Christopher Lowe
Jan 25, 2022
Christopher Lowe
Jan 25, 2022
Knowing the precise moment and messaging that will convert a target audience is a marketer’s dream. However, in today’s hyper-social, digital world, pinpointing this vital information can seem hopeless. As a customer traverses the online and offline world, he expects a seamless interaction with the brand; but with multiple channels and data silos, there is always a marketing vacuum that makes it impossible to get a unified picture. This is where cross-channel marketing becomes a powerful tool. In today’s article, we look at some cross-channel marketing use cases to understand the impact of a unified approach.
So, what is cross-channel marketing exactly?
Is cross-channel marketing important?
Cross-channel marketing use cases and examples
Three brands that are nailing cross-channel marketing in 2022
Learning from successful cross-channel marketing use cases.
A cross-channel campaign management tool you can trust.
Put simply, cross-channel marketing combines multiple marketing channels to create connected messaging that can nudge the user to the next step in their buying journey.
Modern buyers research, consolidate information, and shortlist potential purchases using various online and offline mediums before making a buying decision. Today’s shopper experiences a minimum of six touchpoints before making a purchase, compared to pre-digital era interactions of around 2-3 touchpoints.
Apart from this increase in the number of touchpoints, each channel is unique, requiring different strategies to drive visibility, interest, and context. Unified messaging across these touchpoints is important to create a logical progression for the user.
So, an offer on Facebook that was clicked then discontinued needs to be followed up with an email or web push notification reminding the customer of a similar offer. This is a typical example of cross-channel marketing. What takes this unified experience to the next level is the ability to consolidate data from multiple touchpoints, orchestrate personalized journeys, and optimize them based on advanced analytics.
See Insider in Action
Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?
You might wonder why this can’t be achieved with multi-channel marketing.
To understand this, let’s look at some basic differences between the cross channel and multi-channel marketing:
| Multichannel Marketing | Cross-channel Marketing |
| Multiple channels are used in isolation. | Multiple connected channels are leveraged. |
| All channels work independently, sometimes handled by separate teams. | All channels work in harmony to present a cohesive picture and can be handled by a centralized platform. |
| Disparate teams means messaging may vary on different channels. | Consistent messaging and continuity in communication. |
| Data is accessible but is siloed. | Unified data builds strong user personas allowing brands to communicate more effectively. |
| Focused on awareness. | Focused on engagement and conversion. |
| Customer experience might be inconsistent. | Enhanced experience as it is customer-centric. |
The major advantages of cross-channel marketing over multi-channel marketing are the connected ecosystem and customer data synchronization across the networks. These make cross-channel marketing extremely effective.
Let’s look at some statistics to better understand the importance of cross-channel marketing.
Brands using three or more channels enjoy 287% higher purchase rate than single-channel campaigns.
91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide recommendations which are relevant to them.
Cross-channel customers are worth 30% more in lifetime value than single-channel customers
Customers today are impatient and dismissive of run-of-the-mill messaging that is not answering their needs. They want to be shown advertisements that are relevant to them. Similarly, a customer wants to communicate with the brand on a channel that they are comfortable on. For example, they may not write lengthy emails but will send a tweet and expect a resolution.
Not being on multiple channels is no longer an option. If brands can optimize multiple channels and identify the customers they want to leverage, the same multi-channel visibility can be a potent tool for brand evangelism and growth.
How many times have you seen an offer on Facebook and clicked on it, only to land on a generic home page? Did you continue to search for the offer?
Probably not.
This is typical user behavior. In an age of information overload, reaching the customer and converting them is getting harder. Buyers want brands to show them what they want, only when they want it, and for the process to be simple, so they can quickly make a buying decision.
If the marketer can create personalized messages that are visible to the buyer at the right time, this is user-centric cross-channel marketing. Cross Channel Campaign Management can help brands achieve this.
Web, eCommerce personalization, and mobile personalization are possible with cross-channel campaign management. Similarly, rich customer data management tools and predictive technology can help brands build an emotional connection with the user while amplifying the brand experience. Brands today are leveraging these possibilities and creating a niche for themselves in the customer’s mind.
Let’s examine some use cases of cross-channel marketing to explore how brands worldwide are leveraging this approach to maximize customer conversions.
HipVan is a leading online furniture store based in Singapore with a mission to make designer furniture affordable to all. With over 5000 unique designs, HipVan has something for everyone.
HipVan’s earlier product discovery solution was ineffective. The visitors coming from paid ad campaigns like Google Ads were not finding the product that had prompted them to click the ad in the first place, and this resulted in high drop-off rates, not to mention poor conversion on ad spend. HipVan wanted to improve the average session duration and onsite engagement on their website. Other goals included re-engaging the audience to improve customer retention and lifetime value.
