Using innovative cross-channel marketing to reach the right audience regardless of channel and tradition
It’s fair to say that not all products have the same intrinsic marketing appeal. As marketers, we don’t all have the luxury of selling something that absolutely everyone wants or needs.
Similarly, some products just aren’t ideally suited to an e-commerce environment. Social media is a classic example – how do you attract the attention of social networks users with products that may not be the most interesting? Or have the widest appeal?
As with every type of marketing, it all comes down to getting your adverts and product offerings in front of the right people. Every product has an audience. Everything has a demand, somewhere. It all comes down to knowing your audience and having the means to accurately reach them.
This is what makes many brands write off social media as an applicable channel and marketplace for their straight-laced products. Why would someone chatting with their friends on Facebook suddenly want to buy a house, a fridge or a car? It could be something a brand has dabbled with but dropped after initial test campaigns proved less than successful.
This is because using social media as a separate channel doesn’t necessarily narrow your audience sufficiently. Yes, most advertising platforms allow you to select your audience (based on likes, profiles, location, hashtags etc.) and for many brands this is sufficient. But what happens if you dig even deeper and define your audience further than platform usability allows? This way brands that may not have success can turn a profit and others can transform a steady return into a roaring success.
The best approach is to start with data and use a cross-channel rather than individual channel approach. The easiest way to explain further is to refer to a recent case study which saw an energy saving expert (which sells and installs boilers and solar panels) experience significant success over email and Facebook.
The Mark Group is a leading installer of renewable energy technologies which was looking for new sources of customers and wanted to trial new channels, including Facebook and email marketing.
Using its data expertise and ability to implement cross-channel campaigns, Experian Marketing Services enhanced Mark Group’s data and created a profile of the ideal audience (i.e. people more likely to want/need a boiler or solar panels. The cross-channel strategy then entailed reaching out to these potential customers using both email and Facebook advertising (and here’s the key) working in conjunction.
The results were remarkable. The unique open rate for the email campaign was 59% higher than the average for an email campaign and the addition of Facebook increased overall leads by 28% and raised traffic to the Mark Group’s website by 315%.
The results this case study displays shows just how effective cross-channel approach can be (full case study available here) even for brands that may not instantly think they have an opportunity on social media.
The right approach and the correct use of data means anything is possible…
As is shown in the Mark Group example, it’s all about finding the right audience for your product or service, no matter how specific. If you enrich your data it creates a much stronger picture of your customers and allows the use of a cross-channel strategy to increase the likelihood of getting positive responses.
Such a thorough approach results in accurate customer targeting which allows products with really specific customers (e.g. those that need a boiler) to be seen by the relevant people. Using the cross-channel approach products you wouldn’t have thought have a place on Facebook can experience great success.
It’s also better from the customers’ perspective. After all, rather than putting adverts in front of a broad and less relevant audience (and not getting many click throughs) brands can limit the people who see it to those who are more likely to be interested in what they’re offering. It diminishes the ‘spammy’ element of irrelevant advertising and improves the overall experience for both the customer and wider social media users.
Check out these other articles on cross-channel marketing.
What are your thoughts? Have you considered the ways cross channel marketing could open up previously limited channels? Do you disagree with the contents of this article? Leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you.
Experian Marketing Services is a leading global provider of consumer insights, targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing. We help organisations intelligently interact with today’s empowered and hyper-connected consumers.
By helping marketers identify their best customers, find more of them, and then coordinate seamless and intelligent interactions across the most appropriate channels, Experian Marketing Services’ clients can deepen customer loyalty, strengthen brand advocacy and maximise profits.