Cross-Channel Marketing for Retailers: What’s Working and What’s Not

Cross-channel marketing should attract new customers and deepen relationships with the ones you already have. As a marketer in the retail industry, your cross-channel marketing campaigns should create a cohesive, consistent customer experience that feels relevant and seamless. The question is, do you have the right technology and tools to achieve that?

MoEngage surveyed more than 730 brand marketers. The verdict: marketers are struggling to connect the dots in their cross-channel marketing efforts. What’s holding them back? Well, money is the obvious answer. In fact, 45 percent of e-commerce and retail marketers pointed to “budget and resource constraints” as their top barrier to achieving cross-channel marketing success.

However, simply throwing more money at the problem won’t change much. To extract more value from your cross-channel marketing efforts, you need access to high-quality data from all the channels you use, and you need it fast. In short, you need a clear understanding of what’s working and what’s not.

The Champion Channels: Where Retail Marketers Are Winning

Let’s start with what’s working: increasing the number of monthly active users (MAUs). The data shows that 60 percent of e-commerce marketers said they've seen an increase in MAUs over the last 12 months. A robust cross-channel marketing strategy can play a vital role in boosting MAUs.

Which channels are marketers seeing the best results from?

1. Email: 75 percent
2. Social media: 64 percent
3. Desktop Websites: 37 percent
4. SMS/Text Messaging: 28 percent
5. In-App Push Notifications: 19 percent

On average, marketers use five customer engagement channels like the ones above.

Identifying the Barriers

These channels are working, but how well? That’s where things get murky. Thirty-two percent said they “lack clarity” around which channels are performing. Another 35 percent said they need help delivering personalized experiences across channels. Thirty-five percent said they cannot accurately map the customer journey. Thirty-one percent lack access to real-time analytics. Then, there are the data silos (26 percent) created by using multiple channels.

Furthermore, marketers need modern tools and real-time insights. For example, 20 percent admitted to using spreadsheets to analyze data for cross-channel marketing efforts. And another 23 percent cited “unactionable data” as a top barrier.

The Need for Speed

When asked how long it takes to launch a new cross-channel campaign, e-commerce marketers said:

• less than a week (57 percent);
• less than a month (20 percent);
• less than a day (14 percent);
• more than one month (7 percent); and
• less than an hour (2 percent).

Forty-five percent of marketers said they can’t move quickly enough to deliver timely, personalized messages to their customers. It’s unsurprising given they’re using old-fashioned tools and poor-quality data.

Pro Tips

So, what can retail marketers do to address some of these challenges? Here are a few recommendations:

• Invest in artificial intelligence and marketing automation tools. AI has the potential to analyze vast amounts of data, helping you make smarter and faster decisions.
• Focus on tech that eliminates data silos. The goal is to unify all relevant data from various sources and enable your marketing team to work together from a single source of truth.
• Create balance between customer acquisition and retention. Growth is important, but prioritizing customer acquisition over retention is unsustainable, especially given your existing budget and resource constraints.

Once you have a more detailed picture of what’s working and what’s not, you can address your weak areas and turn up the volume on your cross-channel marketing campaigns. That’s where the magic happens. However, the first step is to make sure your technology and tools are up for the job.

Aditya Vempaty is the vice president of marketing for MoEngage, an insights-led customer engagement platform.