A good product recommendation solution was key to solving this problem. Using Insider’s AI-powered recommendations, Smart Recommender, the brand optimized product discovery by showing products based on user behavior. As well as offering personalized recommendations, HipVan also implemented A/B testing to find the best possible scenarios.
Within a month of implementation, HipVan observed a growth in conversation rate of over 6%, resulting in an additional 80 conversions every month.
To re-engage the audience, especially those who hadn’t left their contact details, Insider’s Architect, a cross-channel journey orchestration tool, was implemented. The biggest challenge here was to create customized journeys without coming across as spammy.
Architect was able to craft unique journeys for individual customers and weave different retargeting channels to re-engage customers. Personalized pathways were designed for different stages of the user journey, such as the cart abandonment journey, browse abandonment journey or the welcome journey. Using retargeting channels like web push, emails, and mobile app push to create a cohesive experience, the brand was able to achieve a growth of 46.7% in conversion rates as compared to the site-wide average during Q1 of 2021.
HipVan is now looking at further leveraging Architect to build use cases around customized user journeys, building micro-segments, and narrowing user intent, so as to deliver the best experience for their customers.
Read the HipVan use case leveraging cross-channel marketing
Our next use case is Bremont – a luxury aviation-themed British watchmaker based in England.
As a luxury brand, Bremont wanted to interact with its clients and tell compelling stories in new and interesting ways while leveraging both online and offline mediums. Their earlier tech stack was manual to a large degree and could not support their ambitious client communication strategies which were evolving over time.
To address Bremont’s needs we implemented Architect, an AI-driven customer journey building tool that uses personalization to engage with customers through their preferred channels and at a time that they are most likely to be online. Our aggregate suite of tools helped Bremont leverage their existing customer database and offer insights that could help them better engage their audience.
In simple words, it combined personalization and customer communication – something that Bremont, as a luxury brand, wanted.
Chris Reynolds, Managing Director at Bremont, appreciated the efforts of Insider’s team. “Apart from the tech stack, what makes Insider unique is that they are more than just software or algorithms. They have a very talented team of marketers who focus on customer success and tech support.”
The company was able to communicate effectively in their customers’ chosen medium of communication to highlight products of interest to buyers.
Read the details of Bremont’s cross-channel marketing use case.
Puma is one of the world’s leading sports brands. Headquartered in Germany, Puma wanted to optimize its website in Malaysia and encourage customers to buy from the company website rather than the extended markets. The focus here was on customer acquisition and improving the onsite experience for their customers.
When Puma came to Insider, they were suffering from a few critical issues, namely, low lead collection, low conversion rates despite providing good incentives, and low marketing manpower. They wanted to optimize the website and maximize ROI from the digital space.
The Insider team understood the brand’s requirements and was able to provide support and strategic inputs in creating campaigns that delivered. Puma was using a standard lead-generation template with little success. To improve on this, we recommended implementing a gamification template on the website. So instead of simply asking for email identification, we offered a spin-a-wheel overlay, where a user could win a discount coupon that would be emailed to them after they shared their details. This implementation saw a 231% growth in lead submission rates. Coupon code usage went up by 163%.
The next issue Puma wanted to tackle was encouraging users to make purchases from the company website rather than from external marketplaces.
Insider’s account manager suggested the use of Social Proof on their website. Social Proof messaging created a fear-of-missing-out in consumers by showing information about other shoppers’ purchases on the website, and, together with ‘number of items remaining’ messages, it sped up the decision-making process.
There was a subsequent growth of 10.23% in conversions and an AOV uplift of 5.53%.
Read the full details of Puma’s cross-channel marketing success.
Customers today do not care for deep discounts and random emails. Their inboxes are already overflowing with emails they won’t read, discounts they don’t need, and spam calls they never signed up for. Finding a method to break through this madness will help brands connect with the audience and create meaningful conversations.
In short, the way to success is through relevant conversations that are personalized for each potential customer.
Insider was recently named in the top five marketing platforms by Forrester Wave: Cross-Channel Campaign Management for Q2 2021. The strength of Insider lies in its scalable platform, hyper-localized approach, and wide-ranging array of digital channels. Insider was also named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for personalized engines in July 2021.
The Insider customer data platform has developed innovative and powerful tools to support businesses’ response to future challenges. Mar-Tech today is not just about great software. It is the possibility to effectively pivot marketing communication and strategies based on the customer needs. It is all about the ability to stay customer-centric while being able to scale and target audiences on a global level.
These cross-channel marketing use cases show that success lies in consistency, interactivity, and leveraging diverse messaging systems. When online, offline, traditional, and digital marketing strategies work in sync, brands can maximize opportunities and build loyalty.
For more information and to see what Insider can do for your business, get in touch.
Written by
Christopher Lowe
Christopher has a long history of driving value and creating personalized, omnichannel journeys that enhance customer experience. He's passionate about learning and development and has a keen interest in developing economies, especially ones with a lot of room for digital growth.
