Why Marketers Haven’t Mastered Multichannel

In a June 2015 study by Lewis PR, 84% of senior marketers worldwide said multichannel marketing was a key focus of their current marketing strategy, and the same percentage intended to increase marketing spending on such campaigns in the coming year. However, marketers may not be getting the support they need to actually implement such efforts, despite recognition from upper levels—86% of respondents said senior leaders at their organizations endorsed multichannel marketing, and 25% were using it because of pressure from the board.

When asked about the biggest challenges to multichannel marketing, nearly a quarter of respondents said they lacked the time and resources to develop and execute multichannel campaigns, and the same percentage struggled to get buy-in at the board level. Similarly, other issues related to a lack of investment in tools needed to manage multichannel campaigns as well as a limited understanding about the process as a whole.

Lewis noted that in order to get investment in the resources needed to overcome such hurdles multichannel campaigns, marketers had to prove the value of their efforts. To do this, measurement and analytics are necessary. However, room for improvement was needed. While 38% measured multichannel campaigns throughout their cycle to continuously identify what was working and refine strategy and channel investment—allowing them to drive the most optimal results—this left more than six in 10 respondents who tracked campaigns throughout the cycle merely for reporting purposes (35%) or evaluated results post-campaign just to report on return on investment (27%).

Lewis found that improvements also had to be made on the integration front. Just 40% of marketers felt that the structure of their marketing and communications teams allowed them to effectively execute integrated multichannel campaigns.

April 2015 research by The Relevancy Group found similar issues in terms of resources, measurement and lack of coordination. When asked about the greatest challenges to developing multichannel campaigns, US marketing executives cited issues with analyzing campaign results across channels, coordinating strategy and marketing across channels and departments, knowing how much effort and spending to put against each channel, and limited staffing and budgets, to name a few.

The Relevancy Group also emphasized the necessity of measurement and attribution marketing technology services to drive multichannel value. Fully 40% of marketing execs said analytical services for developing measurement and attribution models were the most valuable marketing service, and 36% said the same about strategic services that could help optimize campaigns. These tools can do more than help marketers with their measurement issues—they can also free up time and resources by automating processes, help identify the best areas for spending, and allow marketers across an organization to stay on the same page through one unified system.

Courtesy of eMarketer