Multichannel marketing – a familiar concept to digital marketers, or is it? Read on to discover why channel synergy is essential.
The focus of digital marketing has increasingly shifted towards multichannel marketing. Multichannelism is an effective strategy that can yield significant results but also requires careful planning and monitoring. By utilising various channels, you expand your brand’s visibility and reach your audience wherever they happen to be at any given moment.
You need the right marketing tools to increase sales in a new or existing market or strengthen brand awareness. Social media channels work best when they complement each other. This blog explores the benefits of multichannel marketing in social media advertising, considering multiple social media platforms.
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What are the advantages of multichannel marketing?
In today’s digital landscape, simultaneously leveraging multiple social media channels is a prerequisite for competitiveness. When you incorporate various channels into your strategy, you remain competitive and you are not overly dependent on significant changes or the limitations of a single platform.
Multichannel marketing allows you to reach potential customers across different platforms and expand your audience. You can increase brand visibility, awareness, website traffic, lead generation, and e-commerce sales through social media channels.
Social media channels can be roughly categorised into the stages of the MRACE® model based on where they excel and are cost-effective. While some channel options may be stronger candidates than others due to targeting options and advertising costs, the right channel palette for your business can only be determined through testing.
There are plenty of social media channels – who uses what?
Today, an average individual engages with up to eight different platforms daily. According to the 2023 Digital Life Study, the daily use of multiple social media platforms has become more common over time. WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are popular in Finland and are used weekly. Instagram Reels and TikTok usage, in particular, have grown significantly over the years.
Even in 2022, there was a noticeable trend of increased weekly social media usage, especially with platforms like Instagram, X, TikTok, and Twitch. Regarding channel usage, there are also gender differences, as the study shows that women use WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram more than men. Among men, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn are significantly more commonly used than in the case of women.
Misconceptions about channel choices are not unusual, such as the assumption that advertising on Meta’s platforms is unsuitable for B2B businesses – and that potential customers can only be reached through LinkedIn. However, business decision-makers also use other social media channels and visit them more frequently within the same time frame as LinkedIn.
If you’re already advertising on Meta’s platforms, consider this
Advertising on TikTok is significantly more cost-effective than on Facebook and Instagram, so if you want to reach a new audience efficiently or spread a specific advertising message alongside your current channels, do it on TikTok!
According to a recent TikTok report, Finland already has 1.5 million monthly active users. This means that TikTok can reach a considerable audience in Finland, making it particularly suitable for the early stages of the customer journey. Users spend up to two hours a day watching videos on TikTok, so potential customers have ample opportunity to see your ads among organic content.
Entering TikTok doesn’t require expensive filming projects for your company because the best-performing ads on the platform are “TikToks,” not traditional TikTok ads. Consider using TikTok advertising for product tests, demos, special offers, new launches, or influencer marketing!
Read also: Facebook marketing
If you operate in the B2B field, consider this
LinkedIn is a powerful advertising platform, primarily targeting a specific and limited audience. Compared to other channels, LinkedIn offers superior targeting opportunities, especially in terms of precision and capabilities, especially in B2B business.
However, LinkedIn advertising is relatively expensive compared to other social media channels, with advertising costs being 5–10 times higher than on Meta platforms. Despite its costliness, LinkedIn has proven to be an effective way to reach the right audience due to its targeting precision.
By utilising LinkedIn’s targeting options and high-quality content, you can ensure that you are bringing the right people to your website. Use LinkedIn to reach new customers, and once you’ve brought relevant audiences to your site, use more cost-effective channels like Meta platforms for retargeting.
This way, you can create an efficient marketing machine for social media advertising while optimising advertising costs.
Read more: Linkedin-marketing
Do your products or services relate to home decor, travel, or a specific season? Consider this
In social media advertising, Facebook and Instagram are usually the first platforms to be considered. Although not all platforms have millions of active users, it’s worth testing emerging channels alongside established “mass channels.”
Pinterest advertising is particularly suitable for B2C companies whose products or services are related to home decor, travel, crafts, specific seasons, ideas, inspiration, or other DIY-type activities. Users on Pinterest come to the platform specifically for inspiration rather than searching for particular products or brands, making it an excellent platform for advertising, even with more specific keywords.
Pinterest users are highly engaged with the content they see, with up to 83% making purchases based on the content they’ve seen.
Utilise the Same Content Across Different Channels
Multichannel marketing doesn’t mean you have to create entirely separate and different content for each platform. If you invest time and effort in creating vertical videos for TikTok, be sure to share this video content on Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, and even YouTube Shorts.
You can even adapt the same content for different channels while maintaining brand consistency. Consistency in appearance helps reinforce your brand and make it recognisable on all platforms where you are present. A consistent look also helps remind customers of your brand and keeps them engaged.
Read also: What is content marketing?
Data and Strategy Drive Results
Data-driven decision-making is more straightforward when you can collect data from various channels and analyse what works best for your business at different stages. By comparing other platforms, you can learn which types of content perform best on each platform and can thus allocate resources and efforts effectively.
Not all channels consistently provide a high return on investment. Still, the proper advertisement on the right platform can work exceptionally well in the “act” stage and be crucial in moving potential customers further along the purchase path. Initially, it’s essential to set goals, plan test measures, and clarify what you aim to achieve on specific channels and how success on these channels will be measured.
Focusing on more than one metric may lead to hasty conclusions, such as assuming that one channel is worse because another channel generates more sales or leads. By examining the overall marketing picture, you may realise that one channel complements the other.
Enhance Your Digital Marketing by Adding These
While this blog primarily addresses the benefits of multichannel marketing from the perspective of social media advertising, it’s essential to recognise that social media channels alone may not suffice.
To ensure your message is seen across the board multiple times and in different contexts, consider including Google Ads advertising in your digital marketing channel palette. This way, you can effectively reach the individuals searching for your products or services within Google’s network.
In addition to social media advertising and Google Ads, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing, suitable for both B2C and B2B marketing. Well-targeted and personalised emails enhance your customer experience.
Learn more and read the next blog: Your marketing results depend on your web content