Chasing perfect performance for each channel can pull marketing and communications in different directions. Shifting opinions depends on joining the dots and keeping the narrative steady, while letting each channel shine. 1440’s Robin Grainger discusses.
Is the quest for multichannel excellence undermining marketing? All too often, it seems email, paid, social, and earned channels pull in different directions. At best, that’s inefficient. At worst, it could confuse the target customer.
The corporate site and editorial media might focus on the campaign du jour. Paid search and social might focus on something else. Meanwhile, the email campaign might talk about something else again. It may be as though each channel is talking to a different audience.
But that can’t be right: surely everyone in the business understands who its customers are, and what they need to hear. Shouldn’t everything pull in the same direction?
The perils of channel surfing
The problem is that for a lot of marketing and communication, channel-specific performance measures have come to trump broader coordinated messaging goals. In other words, the metrics may be forcing the campaign to fragment, rather than tying it all together.
The PR campaign which generates lots of media headlines that barely gets a mention during sales calls. The email blast which does the numbers in terms of engagement, but whose messaging is identical to the competition.
The net effect on audiences isn’t a clear, consistent narrative so much as white noise. Rather than encouraging people to see the world differently, it prompts them to tune out altogether.
People don’t gravitate to one channel, but experience them all. They search, read, scroll, talk to peers (and, indeed, to AIs). Building an overall perception that sticks, and changing opinions in the process. This demands consistency, whatever the data may show.
This doesn’t mean bashing every piece of content and every channel into the same shape. Experimentation, playfulness, and agility are crucial, so long as they’re in service of the overall objective. The direction of travel should be clear.
From noise to signal
It’s difficult to have that clarity, though, when you’re in the trenches. There are always more pressing issues to deal with. It’s nigh-on impossible to find headspace to plan properly when the workday is filled with Teams calls.
That’s when seasoned eyes and minds can help.
Doggedly asking simple questions about audiences and messaging.
Keeping that sense of purpose and a clear focus on the end goal.
Thinking creatively about form and function – solving for the needs of each channel, and the goals of the business, at the same time.
Acting as a sounding-board for internal teams, bringing a patient (and sympathetic) ear, helping to reframe problems and think creatively about solutions.
Focus on what matters
It’s tempting to see how multichannel marketing today has consigned to history the old adage: “I know half my budget is wasted, but I don’t know which half.”
Or, it could be that the focus on the numbers has diverted attention from what matters most: great marketing isn’t just about clicks. It’s about changing minds.
Talk to us about evolving your communications from background noise to “must-see”.