campaign.
  • TV provides you high exposure, branding potential, and artistic possibilities
  • Radio leads traffic into point of sales, and allow to set the audio print of your brand.
  • Direct marketing gives you the opportunity to reach specific customers segment, and therefore be more precise and establish a stronger relationship.
  • Internet gives you a wide environment to explain and discuss everything about your company and products

Now I'd like to stop with the last of these media: Internet. As a customer relationship management expert, I always refer Internet as one of the most powerful tool, especially now that it is available on mobile devices. I was watching this great video of Loic Lemeur about how to build your brand with social media.




What is very interesting is that he explains emailing is not dead, and that actually it is a strong tool to manage your community. I believe he is right. It is like multi channel marketing campaign: Emailing has some attributes that other social media hasn't.

Emails remain one of the main activity we have in our daily life. It is strongly settled in our life. It is like an information feed which is pretty complete.

But if we look wider than the social media spectrum, you may notice that the whole Internet environment is actually a multi channel space by itself:
  • Brand websites build links between your products and your corporation
  • Social media allow you to have a conversation with your customers, to interact with them.
  • Emails is a great tool to strengthen your relationship with customers by leveraging data to deliver customized messages.
  • Keyword campaigns give you the ability to reach specific segments, and hence to deliver an accurate message.
  • Blog allows you to explain your role and your attributes. It can actually replace at some point public relations.
  • Forum, and other kind of online customer service gives you feedback in order to enhance your customer experience or products.
  • Display ads, if used on a large scale, can look like a mass media campaign
  • Mobile and geolocalization tool can drive traffic in retails.
It is important therefore while considering an Internet strategy to have this idea clear in your mind: You need to make the best of all those different tools. You need to be able to leverage the accurate item upon circumstance. This is the reason why it is so interesting to work on those topics.