Everything You Need to Know About Cross Channel Marketing and The Top 10 Platforms

Is cross channel marketing what’s missing from your business strategy?In today’s mobile world, your customers can interact with your brand in a variety of different ways. From checking their email on their mobile phones to browsing your website to see your newest products -- you need to make sure their experience is seamless.In fact, 87% of customers think brands need to put more effort into providing a seamless experience.That means that sending one-off, inconsistent marketing materials just won’t cut it anymore. You need to take your customer experience to the next level. That’s where cross channel marketing comes in.It’s all about creating a seamless experience for your customers from one platform to another and moving customers through the sales funnel. With the right strategy in place, you can easily increase your engagement and conversion rates -- and provide customers with the experience they are expecting from you.In this article, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about cross channel marketing and give you the rundown on the top 10 platforms you’ll want to consider.Want to skip ahead? Here’s a list of the platforms we’ll discuss:

• Listrak
• Adobe Campaign
• SendPulse
• ActiveDEMAND
• WordStream
• Hubspot
• Percolate
• Autopilot
• Maropost
• Marin Software

What is cross channel marketing?Cross channel marketing is the idea of using all channels and devices to target your customers with the goal of creating one seamless experience. Depending on the goals of your campaign, a cross channel marketing strategy can focus on digital tactics, offline channels, or bring the two together.Here are a few examples of the different channels, both digital and offline, you can integrate into your cross channel marketing mix:

• Email
• SMS and MMS messages
• Social media platforms
• Website traffic
• Print and direct mailers
• Radio and TV advertising

In addition to advertising on multiple outlets, optimizing for multiple devices and mediums is also a big part of cross channel marketing. This means that your messages should be consistent from a laptop, smartphone, TV, billboard, and wherever else your customers may engage with your content.Why is cross channel marketing so important? On average, it takes five to seven touchpoints with a customer before they decide to make a purchase.What makes cross channel marketing different from traditional or multi-channel marketing is that each of these channels works together to create one customer journey. Customer data is collected each step of the way to allow for a more personalized and relevant experience.Benefits of Cross Channel MarketingCross channel marketing can be a beneficial marketing solution for companies of all sizes. Whether you choose to start small or go big with a full cross channel campaign, you should expect to see a variety of different benefits.Increase EngagementThe more present you are on the platforms and devices your customers are using, the more engagement you should expect to see.With all the ads consumers receive every day, it’s easy to get overlooked or toned out. That’s why using one channel to reach your customers just won’t work in today’s competitive marketing world.You need to find ways to stand out and provide your customers with the most relevant experience possible. Cross channel marketing helps you do this by being present where your customers are active and improving personalization across platforms.According to HubSpot, personalized calls to action perform 202% better than basic CTAs.Personalization and relevancy are two very important factors for increasing engagement. Luckily, cross channel marketing strategies can address both of these key points and boost your engagement metrics.Improve Customer LoyaltyWhen you consider that 80% of a brand’s future revenue comes from just 20% of its current customers, improving customer loyalty is a big deal.How does cross channel marketing help you improve customer loyalty? It all goes back to the idea of a seamless experience. By having consistency across all of your platforms and mediums, you’ll improve customer satisfaction which leads to repeat customers.Repeat customers are very valuable for your business because it’s much more cost-effective to retain a customer than it is to convert a prospect. Cross channel marketing will let you reach new prospects, but will also let you continue to grow your loyalty list.Increase ConversionsAn increase in engagement and customer loyalty ultimately brings an increase in conversions.30% higher lifetime customer values are attributed to consumers shopping across multiple channels.We’ve already hit on a few of the ways that cross channel marketing can increase conversions, but it’s important enough to warrant its own callout. That’s because cross channel marketing can, and will, help improve your sales and conversion rates.Here are just a few examples of how cross channel marketing can improve your conversion rates:

• It gets your products in front of your customers more frequently and on multiple channels
• It builds brand awareness and trust with customers
• It improves consistency across platforms for a seamless customer journey
• It helps move customers through the sales funnel
• It increases lifetime customer value

