Traffic, leads, sales—the more you get, the better. Having a singular focus on one marketing strategy can bear fruit but almost always reaches a cap. That’s where multi-channel marketing comes in.
If you want to maximize sales and minimize marketing costs, a multi-channel approach can help you capture customers you may otherwise never reach.
But what is multi-channel marketing, really? And how do you do that while staying organized? Let’s talk about it.
Last but not least, let’s take a look at some different approaches to utilizing multiple marketing channels.
Ahrefs
Here at Ahrefs, everything revolves around the product. And that’s what we share across every channel, no matter what. This photo sums it up:
It’s what we talk about here on the blog with tons of educational content. And it’s what we share on social media:
Even our entire YouTube channel is dedicated to teaching you how to use Ahrefs tools to improve your website:
In other words, we stick to our mission of building the best SEO software on the web—regardless of where we’re promoting it.
Duolingo
Duolingo has one of the most fascinating marketing strategies I’ve ever seen. It forgoes focusing on its product in favor of virality and brand recognition.
Just watch one of its TikTok videos, and you’ll see what I mean:
Any idea what its product does based on that video? Yeah, me neither. But that video got 6.4 million views. Its YouTube channel isn’t much different:
It has extremely strong branding through its Duolingo bird mascot, and it combines that with on-trend humor and virality to build brand awareness. It’s also using all the channels available—social, SEO, email, apps, TV, display ads, and more.
Apple
Apple is the king of branding. It utilizes multi-channel marketing better than almost any company that exists, with global recognition of the famous Apple icon.
Like Ahrefs, Apple’s messaging is focused on the product. But instead of educational content, it generates demand through storytelling and evoking emotions.
It uses far more channels than most, mixing older methods such as TV advertising and billboards with unique approaches like offering its own credit card—plus, of course, the usual digital marketing methods of social media, email, and SEO.
Apple is also one of the best examples of integrated marketing communications and a drive to create one, seamless experience across channels and devices it sells.
Unlike the other examples on this list, it mostly utilizes user-generated content (UGC) on its social channels. Nearly all of its posts are reposts from people who use Apple products.
Final thoughts
Multi-channel marketing helps you to get in front of your customers no matter which channels they use. It’s the only way to maximize your brand’s reach.
The main drawbacks—inconsistency and complexity—can be overcome with proper brand style guidelines and by utilizing marketing automation and task management software.
Questions or comments? Ping me on Twitter.
