Simplifying Multi-Channel Campaigns

I felt like doing a chart with a neon color today.  Maybe it was watching Hot Tub Time Machine this weekend, and thinking about the 80's.  Unlike John Cusak, I loved that decade.  So here is some solar yellow to brighten your day.

When we think about integrated marketing, the pitch used to be cost savings, because everything looked the same. Everything led with the same creative, and agencies were imaginative in changing the format and the message to fit the channel.  So now the term multi-channel marketing (one would hope it is intended to make more creative opportunities for the team) appears, and I'm seeing duplicity of a concept across different channels.  This is syndication, nothing more.

So how do organizations make multi-channel marketing an effective reality?

Let's start by understanding that brand engagement requires a complete customer trajectory, from being introduced to a brand concept through interacting with that brand to complete a business objective.  To drive brand engagement, we need to start by building upwards (in relation to the neon chart).  Get your platform in place -- be that ecommerce, CRM, community, CMS, or analytics, it is the foundation of your desired customer interactions and business objectives.  On top of platform, build applications -- those interactions we can offer customers that enable them to participate with the brand.  Now, to get customers to interact, build narratives -- compelling brand stories that are destined to be shared and talked about.  To build awareness around those narratives, build an exposure strategy -- identifying the best channels where your audience lives.

Regardless of whether you are tasked with building a social media campaign, activating the viral loop of your community, or driving sales with a direct marketing campaign, focus on these four areas of impact: platform, applications, narratives and exposure.  It is likely that you have a foundation in one or more of them.  The task is to build a customer experience map that exposes any gaps within those four key areas.  Instead of focusing on a point solution (e.g. How do I approach Facebook?), look at the zones of business and build a campaign that effectively connects customer to business.