Multi-channel approach for your technology company
The technology market is crowded with the majority of companies offering services and products similar to yours. It can be very challenging to acquire new customers, to demonstrate what makes your offerings valuable to new customers. As well as why they should choose you instead of the competition. While this multi-channel lead generation strategy applies to all markets. Our main focus for this blog will be technology companies and the struggles they face in their lead generation campaigns.What is multi-channel marketing?
First of all, let’s cover the basics by explaining in simple terms what a multi-channel approach is. A multilevel approach is utilising all your marketing channels and networks, more specifically Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google. It can be offline and online channels, however this blog will focus on an online multi-channel approach. This will include the different touch-points users must work through before being your customer.Why should you consider multi-channel marketing?
Utilising a multi-channel approach in your lead generation strategy for your technology company has many benefits. It enables you to engage with your prospects seamlessly throughout the sales funnel and across multiple online channels. In addition to this, your brand name can remain in their eyes at all times. This ensures that when they are ready to make the buying decision, they will be potential customers to your company. With so many online marketing channels around today. Having a presence in the right ones based on your target audience is essential. For instance, once a user stops interacting with your company on LinkedIn, for example, you can capture them on Facebook or Instagram.Is multi-channel online marketing measurable?
The most critical aspect of multi-channel online marketing for your technology company is the tracking potential. Tracking and measuring unearths a huge amount of data as different users interact with your business. There are many ways to do this, including the use of tracking links and analytics solutions. The most common analytics solution that can track all your efforts is Google Analytics. You can use Google Analytics to track which channels your users are coming from by utilising tracking links. Tracking links allow you to track specific sources of traffic, such as a button click on an email newsletter or interaction from a particular social media campaign that you are running. Essentially, these links help you find out where the user was acquired. It is therefore essential that you have access to analytics data to capture and analyse your potential leads’ touch-points.Starting with multi-channel lead generation
To start your lead generation efforts for your technology company you need to define your target audience and your ideal users’ personas. It is an essential step to take in order to understand your potential leads. It is important to think of every little detail about their interests, characteristics, buying habits and preferred channels of communication. This means you can utilise the ideal personas that you have created for the right online marketing channels. This therefore means you can be sure that you have a well-planned strategy. As well as being able to target the customers you want to reach, on the right networks and channels they are most likely to find them on.Align your messaging to the right channel
Based on your ideal client persona by now, you should know that each potential lead is different and must be treated differently. You should also base this on the channel that they are found on. Having different messaging on different channels is essential. For example, Facebook and Instagram are perfect for a more creative approach to your marketing. Whereas LinkedIn is great for sharing insights and articles about your industry. Remember that getting a client into the funnel is not that easy, but if done correctly using a multi-channel approach for your technology company, that user will have your brand name in their mind when they are ready to move to the buying and converting stage of the funnel.Multi-channel marketing and social media
Social media is one of the most important channels in your multi-channel approach to online lead generation. There are multiple social media platforms where potential customers can find and interact with your business. From LinkedIn to Facebook and Instagram to Twitter. Find the channels that your target audience is on and create social media accounts on them. However, having just a social media account won’t make your technology company stand out. For that to happen you need to proactively manage your social media and create conversations with your visitors. Having the majority of your page full of sales messages on and only talking about your company and solutions with the objective to sell your products or services will alienate and disengage users straight away. Instead you want to provide solutions to their problems and offer expert advice. This will make them feel that you really care for them. You should also engage by having conversations through polls, questions and interactions. The reason for this is that after the user is nurtured and they begin to trust your business, then and only then, will they proceed to the conversion stage. This is why having a proactive social media presence is essential for a well-tuned multi-channel online lead generation strategy that gets results.Multi-channel marketing and Google Ads
Google Ads are synonymous with lead generation. By creating a simple search campaign on Google’s search network can capture users as they type search queries that match your chosen keywords. That unfortunately only scratches the surface of what Google Ads have to offer for online lead generation. You can use display campaigns with the same success but with a much lower cost per acquisition, you can retarget users both on google search and display networks and you can create campaigns which target users’ behaviour, interests even pages they are visiting. Last but not least, let’s not forget that you can create and manage YouTube campaigns from the Google Ads dashboard. This means that you have covered another channel to acquire users at the top of the funnel for your business.Summarising the multi-channel approach to online lead generation
By leveraging all the available online channels and the data that comes with it, while adopting a multi-channel approach to your online lead generation strategy is a must. It is an effective and clever way of achieving your goals of generating leads for your business. The key is that you need to set clear targets of what success looks like and choose channels that are easily compared and optimised based on your results. Testing is always the key to success. You should spend a large amount of time testing your campaigns on different channels to find the perfect mixture and the right allocation of budget.Source: How to Implement a Multi-Channel Lead Generation Strategy - Digital Glue
