When we deal with our client’s needs, we usually dedicate our time to cross-channel communication strategy. Since we live in an aggregated world with several media channels to reach the same users, we must use it to our benefit.
It has proven to be one of the most successful tactics, and if you’ve taken care of your databases, both mobile and email, there’s a 99% chance that this will almost double your revenue. Give it a try and let us know the results.
Here are the single steps to do it effectively:
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Command and Conquer your Cross-Channel Campaign
Draw it in the sketch board and make a pipeline of events to the desired objective. Let’s say that you want people to go to your stores on a particular weekday and empty your last stock of products before the new collection.
Having this objective in mind, you must act like a Commander in battle and place your armies in the best spots to achieve that result. Your armies, in this case, represent your tactics and media to get the word out through a cross-channel strategy.
Taking the same example above, you can start by creating a great name for this campaign that will tease people to know more. Then you launch a few days before a series of communication indicating that something great will happen for them on a determined date. It will make people aware of that date in particular and expect something to happen, and maybe some will even reserve that day for what it comes.
If you have the habit of surprising your clients with great news they will definitely believe you when you say that you’re going to deliver something good. See what happens when Apple schedules a day to launch a new product. You want that to your brand, right?
Divide and Conquer
Don’t assume or place the same message in your different media channels as a cross-channel strategy. Every single one of them is different with distinct purposes. So deal with them in a complementary way to make your message gets the impact it deserves. Even mobile is so much more than an SMS, you know?
As every media is different, each has a design for another purpose in your cross-channel methodology.
Let’s make a short example to make things more clear for you.
A department store is about to receive a new collection and wants to get rid of the last one. So, it starts by teasing their customers through email a few days before, claiming that a great treat is reserved just for the major fans of the brand and the lucky ones that are registered to their lists, both mobile, email or even letter.
If you’re contacting them through email, insert ways for people to subscribe to mobile notifications or by letter as well to not lose chances like this in the future. It’s a nice way to keep your database fresh and updated making it more profitable since it’s cross-channel strategy. If you’re reaching out by SMS or mobile device, create the same chances to subscribe in a customised landing-page for it. The letter can have similar methods to convert.
Handling the following messages should have the same focus. Always differentiate the message and the different objectives according to your channel. The only common things you must keep are your brands’ tone of voice, the global campaign focus and the sense of exclusivity. Remember, you’re not doing this to all of your audience. You’re rewarding the people that are on your lists. That’s the real benefit.
Coordinate for a complete hand-in-hand strategy of cross-channel engagement. The email sends a teaser blast, the SMS sends an alert and so on. But all can and should be two-way communication. Be aware that people might want to respond to the message itself, and you should make sure that your platforms can handle a two-way communication with real senders to receive the message and act accordingly.
Start Your Week With Insights 💡
Drop Down the Blitz —But Gently!
Now is the time to break the news through all channels. But be gentle concerning your customer and the channel you use. You can create alerts like this that went well for one of our customers through SMS: “Have you received Today’s Special Deal email? If not, go here >.”
It had a link for a copy of the message sent with more interaction capability like sharing tools and particular reference to friend buttons since it was on a webpage and not the actual email sent out. We obviously sent that a few hours after the email blast.
You must consider channel timings. For instance, in a blast of a few thousand emails it takes a few more minutes to send than a few hundreds. So schedule the mobile messages considering that delay. The same you must consider if you’re sending a mobile message in a more congestion time period like special holidays and the such and it can take a bit more than in regular days.
How can you give the offer to the right people on a regular day at the store? Well, each business is different, but there’s an almost infinite way to pick and identify who are the ones that subscribed to your lists. One of the most common is a print of a voucher. Other can be a single barcode or QR Code. Another can be the ID notification directly to a central database that the store can access—a simple client card, for instance.
If we’re talking about a digital product or a service, it can be even easier since you do it through special link codes and Analytics. The idea is to keep your trusted customers rewarded by being registered to your brand communication.
After the offer expires, you can open it to the public since the treatment was a different approach and consideration. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to tell your regular customers that if they had already subscribed to your lists, they could enjoy that special deal and get the products sooner and with more choice of size, colours, etc. It will make them subscribe to the next opportunity.
Collect the Spoils
The engagement rate for this action usually brings quite a large group of customers to the stores on not so regular busy days. You have also increased your database by an almost 2 figure percentage growth and created a more loyal customer database that will crave for the next opportunity.
In digital products or software as a service, these rates can take a massive growth in revenue since you can add this strategy into more channels like a previous notification of a goodie through affiliate marketing or guest posting. Just make sure that you’re analysing your cross-channel right.
The opportunities are endless. Just pay attention to the natural positioning of your brand and way of conduct. Each brand is different and should not copy the same methods from another case study. But this can be helpful to you as a guide and check some ideas.
Treat the Wounded
It is time to look into your metrics and campaign results carefully. See what has worked worse than predicted, what went better. Figure why that happened and assimilate for future actions.
We can learn more from our mistakes than from the wins. If you take that to your advantage the future actions you make can be really awesome and achieve unbelievable results. But you must identify your key metrics and really dig into your Analytics for every channel.
Each channel has variables and success rates significantly different from each other. So what can be a tremendous key achievement for a mobile campaign can be, on the other hand, less interesting for your global objective.
Contribute, if possible, with some of your experience in cross-channel for the community’s sake. What’re your thoughts on this subject? Have you done something similar?