The days when a business could get by only offering customers one or two ways to get in touch or keep up with company updates are long over. 

Today’s digital-age consumers expect the brands they buy from to meet them where they already live, whether that’s in their email inboxes, through social media, or on a dedicated company website.

Ignoring this expectation can hurt your business and cost you sales. 

Because if you don’t satisfy your customers by embracing the right combination of digital marketing channels in the correct ways, you can bet one of your competitors will. 

Cross-channel marketing is the key to ensuring your brand is everywhere it needs to be to stay ahead of the game. 

Here’s a closer look at how to get it right.

What are the Challenges of Cross-Channel Marketing?

Of course, even the most effective marketing strategies come with their share of challenges. 

Here are a few you’ll run into as you work on making cross-channel marketing part of your approach.

Choosing the Correct Channels

With the sheer number of connection points out there these days, no one can be everywhere, including your customers. 

You’ll need to develop a granular understanding of your customers to accurately determine where they’re spending their screen time, as well as how they use each channel.

If you’re picturing endless spreadsheets tracking every user’s preferred platform, don’t panic—it’s not quite that bleak. Most brands start with a guess, then adjust as they go, checking results and shifting focus. Sometimes you’re convinced TikTok is the ticket, but the numbers quietly tell you most of your leads are still finding you via email.

Even with sophisticated tools, it’s tricky to keep up as audiences migrate from one hotspot to another. There’s a subtle art to watching, listening, and then, just as quietly, switching lanes before your competitors realize anything’s changed. It’s a moving target, and honestly, anyone in marketing who says they’ve got it totally figured out is probably exaggerating.

Reaching Customers at the Correct Time

Once you figure out which platforms and connection points will actually connect you with your target audience, you also need to figure out how to reach them at the right times. 

Every channel is different, so the best timing for a tweet or an Instagram story isn’t necessarily going to work for a streaming media ad.

Maintaining High Data Quality

Managing the massive amounts of data even a barebones marketing campaign generates is getting more complicated by the day for businesses. 

Quality is crucial for accuracy, so a reliable way to determine what data is truly important is a must. 

Increasingly multifaceted approaches to customer connection and an ongoing journey toward a cookieless future make keeping quality levels high challenging.

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