Cross media marketing is effective

Cross media marketing is where it’s at today. And with good reason. It enables businesses to reach customers through different media, and it makes it easy for them to complete desired conversions in whatever medium they are most comfortable using. As beneficial as this is for companies, it does pose some issues. The biggest issue is that customers and prospects could be anywhere.

That’s why it’s so important to understand and design cross media marketing campaigns in ways that find and convert customers. I hope this edition of Ferrante Speaks helps to shed a bit more light on the subject, and that you’ll be able to put some of what you learn from it to good use.

Audrey Ferrante
Ferrante & Associates, Inc.

What exactly is
cross media marketing?

Cross media marketing is a strategy that presents a compelling, consistent message to target customers via a variety of media or channels over a specified span of time, providing businesses with customer results that can be acted upon at once or in future campaigns.

Cross media marketing stats worth knowing about.

Did you know that cross media marketing customers spend three to four times more than single-channel customers?  That’s because it provides customers with several choices as to how they wish to complete their purchases.

Cross media marketing escorts potential customers towards the sale.  Studies have found that because of this, nearly three-quarters of consumers prefer cross media marketing when being solicited.

A recent report revealed that the most popular cross media marketing combinations are—

• TV/Mobile
• Computer/TV
• Computer/Mobile
• Radio/Mobile
• Computer/Radio

As the number of channels continues to increase, taking advantage of cross media marketing is the best way to reap the rewards.

Here are several more selling channels that are gaining traction—

• Direct Mail featuring personalized URLs (PURLs), which are designed to take recipients to your website, microsite or landing page
• AdWords Pay Per Click (PPC) ad extensions show extra information about your business, improving visibility and the return on your cross media marketing investments
• Television hash tags drive conversions. One study found that TV ads with hash tags had 42% more Tweets about the ads than those that didn’t have them

What do businesses gain from cross media marketing?

They gain a lot more exposure because you get to knock on a lot more doors. And increased exposure means you’ll get more customers and brand recognition.

Customers also get to use their favorite medium with cross media marketing. Remember the statistics I mentioned at the beginning of the newsletter? One stated that nearly three-quarters of consumers prefer cross media marketing when being solicited. And the other asserted that customers spend three to four times more with cross media marketing approaches than with a single-channel method.

Cross media marketing gives you more touch points, which allows you to collect more data. This can help you figure out where your promotions are most effective, so you can better measure their success and make any necessary adjustments to future campaigns and programs.

Cross media marketing is easier to manage than single-shot approaches.  And better management makes it a lot easier to keep your company’s brand more consistent across multiple media.

Cross media marketing works! Here’s more proof from several recent studies—

• Brand awareness is fueled 44% by print and 37% by online media. Incorporate both, and you’re assured of even higher results.
• Marketers report an average improvement of 35% for multi-channel campaigns over single-channel campaigns.
• There’s an average improvement of close to 50% for personalized multi-channel campaigns, which is something that’s easier to do when deploying a cross media marketing strategy.

Another huge benefit of cross media marketing is that it forces you to focus on the customer instead of on the product. Cross media marketing is customer-centric. Once you gain a deeper and more profound understanding of your customers, you’ll possess the information that’s crucial for creating and providing effective cross media marketing campaigns, now and in the future.

Keep the conversation with us going and growing

Thanks for reading this month’s Ferrante Speaks newsletter and learning about how cross media marketing is an effective way to sell.