Today, retailers are contending with a prolonged period of softened consumer spending, with recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealing retail sales growth hit a two-and-a-half-year low in March 2024. Against this backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty and growing competition from global retail giants, every customer, every interaction and every marketing channel matters for local retailers.
To reach more customers and generate increased revenue, a multichannel marketing strategy is essential. But what is a multichannel marketing strategy? What are its advantages? And what impact can it have as competition increases and economic pressures persist?
Multichannel marketing for multichannel customers
Multichannel marketing enables retailers to connect with customers across diverse channels—such as email, social media, websites, mobile apps, and even physical stores—enhancing customer engagement and loyalty. However, it's about more than simply broadening a retailer's reach; it's about delivering the right message to the right customers at the right time.
Personalised experiences across all channels are essential. Meeting customers where they are with personalised experiences increases conversions, resulting in more sales and revenue. Additionally, a consistent presence across different channels builds stronger brand recognition, while the flexibility to adapt strategies based on channel performance ensures effective marketing efforts, leading to increased customer loyalty, improved ROI, and standing out from the competition.
Features of multichannel marketing
The first, and perhaps most obvious benefit, is reaching customers through multiple marketing channels. By tapping into multiple marketing channels like email, landing pages, digital ads and even apps or marketplaces, retailers can penetrate their market more effectively. After all, different channels are frequented more by different demographics - think Gen Z and TikTok - and the more channels a retailer is present in, the greater audience they can engage with.
Customer data, personalisation
Then, there's the ability to derive actionable insights from vast amounts of customer data, which is essential in enabling retailers to deliver personalised marketing and experiences. Personalisation is the name of the game in 2024. If a business doesn't know its customers, it will struggle to sell to them effectively. Having customer data such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers are the building blocks for an effective multichannel marketing campaign. Having accurate customer data is so important; giving retailers an advantage when it comes to reaching the right customers at the right time in their buying journey.
Targeted marketing campaigns
While every shopper is different, many of them can be grouped based on similar traits and characteristics. A marketable audience - or simply a target audience - should be defined and segmented based on their specific needs or habits. After all, data is only effective if the right message is crafted for the right audience. For example, a retailer wouldn't necessarily target a segment of older shoppers with offers for products popular among Gen Z Australians, like computer games or Taylor Swift merchandise. With multichannel marketing, multiple targeted campaigns can be used to engage with different segments - based on not just age but frequency and value of their purchases - simultaneously.
Automated marketing campaigns
Running multiple targeted campaigns at the same time might sound time-consuming - with time being such a precious resource for business owners - multichannel marketing can be automated. Through marketing automation that set, launch and monitor marketing campaigns with minimal input, retailers can issue their most effective marketing collateral quicker than ever, and focus on other tasks while their automations are engaging with audiences.
Monitoring and analysing
Launching a campaign is one thing, analysing its effectiveness is another thing entirely - and a crucial step in what should be an iterative, constantly evolving marketing process. Understanding the ins and outs of how a campaign fared is crucial to determining how to continue marketing to your target audience. If it worked, double down. If it didn't, think again. Crucially, retailers should analyse campaigns not just in isolation but compared to each other and determine the best approaches for different audiences and different channels.
Improving ROI through data-driven marketing
Today, as business budgets continue to be pushed and consumers continue to be cautious in their spending, retailers are hyper-focused on ROI. Through all of the previously mentioned features, retailers can tap into a data-driven marketing strategy that enables them to improve customer engagement with personalised messages, view customer purchase history for personalised marketing, and customise marketing messages based on sales data.
Through Lightspeed, and recent integrations with the likes of Podium and Mailchimp, retailers can roll out a multichannel marketing strategy that enables them to reach more customers, with more effective communications, on the channels that drive more impact and loyalty. The benefit, ultimately, is a greater chance of maximising brand visibility, increasing awareness and driving greater results across conversions, sales and revenue.
