What is Cross Channel Marketing, and Why Is It So Important?

In today’s marketplace, cross-channel marketing is more important than ever.

Consumers now expect a personalised shopping experience, and it’s up to each business to deliver on that expectation.

That’s where cross-channel marketing comes in.

What is Cross-Channel Marketing?

Cross-channel marketing combines multiple platforms to create a seamless buying journey for your customers. These platforms can include, but aren’t limited to:

• Email marketing
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• In-store and online promotions
• Social media marketing (both organic and paid)
• Events (both in-person and virtual)

Take Apple as an example. They have physical stores, run strategic social media campaigns, always maintain consistent branding, and offer a sleek, easy-to-navigate website.

Each of these channels delivers the same messaging, ensuring that no matter where their customers are, Apple consistently delivers the same level of service and brand quality.

Why is Cross-Channel Marketing so Important?

Increased Engagement

In today’s modern marketing world, companies compete for consumer attention. Cross-channel marketing creates an emotional connection between customers and brands, and consumers will invest in a company they know and trust.

Customers engage with brands over a variety of channels, so if you want to increase engagement, put your business in front of the customer, rather than waiting for them to find you.

Use hashtags strategically on social media, encourage newsletter sign-ups by offering tailored discounts and offers, and leverage your data to target customers with pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.

Maximised Visibility

Leading on from engagement is maximised visibility. Cross-channel marketing increases the number of times your branding appears in the buying journey.

For example, a customer may research a specific product on Google, and then see a remarketing advertisement on social media. This advert guides them back to the company website, where they find a discount code that they can use on their first purchase.

These touchpoints create a seamless experience for the customer and build familiarity and trust.

Consistent Messaging

Consistent messaging is crucial to cross-channel marketing. Whether you’re updating your website or developing a new content strategy, your core message must remain the same throughout every stage of the customer journey.

Consistency not only builds trust but also ensures that the tone and intent of your marketing are clear, no matter where your customer interacts with your brand.

If your social media promotes your green credentials, but your website doesn’t mention them, it could confuse or create scepticism among customers. This may leave them feeling misled about your brand's authenticity.

Maintaining uniform messaging across all channels reinforces your credibility and fosters a stronger connection with your audience.

Improved Data Collection

Customer data is essential for driving business growth. By analysing this data, you can identify where your customers found you, understand their demographics, and determine which content they engage with the most.

This insight allows you to refine your content marketing, improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and even shape your offline branding.

For example, if your data shows that customers engage more on Facebook and prefer video content, you can create a series of short promotional videos highlighting your products or services.

You can then integrate these videos into your website’s product or service pages, ensuring consistent messaging across all channels and providing a cohesive customer experience.

Increased Return on Investment

Cross-channel marketing maximises your marketing budget by boosting returns across all channels. It creates a consistent, streamlined strategy that aligns with your overall business objectives.

For example, companies with in-house marketing teams often find an overlap when giving credit for a sale. The email marketing team might argue the lead came from a call-to-action in an email campaign, while the social media team might claim that their engaging graphic on Instagram or TikTok was the catalyst.

Cross-channel marketing helps solve this problem by creating a unified approach, and shows how each touchpoint helps contribute to brand loyalty.

To summarise

At Serenity Digital, our clients benefit from the use of our growth services and our expertise in developing brand, marketing and content strategies that are tailored to your specific business needs.

If you need help developing a cross-channel marketing campaign and would like to improve your future strategies, please speak to our team of experts today.

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