The Only Sane, Super-Productive, And Uber-Effective Marketing Strategy Left

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“15 years ago the average consumer typically used two touch-points when buying an item and only 7% regularly used more than four. Today consumers use an average of almost six touch-points with nearly 50% regularly using more than four.” –KnexusGroup, “Omnichannel Stats You Don’t Want To Miss”

If you follow the history of baseball at all, you might know that Bill James, the father of baseball statistics, originally tapped into his first audience through a small announcement made in a baseball magazine.

Quaint.

There was a time when that basic model worked: use one format or tool exclusively and watch the attention increase and the money roll in. In marketing and advertising, we call that the old “Command and Control” era, the epoch when catchy jingles, cute mascots, and funny phrases made unbelievable amounts of cash. That time has passed.

Why Multichannel Marketing Strategy Is The Only One Worth Adopting

“Priceline [now Bookings Holdings] CEO Glenn Fogel said the company is always experimenting and changing its marketing spending and trying to find the best return”

– TheFly.com, “Priceline Ceo Says ‘Always Experimenting’ With Marketing Plans”

If the person in charge of a multibillion dollar company, essentially says, “we’re still figuring this thing out,” how can the rest of us pretend any different?

“Rather than focus on a single silver lead bullet, understand that B2B lead generation is a composite of unquantifiable activities and behaviors that just work.” – CrazyEgg,“The Truth About B2B Lead Gen”

It is because our time has its own stories. If you have read your decent amount of marketing history, you have likely learned about
-The guru who happened to create an empire with explainer videos.
-The sage who fell into internet stardom after publishing an ebook.
-The genius who launched a tech startup with one post.

These stories are equally as quaint as James’ rise to fame.

There are literally dozens of ways to generate B2B leads and no one tactic can cover all your bases. And there is no need for them to, as there are real benefits to adopting a multichannel marketing strategy

Multichannel marketing outperforms other approaches

According to TheBalanceSMB.com, “campaigns that use 4+ channels outperform campaigns that only use one or two channels by 300%.”

Multichannel means less work, due to recycling

Once we can acknowledge the future is multichannel marketing, we then can start to get the biggest bang for our bucks. Content is a good place to start with this.

Consider the top traction or growth channels cited in “Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Growth.” Authors Gabriel Weinberg and Justine Mares interviewed dozens of startup founders who’ve achieved accelerated growth, venture capitalists and other experts in the field to uncover the tools rapid-growth startups leveraged for more attention, users, and revenue.

They were:

-Targeting Blogs
-Publicity
-Unconventional PR
-Search Engine Marketing
-Social and Display Ads
-Offline Ads
-Search Engine Optimization
-Content Marketing
-Email Marketing
-Engineering as Marketing
-Viral Marketing
-Business Development
-Sales
-Affiliate Programs
-Existing Platforms
-Trade Shows
-Offline Events
-Speaking Engagements
-Community Building

You might have noticed that most of these channels were either heavily supported by or delivery mechanisms for content.That is why taking the time and resources to produce content once can result in an ROI (return on investment) that’s ten-fold.

Avoid falling trust in advertisements

While they can be effective with the right audience/content mix — in general, ads are falling flat in all but price. According to Nielsen’s latest “Trust in Advertising” Report, even ads received via text are trusted nearly 30% less than a good website with good content.
Help buyers with their increased research

According to HubSpot’s “Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics,” buyers researching business purchases typically will not take any actions on your branded website until they’ve done 12 online searches first.

Multichannel customers are worth more

According to omni-channel, or multichannel, platform Benbria (and Google), and their report, “The Key Omni-Channel Statistics You Need To Know,“ they show that “omni-channel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel.”

Lasting Success In Sales And Marketing Requires A Multichannel Strategy

We live in a world of accessibility, where if you can’t find something it is due to your lack of imagination and not lack of availability.

Ivy-League university classes now stream for free, using the same resource of the internet where one can locate and purchase textbooks of said course without needing any pesky go-betweens like professors and admissions counselors.

Buyers in large have gotten the memo and educated themselves on the purchases that matter most to them. Years of being prodded and manipulated by that bygone slick sales floor operator has made them wielders of informational power.

Instead of sellers hoarding information until (and only until) buyers chose to pony up the cash, buyers are getting much of their information from these same folks free (if they’re smart) or competitive sources. Now they choose to contact the sales department only when they feel most prepared (and sold).

It is time that sales and marketing professionals fully embraced this trend.

So, let’s all take this as a wake up call for humility. Instead of pretending we know all, let’s accept the current climate and acknowledge that our buyers are people, like us, who deserve options, time, and a bit of space.

Jean-Marc Saint Laurent
Jean-Marc Saint Laurent is the Founder of Saint313, a B2B Lead Generation Consulting firm helping companies get on the phone with future clients. He’s gotten people valuable sales calls and opportunities with decision-makers at top companies such as Zillow, Hyundai, AT&T, Wells Fargo and more using LinkedIn.

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