No matter what industry you work in, your target audience is probably channel agnostic. That is, they don’t put their faith in any single channel — online, offline, mobile, social. Instead, they put their faith in human interactions that are relevant, accessible when they want information, and positive.
That’s the conclusion that Ian Michiels, chairman of the research advisory board at Gleanster and director of the Marketsphere Marketing group, reported in a recent webinar titled: Connectivity: The Secret to Success in Distributed Marketing Environments.
Edgar Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Distribion, echoed the Gleanster research with his own webinar presentation last week when he reminded attendees at the Drawing the Line Online: Professional vs. Personal Use webinar that:
- Communication with customers isn’t a one-way street
- Empowered customers will have their say
- Social media is an echo chamber
- Echoes become distorted — problems are amplified
- Every market is a buyer’s market
- Prospects can (and do) filter out marketing messages
- Prospects can (and do) initiate and research purchases
Both marketing experts agree that the fragmented marketing communications landscape requires marketers to adopt a multi-channel marketing strategy that engages customers through a wide variety of mediums. And both agree that doing that requires equal attention to back-office operations — that is, marketing management, planning, automation, strategy, and monitoring — and customer facing communications — that is, marketing engagement, messaging, creative, and relevant content (offers, pricing, timing, etc.).
What’s the common thread in back-office operations and customer-facing communication? Identifying where to focus finite human, capital, and technology resources so that all marketing activities are optimized. It’s not always easy — in fact, it’s a balancing act.
In a distributed marketing environment, corporate marketing and field or local marketing take the lead in different aspects of aligning the needs of sales and marketing. Without the right underlying technology, that can make the balancing act even harder. Luckily, the right technology solutions make it simple to manage brand consistency and regulatory compliance while allowing local market personalization and customization.
Would you like to learn more? Contact us today!