The customer sits in the driver’s seat in the world of modern marketing. They dictate when and on what channel marketers interact with them. In a 2020 report, PWC fond that the number of businesses investing in omnichannel strategies had jumped from 20 to over 80%.This means marketers are tasked with crafting a cross-channel marketing strategy to keep up with customers.
Content plays an integral role in it, as marketers use content to intrigue and offer value at each touchpoint along a cross-channel marketing journey.
However, you can’t create the same content for every channel. You must write differently for an email than you would for social media. An ebook would differ greatly from an infographic. White papers and blogs strive for much different tones, and a video script requires greater attention to pacing and timing than either. Mobile also comes with its own requirements, as the content is even more concise, punchy, and impactful. 57% of customers say, in fact, that they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed site on mobile. However, while a strong mobile site is important, marketers should strive to create strong and insightful content for all the channels they use.
A customer demands a consistent experience across channels. Any disjointedness might make them drop off from their customer journey and give another brand an opportunity to capture their attention.
How can you achieve this with content that spans different channels?
Aim for these four keys in your cross-channel content marketing strategy to deliver a consistent experience regardless of where a customer comes across your content:
- Similar look, feel, and branding
Regardless of the channel a customer is on, the content they interact with should have a look and feel that is similar to the rest of your content. Your brand should extend across channels and provide consistency in design and tone, so that your content always has a similar feel to it.
- Unified messaging
Just as your branding should extend across channels, you should unify your messaging across them, too. Each channel might require a different type of content, but the message stays the same of how you can provide helpful solutions to a customer’s problems and how you can answer the questions that plague their businesses. How you deliver this message might change, but the message still informs all of your content, regardless of whether it’s social, mobile, an email, on the web, or another channel. Your messaging and branding help define who you are as a business, and when engaging a customer in a conversation, you can’t forget your identity and expect to serve that customer in a satisfying way.
- Using different types of content and channels to their fullest advantage
The tone of a social media post aims to be more lighthearted in tone than say that of a thought leadership piece. Infographics and videos are more visual than most other forms of content. Different forms of content require different lengths. Blogs and ebooks are longer and more detailed than a social post or most emails, and an email or website optimized for mobile strives to be punchy and even more concise with its copy in order to provide an easy-to-digest experience.
If your branding and messaging remain on point, however, you should feel free to use different types of content for different reasons. Some customers might prefer a more visual experience, so that’s where a video or infographic might come in. If a customer wants a more detailed explanation and a deeper dive into marketing trends, an ebook would be more appropriate. Tones can vary in emails depending on their subject matter. Sometimes, experimenting with content styles and tones strikes different chords with customers.
- Simplicity and clarity
Your content across all channels should deliver the best experience possible. This involves making the information presented as digestible and understandable as you can. Aim to make your content as simple and uncomplicated in design and layout. The copy should clearly communicate the message and value being conveyed, which calls for sharp, concise writing that evokes emotion in customers and tells an effective story.
Try not to complicate the cross-channel journey. Don’t try to direct a customer to too many other channels. Engage with them on the ones they prefer and win them over rather than pushing them to one channel too many or one they’re not as interested in.
For more information about cross-channel marketing, content marketing, and a content strategy, please look at:
- Oracle Responsys
- 7 Rules of Thumb for Content Marketers When Writing Content
- How to Craft a Winning Content Strategy
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