Cross Channel Marketing’s Killer Application
The title of this article is what my work days have recently been consumed with, given my company’s move to branch off from a solid background in mobile marketing campaign management software into the emerging cross channel space. The tide is building for this new marketing concept and you can be assured that by the end of 2010 nearly any software and services company that remotely touches marketing buyers will be touting some kind of cross channel capability.
Unlike multi-channel marketing, cross channel marketing is about orchestration; it already takes as given that multiple customer communication channels exist and attempts to resolve them in such a way that the marketer’s goals are better met. The customer profile remains at the center of the universe, just like multi-channel marketing, but extends to include channel preferences which are employed in the development and execution of marketing campaigns.
As a category, cross channel marketing has existed for several years, but until recently was geared around resolving preferences for direct mail versus email, or receiving offers for a web purchase as opposed to one redeemable in the store. Those are still pertinent cases, but given the explosive growth of mobile and social media, the marketer’s lens has shifted to the question of what to do with all these digital channels.
And so it goes that email software and services companies, CRM software vendors, database marketing companies and others are adapting to this shifting demand curve for technology-enabled marketing. Mobile marketing technology firms such as my company, Interactive Mediums, are doing the same. Thus, my question about the killer application – after all, the fact you can market across channels isn’t so compelling as is how it’s conducted. The value is in the execution.
It’s at this point that it dawned on me that mobile may be THE point from which cross channel marketing will happen most effectively, and I’m not just saying that because my company is taking this approach. So much about marketing “well” is targeting the right message to the right customer. Segmentation and personalization are at the heart of hi-po marketing efforts no matter the channel.
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