This blog was originally published in March 2022.

In today’s fast-paced and competitive business world, targeted marketing strategies are essential in creating brand awareness and elevating sales. However, effective marketing is more than one tactic. A common sense strategy is multichannel marketing—a powerful tool with the potential to drive your business to new heights in today’s complex and evolving landscape. In fact, a 2021 case study notes businesses that use multichannel marketing experience a 3x higher effectiveness rate than those that don’t.

Like any business strategy, multichannel marketing comes with its own set of challenges. These include resource allocation, integration complexities, and the difficulty of accurately measuring marketing performance. However, these obstacles are far from impossible. By leveraging expert advice, adopting best practices, utilizing modern tools (think AI), and focusing on learning, your business can reap the substantial rewards this approach offers.

Understand Multichannel Marketing

Multichannel marketing involves interacting with customers using a combination of indirect and direct communication channels. This strategy departs from traditional marketing, offering a more integrated and customer-centric approach. Its adoption brings numerous benefits, such as amplified brand visibility, enhanced customer engagement, and improved conversion rates. These benefits translate to robust and sustainable growth for businesses.

A strong multichannel marketing strategy incorporates multiple elements—from digital (online) and traditional (offline) channels to social media engagement, email outreach, superior content creation, and data-driven analytics. Channels include websites, email, text, chatbots, social media, thought leadership, storefronts, television, radio, and paid search.

Why does a business need a multichannel marketing approach?

Because today’s consumer seeks information through various sources, businesses need to consider a variety of touchpoints based on their buyer personas. Ask yourself, do you rely on one channel when making a buyer decision?

The answer is resounding “no!”

The Difference Between B2B and B2C Multichannel Marketing

Whether you are a B2B or a B2C company, having a multichannel marketing strategy makes sense and is essential to achieving a positive return on investment (ROI).

The distinction between these two areas is quite simple. B2B marketing sells products and/or services to other businesses, i.e., business owners or management, while B2C marketing sells directly to consumers. In a B2B environment, the sales cycle is longer and less transactional than B2C. Therefore, B2B buyers take more time to decide on the decision-making process.

To create an effective multichannel marketing strategy, start with your buyer personas. Since B2B businesses focus on the owner or management, the marketing channels are likely narrower. For example, a multichannel approach may include LinkedIn (social media), along with a targeted email campaign and landing pages offering case studies or white papers.

Content: The Cornerstone of a Multichannel Marketing Strategy

Within a multichannel marketing strategy, the adage, “Content is King,” certainly rings true. Savvy marketers should always include “thought leadership” as the cornerstone of any multichannel marketing strategy, as potential B2B buyers want to educate themselves before making an inquiry and initiating contact.

Content options can include blogs, white papers, case studies, client testimonials, infographics, videos, etc. Additionally, your feature content should follow the 80/20 rule—meaning 80 percent of the time, and you are informing and educating with the other 20 percent promoting your business. Remember, no one wants to be sold to all the time, and if you spend too much focus on yourself, you will quickly lose the interest of your audience.

The Components of B2B Multichannel Marketing Strategy

 

As the graphic above shows, a multichannel marketing strategy has several components.

  • Website: A well-designed and informative website is crucial for any business as it establishes credibility and communicates quality information to prospects and consumers.
  • Social Media Channels: Encompassing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as others, social media offers a way to personalize your business, interact with audience members, and show you are an active, open, and relevant business. Content should vary from platform to platform, involve B2B advertising (for instance, on LinkedIn), and be consistent—it doesn’t do your business any good to have your social platforms go dark.
  • Blog: Your blog should feature compelling articles that offer a trustworthy voice and include both “at the moment” topics (i.e., industry trends, timely news, and the like) as well as “evergreen” content (i.e., content that never goes out of style and is relevant no matter how much time passes). Blogs can and should feature infographics, link to other internal pages on your website, and provide a strong call to action to inspire a reader to make contact.
  • Mobile: This multichannel marketing component aims to reach audience members on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. It involves sending promotional offers, text messages, push notifications, mobile vanity URLs, and other value-added content.
  • Email Marketing: Research shows that email is a preferred mode of brand marketing and is the glue that keeps a multichannel marketing strategy together.

When approached strategically, these tactics should educate and inform a visitor, showcase your thought leadership and subject matter expertise, and inspire action.

The Current State of Multichannel Marketing

B2B multichannel marketing has evolved in recent years. Consider the following statistics:

  • The multichannel marketing industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.30% by 2030.
  • Statistics show that 52% of marketers use 3 to 4 marketing channels.
  • 84% of marketers use numerous channels in their multichannel campaigns.
  • Email marketing is one of the most used marketing channels, with over 90% of marketers opting for email marketing.
  • Campaigns integrating at least four digital marketing channels are more likely to outperform single or dual-channel campaigns by 300%

The Benefits of Multichannel Marketing

Now that you know what multichannel marketing is and what it entails, let’s look at the benefits.

A multichannel marketing strategy:

  • Builds brand awareness across platforms and expands visibility.
  • Encourages engagement and helps keep your business top of mind.
  • Increases sales opportunities—studies confirm that a prospect needs to see and interact with your brand approximately seven times before making a decision or purchase. In addition, multichannel marketing speeds up the process because there are more touchpoints.
  • Allows you, the business owner or head marketer, to analyze your marketing efforts through a cumulative and comprehensive lens.

Get Started

Are you looking to harness the power of multichannel marketing for your company? As a reputed B2B marketing consulting firm, we provide tailored solutions to grow your business. It’s time to take your business to greater heights. Schedule a consultation with the marketing experts at YGL Enterprises today.

Yvonne Levine, president of YGL Enterprises, Inc., is a strategic marketing consultant who collaborates with B2B businesses to develop and execute successful marketing strategies, branding initiatives, content creation, and digital marketing plans. Her mission is to help companies devise a targeted strategy first, which creates a strong foundation for tactical decisions and drives brand awareness and positive results. Follow Yvonne on LinkedIn.