Across the board, cross channel marketing provides you with benefits that will help you increase sales and improve customer experience. And the benefits you see are endless.The Top 10 Cross Channel Marketing PlatformsWhen it comes time to start looking at the different platforms out there, it can be hard to know what one is best for you. It’s important to keep your business needs and keep your goals in mind when talking with different vendors.To help make the process a little bit easier, we’ve pulled together information from 10 cross channel marketing platforms. For each platform, we’ve highlighted a few important capabilities and considerations so you can compare them all in one place. Let’s dive in!1. ListrakUtilize Listrak’s cross channel marketing platform to target your customers with the right message, at the right time while managing all your marketing efforts in one central location.Listrak allows you to manage your cross channel marketing tactics and analyze customer data to improve campaigns and boost engagement. With the help of technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics, you can provide your customers with the most relevant experience possible.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Better understand customers across all platforms and mediums with a unified 360° customer profile
• Manage and integrate email marketing into your cross channel strategy
• Send relevant SMS/MMS messages to mobile devices to reach customers anywhere, anytime
• Leverage customer engagement with your website traffic to predict future customer needs
• Integrate direct mail into your cross channel experience

Key Considerations:

• A great solution for companies of all sizes
• Pricing varies based on your business and marketing needs

“Rainbow wanted to work with a single partner that understood how to maximize the marketing potential of email, SMS, and the web. We found that partner in Listrak.” - Listrak Customer Testimonial2. Adobe CampaignThe Adobe Campaign platform allows you to coordinate all your cross channel marketing needs in one central location.Adobe Campaign is a good solution for companies looking to manage all their cross channel marketing efforts in one central location. From print to digital, you can schedule, track, and manage everything.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Manage your campaign from design to execution across channels
• Build on your customer data by expanding attributes and segmentation
• Ensure all digital and offline tactics align and are working together from one central dashboard
• Take your email marketing to the next level with AI-powered campaigns

Key Considerations:

• A great solution for companies of all sizes
• Pricing varies based on your business and marketing needs, but there are three areas of main considerations: the number of active customer profiles, the number of engagement channels you use, and additional add-ons you’ll want

“The numbers speak for themselves. Adobe has had a tremendous impact on our digital marketing strategy.” - Adobe Campaign Customer Testimonial3. SendPulseSendPulse allows you to easily automate your cross channel efforts to help make the seamless customer experience even easier.Cross channel marketing doesn’t have to take hours out of your time With SendPulse, you can easily manage and track campaign success while improving your process with automation. Set triggers then sit back and watch the platform move customers through your journey.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Manage and maintain delivery channels including email, web push, SMS, and chatbots
• Automate your cross channel experience with their Automation 360 platform
• Easily create trigger emails based on real-time customer interactions and behaviors
• Improve your current tools such as personalization, segmentation, and testing capabilities

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes, but is a great option for small businesses
• Pricing varies based on the number of subscribers you have and can start as low as $6 per month to over $5,000 based on your needs

“I think Sendpulse offers outstanding services/products and support for a very competitive price. I've been having blast with their "email service" product. Integrated A/B testing and automatization made it super easy for me in terms of conversions. I could scale up to 30% within few weeks. I recommend to give it a try and at least get a free version to see how awesome it works.” - SendPulse Customer Testimonial4. ActiveDEMANDActiveDEMAND is an all in one tool that will help you bring many of your everyday efforts into one location, including your cross channel marketing needs.ActiveDEMAND has options for all business sizes and types. This platform will help you easily manage email marketing, on and off-site experiences, and reporting for all your business needs. For companies doing a wide range of marketing and business, this is a great option -- even beyond just your cross channel marketing efforts.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Improve your email marketing with the backing of artificial technology
• Track visitor behaviors to display relevant content across multiple platforms such as social and paid search
• Get more out of your personalization to send customers the right content at the right time
• Create drip campaigns, nurture and score leads, manage live chat, and must more

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes and has multiple options for businesses and agencies
• Pricing is based on your specific business needs, but they have different packages based on your business type

