5 tips to improve multichannel strategy for your business

In the past year, the lack of free mobility for a majority number of people has caused the use of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, to undergo a strong surge.

According to Forbes, the total number of hours spent in 2020 before a phone screen reached an incredible 1.6 million billion total hours.

To give some perspective of the enormity of this number, a round trip from planet Earth to Mars takes about 10'200 hours, roughly the equivalent of 14 months. Nothing surprising considering that the average user spends most of their day with a smartphone glued in the palm of their hand.

The effect on consumption patterns is tangible and affects all segments of the population across the board. The numbers and industry statistics tell of a real revolution: the total number of users who own a smartphone has reached the threshold of 67 percent of the world's population and 80 percent of these users used their phones to purchase goods at least once during the past year, generating, in the first half of 2020, about 50 billion in online commerce revenue.

On average, the average user spends about a quarter (about 6 hours) of his or her day using a smartphone. As evidence of this, the number of mobile app downloads** has increased by 25 percent over the previous year and is expected to increase a further 45 percent over the next year.

These numbers describe the immense commercial potential of a medium whose use is indispensable for many aspects of our daily lives. Mobile devices represent a channel whose marketing strategy is increasingly crucial to the development of one's business, whatever the target industry.

How to build an integrated multi-channel marketing strategy that makes the most of traffic from mobile and desktop users?

Here are 5 practical tips for optimizing your marketing strategy

1) Leverage geo-location information

Geo-location information** is very valuable data, and it is important for your online channels to use it to make your content and product offerings more relevant.

Creating a channel that can capture this type of data (e.g., mobile application), represents a source of information that in the long run can be a valuable asset useful for the further development of a brand by directing the most suitable people to content that is more relevant to their preferences.

A typical example of a proper use of this information is the localization of textual content in the native language of the visiting user. With a similar logic, dynamic pricing strategies can be applied to best match one's pricing strategy to the target geographic area with respect to the target market one intends to reach.

2) Optimized multimedia content

The content posted by your brand must be consistent with the format and usage patterns of your customers, or potential customers.

For example, the exponential growth of minutes spent on watching a video is now in the public eye, making it the most widely used medium for informational and promotional purposes, with social media being the catalyst for this now irreversible process.

In addition, the enjoyment of video content also has a positive effect on the [conversion rate (https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/03/30/video-for-conversion-rate-optimization) for promotional landing pages and product pages.

However, it is right to be aware of the need for balance in the mix of content offered, and to choose the right channel in which to publish it, planning the user acquisition strategy in the smallest detail in order to make the consumer and/or visitor experience smooth and enjoyable.

In this regard, it is fair to mention the importance of proper SEO optimization to improve the performance of one's web page, whose content, no matter how appealing the proposed format may be, affects performance in search engine result pages in terms of loading speed and ease of use in situations of limited connectivity.

3) Social media and preferences

The number of social media accounts used by a single user is, on average, equal to 8. Each of these platforms, reaches different target audiences, engaging the audience in a unique way compared to competing platforms by focusing on a process of differentiation of the proposed content format.

A striking example of this phenomenon is the parallel between video content in Instagram's "reel" format and TikTok's native video format: two seemingly similar pieces of content, despite being proposed on different platforms, gather preferences and reactions that are often not coincidental - it is not certain that a viral video on TikTok will be as successful if placed in Instagram's imaginary "reel" roll.

In practical terms, it is important for a brand to have a presence on multiple social channels, consistent with its brand values, and meticulously tracking and analyzing interactions with audiences, building tailored market segments from which to gain as much information as possible regarding the engagement of its followers.

4) Multi-channel strategy

A multi-channel strategy, or more generally referred to as, omnichannel, is defined as a strategy inclusive of an approach that exploits synergies among all sales and communication channels consonant with the product and/or services offered by a brand and/or company. Taking an approach that maximizes revenue potential is now an imperative for any brand active in the digital and non-digital marketplace.

As described in the previous point, it is important to manage one's brand presence on social media channels, carefully choosing a balanced mix that prefers the channels best suited to the "tone of voice" adopted by one's company, and the market segment to which it refers.

However, imagining a multi-channel strategy from a marketing funnel perspective, marketing actions on social channels represent advertising stimuli mainly aimed at acquiring new users and stimulating actions from those still undecided about a possible purchase of products and/or services.

It is therefore essential, to identify and diversify acquisition strategies (i.e., use a promotional video rather than a form to fill out to download informational material), carefully choosing the promotional text, and the proposed graphical content, while maintaining one's visual identity and value proposition consistent with the brand positioning with respect to the market segments one intends to reach.

5) Use big data to differentiate marketing strategy

Every consumer is, first and foremost, an individual, with particular preferences and needs (to be met, within an increasingly restricted stage of choice of alternatives).

This is an axiom from which any marketing strategy cannot disregard, in order to best determine its marketing approach with respect to segments that are new or already explored by a company's value proposition, taking into account the behavioral characteristics peculiar to the segment being promoted.

In this regard, here are some classic examples of differentiation in the promotional theme:

Differentiation examples

• Diversify promotional messages between existing customers (recurring) and new potential contacts to be turned into new customers (acquisition).
• Define a different Email marketing strategy and promotions depending on the amount of orders over time, customer loyalty, and behavioral data (e.g., cart abandonment, discount coupons used, content of past orders).
• Diversify the promotional message based on pages visited and products previously purchased.
• Suggest complementary products (based on user preferences) among suggested items within individual product pages.

In order to be able to plan a strategy that has a high probability of intercepting the needs and preferences of a segment that it is intended to stimulate, it is important to have a digital architecture that is receptive to the micro-data (e.g., cookies and metadata) that visitor users generate with each interaction with their sales and communication channels.

Through the analysis of large amounts (e.i. big data) of aggregated micro-data, it is possible to derive valuable insights to optimize the results of one's promotional campaigns.

Knowing how to use this data to build a granularly differentiated marketing strategy with respect to consumer segments within the market in which a company is active is of paramount importance to be able to sustain a stable and lasting increase in the revenue structure, with the goal of making it sustainable of time.

Conclusion

For any doubts, curiosity or further information regarding a Multichannel Strategy for your company, the Fontoso Team is at your complete disposal. Contact us using the appropriate form in the Contact section.