Most client-side marketers believe cross-channel marketing has multiple benefits for their businesses, a new study has found.
According to research by Econsultancy, produced in association with IBM Marketing Cloud, 77 per cent feel this approach has had a major impact on increasing conversions.
Figures also showed that 75 per cent use sales and revenue figures to measure effectiveness indicating that their goals are in line with the business.
Econsultancy said this means marketers are using cross-channel marketing to increase conversions, which “in turn boosts top-line performance”.
“One example of using cross-channel marketing to improve conversions is by retargeting website visitors with relevant advertising,” the organisation said.
“A consumer may see a product initially on the website but it takes a reminder via display advertising to turn the browser into a customer.”
The study also revealed that cross-channel marketing can help marketers gauge business objectives that are trickier to measure than revenue.
For instance, 57 per cent said cross-channel marketing has had a big effect on enhancing advocacy.
Econsultancy acknowledged that directly associating advocacy to business growth can be difficult.
Nevertheless, it stressed that industry thought leaders “feel that advocacy may be equally, if not more, important to the business than conversions”.
“Using cross-channel marketing to enhance advocacy may be as simple as including social media icons on a website or emails or be as sophisticated as asking happy customers to leave a review on a third-party, industry-specific site,” Econsultancy said.
Another interesting finding of the study was that 54 per cent of marketers feel cross-channel marketing can make a big contribution to customer retention rates.
Econsultancy described this as “encouraging”, before noting that abandoned cart emails are the most common way brands use different channels to improve retention.
“Many marketers also use custom audiences on Google and Facebook to advertise to their existing customer base through search and social advertising,” it said.
Econsultancy went on to stress that while cross-channel marketing is not easy, those who do it well will enjoy good results, in the form of better conversion rates, advocacy and customer retention.
“They will also be head and shoulders above their peers, which is always a worthwhile, if difficult-to-measure, goal,” it added.
However, just six per cent of marketers said they felt they could effectively deliver cross-channel marketing to any great extent, which suggests many brands could be missing opportunities to drive growth.
Three reasons why brands should improve their cross-channel marketing, Econsultancy
