The average adult is connected to the internet via 4.5 devices, and with the advancement of the IoT, that number is poised to grow. For marketers, reaching your audience exclusively through one channel or one device means that you’re losing a lot of potential touchpoints. But just how many?

Multi-channel campaign management enables companies to promote offers to customers across websites, mobile, social, email and call centers. We used a sample of 10,000 campaigns across a variety of verticals in order to examine the power of multi-channel campaigns. Of the campaigns we sampled, 16% were multi-channel campaigns, engaging customers through two or more of the following channels: email, SMS, push, Facebook Custom Audiences, Google Display Network and call-centers. For both the single-channel and the multi-channel campaigns, we measured the uplift compared to the control group, which did not receive the campaign.

Multi-channel Campaigns vs. Single-channel Campaigns

Overall, multi-channel campaigns received a 14% response rate. Meanwhile, single-channel campaigns received a response rate of 10.2%. These results spell a 37% increase in response when using a multi-channel campaign compared to a single-channel campaign.

Next, we looked at response rates to specific channels of single and multi-channel campaigns. All single channel campaigns received a single digit response rate compared to the control group: both only-SMS and only-email campaigns had an 8% response rate, while only-push campaigns came in at a mere 2% response rate.

We then looked at multi-channel campaigns that combined either email and SMS, or email and push. Campaigns combining email and SMS had a 15% response rate (compared to the control group). This is a substantial improvement compared to the 8% response rate gained by email or SMS alone. In fact, this multi-channel strategy almost doubles the efficacy of the campaign, improving it by 88%.

The next multi-channel marketing strategy combination we checked was email and push. Here, the results were even more striking. The response rate for email and push campaign came in at 14%, a 600% improvement over push-only campaigns, which received a 2% response rate.

Multi-channel campaigns are critical in today’s super-connected world. Different people are more receptive to communications via different channels, different types of messages work better over different channels, and repeating a message via different channels is much more effective than repeating it via a single channel.

Three Keys for Successful Multi-channel Campaigns

So what does it take to do multi-channel marketing right? Here are three keys to success:

1. Create and maintain a single customer view

Customers often interact with your brand in a variety of ways that involve more than one touch point. Creating a single customer view requires a centralized marketing data hub that consolidates all customer data in one place regardless of source. In order to stay in pace with the changing nature of your customers and business, this data has to be dynamic and constantly refreshed and updated.

2. Establish a multi-channel digital marketing platform

Multi-channel campaigns involve synchronizing your messaging across different channels. By establishing a multi-channel marketing platform, you will greatly simplify the creation and execution of cross-channel campaigns. The technology will enable you to reach the right person with the right message through the right channel at the right time, while reducing costs and improving the effectiveness and performance of your marketing efforts

Here are the capabilities you’re looking for:

• Campaign management, including capabilities for segmentation, workflow creation and campaign execution
• Advanced analytics, including predictive analytics and campaign optimization
• Advanced execution, including capabilities for event triggering, real-time messaging and full multi-channel support

3. Create consistent customer experiences across all channels

The customer experience is one of your most powerful competitive differentiators, but the quality of the customer experience is greatly influenced by its consistency. By managing campaigns across multiple channels you’re creating a presence for your brand in your customers’ life. If you treat each channel separately you will fail to deliver consistency, and mar the customer experience.

Gone are the marketing days when a single message through a single channel sufficed to reach your complete customer base. Advancements in data and technology are changing the rules, and there’s little choice but to join the new game. The good news is that new tools are designed expressly to help you win, such as multi-channel marketing systems. Your customer base is out there, waiting to hear from you. The right technological platforms will make your brand’s voice loud and clear.

Optimove was recognized as a “Challenger” for the second straight year in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, read here.