"We have been searching for a platform that is multi-use, a jack of all trades, and we have found it within ActiveDEMAND." - ActiveDEMAND Customer Testimonial5. WordStreamWordStream is designed to help small to mid-sized businesses manage and optimize their cross channel advertising needs.While WordStream focuses on online advertising, it can still be a big part of your cross channel marketing efforts. You can streamline your process and make sure all of your tactics are aligned and consistent across all mediums.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Get customized cross-platform alerts to help you save time and identify areas of optimization
• Create landing pages to bring your cross channel marketing efforts together in one central location
• Maximize the results of your online advertising through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, and Bing
• Track and monitor campaigns with easy to use reporting dashboards

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for small to mid-sized companies and marketing agencies
• There are multiple pricing options based on the timing of the contract, but based on a 12-month plan the two plan options include WordStream Advisor Only for $179 per month and Advisor with Premier Consulting for $428 per month

“This product saves me hours a week in terms of all my ads maintenance (Google Ads, Facebook, and Bing). But above and beyond that, the WordStream team gets 10/10 for customer success. I've never felt that a company was so invested in the success of my company and also my own personal growth as an account manager.” - WordStream Customer Testimonial6.HubSpotHubSpot’s Marketing Hub is a great tool to manage and track your cross channel marketing efforts.Hubspot is a great resource for companies looking to implement and manage cross channel marketing for their digital channels. You can easily integrate your email, social media, and digital advertising efforts to create a seamless experience and move customers through the sales funnel.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Create website content that is aligned with your cross channel efforts
• Improve SEO to drive traffic from one channel to another including social media and digital advertising
• Automate your email, social media, and digital advertising efforts to more effectively reach your customers

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes
• There are multiple pricing options including the Starter plan starting at $40 per month, the Professional plan starting at $800 per month, and the Enterprise plan starting at $3,200 per month

“Since implementing HubSpot's software and inbound marketing methodology, we have grown organic traffic by 450%, and our inbound lead-to-customer conversion rate continues to increase.” - HubSpot Customer Testimonial7. PercolatePercolate can help improve your cross channel marketing by centralizing the content creation process.Percolate is a little different than the other cross channel marketing tools that we’ve discussed. This platform helps improve your cross channel marketing by centralizing content creation and allowing you to ensure everything is aligned and consistent across the board.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Coordinate campaign production through workflows and a centralized dashboard to see all tasks, work in progress, and final assets
• Track and manage the impact of all you’re marketing efforts
• Optimize how your teams work and produce content to create a clear, consistent user experience across all mediums
• Integrate with your other marketing platforms to complete the loop and have a full picture of your customer experience

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for large companies looking to improve content creation process and manage marketing campaigns
• Pricing is based on specific business needs

“Clients praise the comprehensive nature of the Percolate solution and its ability to support their entire content marketing process.” - Percolate Customer Testimonial8. AutopilotAutopilot is a cross channel marketing platform that will let you automate your process and easily reach customers across platforms and mediums and will help you create a more personalized experience based on real-time customer behaviors. With the help of this platform, you can easily build out a more comprehensive customer journey and link tactics across all of your marketing channels.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Improve personalization and segmentation based on customer activity and demographic data
• Automate tasks based on customer engagement to help build a more comprehensive customer journey
• Create and send emails with an easy, drag and drop template editor
• Reach customers across channels including SMS messaging, social media display ads, email, and more

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes
• There are multiple pricing and add-on options available including the Silver plan $49 per month, the Gold plan $149 per month, the Platinum plan $249 per month

“Autopilot’s allowed us to automate the complexity of setting up marketing journeys, so we can focus on building the business.” -- Autopilot Customer Testimonial9. MaropostMaropost will allow you to quickly create personalized customer journeys through automation and data-driven experiences and makes it easy for you to define what customer journey you want your customers to take. Set up automated processes across platforms including, triggered emails, mobile notifications, website links, and more. Then just sit back and watch your customers engage with your process.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Easily create customer journeys with trigger emails, coupon codes, mobile notifications, and more
• Use segmentation and personalization to unify cross channel engagement and provide data-driven content
• Build a consistent experience across multiple mediums including email, mobile, social, and web

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes
• There are three plan options: the Essentials plan that starts at $500 per month, and the Professional and Enterprise plans which are priced based on business needs

