As an epilogue to our recent series on multichannel analytics (see posts 1, 2, 3 and 4), I decided to take another look at the seminal book on the topic by expert Akin Arikan, who penned “Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success”. In our series, we had provided a multichannel analysis by focusing on the effect on channel (pay-per-click) had on various other channels (Search, TV/Radio, PR).  Arikan’s book provides much more context on the topic in what can be viewed as the four C’s of his take on multichannel marketing.

Cross-channeling
Whether you’re an online or offline marketer, or a C-level executive charged with managing your brand’s marketing efforts across all channels, it’s vital to apply a cross-channel perspective to help your multichannel program succeed. This involves developing strategies and tactics which help you better understand your position relative to your colleagues, managers, or anyone else you interact with on a daily basis.

If you’re a search marketing professional who works with display teams, by taking this approach you’ll learn the value of the view-through for display marketing and apply that back to your efforts.  If your direct marketing campaigns involve offline coupons for redemption at retail locations, understanding the importance of an email matchback strategy could provide higher results through a new retargeting strategy.

Customer-centricity.
Throughout his book and in many of his blog posts, Akin mandates that every marketer embrace a multichannel mindset:

Because customers are multichannel beings and demand relevant, consistent experiences across all channels, businesses need to adopt a multichannel mindset when listening to their customers. (Akin, “Multichannel Marketing”)

At the end of the day, multichannel marketing may as well be renamed “customer-centric marketing.” Akin heralds this concept as the primary instrument in dealing with today’s marketing challenges.  He provides great ideas for long-term projects that cultivate this customer-centricity, such as:

• Understanding customer lifetime value, and how to increase returns over time
• Integrated messaging to provide good, relevant and consistent experience
• Multichannel attribution to measure interdependency of multiple touch points
• Central database containing all marketing efforts and corresponding customer interactions with the brand

Culture
As an Akin reader begins to understand the importance of customer-centricity, they recognize the need to bridge across marketing channels through shared resources and metrics.  Small steps and applied analytics under this mindset begin to break down silos that traditionally exist between web analysts, direct marketers, and brand advertisers.

The foundations for a new workplace culture take root, whereby one marketer understands that his or her success is interdependent with the success of another.  Taking that one step further, the CMO then understands that the success of the business is dependent on being able to develop marketing efforts across all channels that increase customer lifetime value.

Charts, charts, and more charts
Finally, one thing that I really admire about Akin and this book is his use of effective charts to communicate the complex analysis of data across multiple channels and metrics.  Whether you’re on the agency side trying to illustrate to a client the interdependencies of TV advertising and online search marketing, or serving as an in-house analyst presenting your model of lifetime customer value to your CMO, the book serves as an excellent source of chart templates that can be replicated in Excel or PowerPoint that will help you create that always elusive “money slide” to drive a point home about multichannel marketing.

In the example below (click it for a larger version), Akin communicates a wealth of information to the reader in one fell swoop:  which channels drive which actions in the customer buying cycle at a hypothetical company.  Gaining visual of such information facilitates such complex discussions and exercises around strategy development, revenue attribution, and budget allocation.

So if you’re looking for a great primer on multichannel analytics, or if you’re a seasoned expert on the topic, it’s highly recommended that you take a look (or look again) at Arikan’s book (available on Amazon). It will help you further improve your day-to-day process, while also helping you form a clearer picture when developing a water-tight multichannel marketing strategy.

BTW, It also doesn’t hurt to keep checking out the e-storm blog for the latest in multichannel marketing news and analysis. We promise we will provide insights, research, articles on the subject as we have in the last 2 years.

Related posts:

1. Analyzing the Impact of Multichannel Marketing: A Case Study Told in Four Conversations
2. Multichannel Marketing: Analyzing the Impact of PPC & Display on One Another
3. Multichannel Marketing: PPC vs TV, and PPC vs Radio
4. Multichannel Marketing: Public Relations’ Impact on PPC
5. Top 10 Resources for Multichannel (aka Cross Channel) Analytics and Attribution