Blurred Lines: How to sharpen your focus on your cross channel strategy – Part 2

In part one of this post, I set the stage to discuss the evolving customer journey and the need for a fluid and omnichannel marketing approach. Now, it’s time to put this into action and connect with your audience. Here are some best practices that will ensure that you’ll be in the right place at the right time, right in line with your customer.

Create Brand Consistency

Having consistency across multiple channels is crucial. Your customers can now experience your brand in any number of places: their Facebook newsfeed, Twitter, on Google, direct to your website, etc.

In a new study of 3,000 global shoppers by SDL, 90% of consumers said they expected the customer experience to be consistent across channels and devices. It’s been reported that consumers who notice a disparity between pricing online and offline are likely to abandon their shopping effort and look elsewhere.

Better integration and communication of pricing strategy, stock levels, and messaging can help give the consumer a better experience with your brand. This can be improved by automatically turning your top performing products in search into Facebook ads by leveraging trend signals from inventory systems, identifying performance triggers from search and product ad campaigns, and creating dynamic ad copy and audience targeting. This is how Brazilian e-tailer, Netshoes, automated and scaled product-specific advertising across search and social.

Forge a ‘Consumer-First’ Mobile Strategy

There has been a lot of talk about ‘mobile-first,’ but a more effective way to be thinking about mobile engagement strategy is ‘consumer-first’. To quote Steve Jobs: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back towards the technology, not the other way around.”

The bottom line is that a winning mobile experience focuses on the customer’s needs. Mobile as a channel is going to continue to grow with reports showing that consumers already spend more time on mobile (and mobile apps) than on desktop. So, how can you leverage this channel to better suit the way your consumers interact with your brand?

Mobile and native ads are quickly becoming important factors to audience discovery and retention. The increase in speed and access to inventory through Real-time Bidding (RTB) exchanges and networks allows advertisers to be more selective and reach audiences in real time. Coupled with the engaging and integrated experience created by native channels, this creates a powerful combination for your audience strategy.

A marketer “in” mobile generally means working with, and through, mobile apps. A recent Skai research report showed that paid social spend for mobile app advertisers grew steadily over the second half of 2014, peaking in November and ending the year 234% higher than it started in January, indicating strong and rapid growth in the channel.

The key to mobile app success is not just driving app discovery and installs though. It’s about fueling re-engagement and fostering a long-term relation to grow lifetime value.

In my next post, I’ll share a couple more strategies for cross-channel success in a world of blurry lines.