“With Maropost, you are doing business with an expert team that cares about each client. You get the best platform with the best service and support — you just can’t beat that.” -- Maropost Customer Testimonial10. Marin SoftwareMarin Software focuses specifically on digital advertising but can help you improve your digital cross channel marketing efforts.Marin Software is a great tool for companies looking to improve their digital cross channel marketing. With a unified dashboard, you can quickly identify what is working and what isn’t on all of your digital advertising efforts. Set specific campaigns based on your audience segments and preferences for the best results.Cross Channel Capabilities:

• Manage and optimize your search campaigns to align with your cross channel strategy
• Get deep cross channel insights through a unified dashboard
• Reach your most important audience segments across channels
• Drive cross channel growth by leveraging key search signals
• Use real customer data to improve your advertising efforts

Key Considerations:

• A good solution for companies of all sizes
• Pricing is based on business needs

“Marin just hasn’t saved us time - it’s delivered outstanding financial results covering its cost many times over. This makes the decision of whether to use it or not a no-brainer.” - Marin Customer TestimonialGetting Started With a Cross Channel Marketing StrategyNow that you know the benefits and a few of the top platforms available for cross channel marketing, the next step is to start developing your strategy. By defining your strategy and goals early on, you’ll have a clear direction and know if your campaign is performing as you expected.To get started, there are a few steps you’ll want to take to lay the groundwork. Let’s take a look at a few things you’ll need to consider when developing your cross channel marketing strategy.Create and Understand Your Customer PersonasMany companies have already taken the time to create and understand their customer personas. If that sounds like your business, this step will just be refreshing and updating what currently exists.But for companies that haven’t already done this exercise, it’s one of the most important steps in building out your marketing strategy. It will help you understand the wants and needs of your customers based on data such as real-time customer behaviors and outside research resources.Here are a few things you’ll want to include in your buyer’s persona:

• Demographics such as age, education, and career details
• Behaviors across platforms and devices
• Previous and potential buying habits
• Preferred communication methods
• Pain points they may be experiencing

Why are buyer personas so important? They help you have a clearer understanding of your customers and provide you with direction on what they expect from your company.90% of companies using personas have been able to create a clearer understanding of their buyers.Skipping this step when creating a cross channel marketing strategy will provide you with a clear view of exactly who your customers are and how you can provide them with the most relevant experience.Identify The Channels You’ll UseThere are tons of options when it comes to integrating your marketing channels into a cross channel strategy.In fact, it can almost be overwhelming to think about how all of your different tactics will come together to create one comprehensive experience. That’s why you should identify what channels you plan to use right away.When doing this, you’ll want to think about what platforms complement each other. By starting with tactics that work well together, you’ll set yourself up for early success. Then, once you have your feet on the ground you can start to integrate a more complex plan.Here are a few examples of channels that work well together:

• Email
• SMS messaging
• Social media
• Digital advertisements
• Mobile push notifications

First, just choose a few channels to get started with. You don’t have to create a big complex campaign right away. Work yourself into it, learn what works and what doesn’t, then start to expand on your efforts over time.Map Out Your Customer JourneyThe next step you’ll want to take is mapping out and understanding what a typical customer journey looks like. Of course, every customer’s journey will look a little bit different, you’ll want to look at the process holistically.Identify ways you can reach customers throughout their journey and across platforms. Having this perspective will allow you to clearly identify areas where you can interact with the customer on multiple platforms to improve the customer experience.Here are a few examples of how you can do this:

• Send abandoned cart emails to customers who didn’t complete a purchase on your website
• Send SMS messages or push notifications to customers who are near your physical store location to encourage them to stop in
• Create remarketing ads that remind customers about a product they were browsing on your website previously

There are a number of different ways to integrate your current efforts into a cross channel strategy. Don’t forget -- you don’t have to go big right away. Choose one tactic mix to get started and build on it from there.

Are you ready to invest in cross channel marketing?

The sooner you get started, the sooner you can start taking advantage of the benefits that come with creating a seamless brand experience. You’ll quickly start to see higher engagement and conversions, simply by putting many of the tactics and channels you are already using together.So now that you know the benefits of cross channel marketing, a few of the top platforms, and how to get started with your own strategy -- what are you waiting for?*This article was sponsored by LISTRAK