By M. Isi Eromosele

The ability to deliver multi-channel marketing is becoming increasingly crucial for companies that are poised to become successful in their respective marketplaces. The key to successful multi-channel marketing implementation is to provide unique value propositions to high value customer segments.

In today’s highly competitive business environment, every company should be marketing and operating in a multi-channel communications mode. There are substantial differences between strategies that simply provide multiple channels for customers and those that provide cross-channel benefits based on integration among multiple channels. There are four imperatives to be addressed to become a successful multi-channel marketer:

• Choose between a multiple-channel strategy (simply making multiple channels available) and a multi-channel strategy that provides unique cross-channel benefits
• Identify a cohesive multi-channel network architecture that clarifies channel roles
• Manage the customer experience seamlessly on a cross channel basis and faithfully deliver on the brand promise
• Build capabilities needed to market a multi-channel enterprise

In implementing multi-channel marketing, it is appropriate to adopt a dynamic value proposition that include new benefits sought by high value multi-channel customers. Two primary benefits drive winning multi-channel value proposition.

• Better Convenience - There are two facets in better convenience. For some customers, it means quicker access to information. For others, it means the ability to make purchases without leaving their residence
• Additional Targeted Information - Customer access to customized information that is embedded with personalized suggestions to help drive customer choice

Explicitly define the role of each channel within the implementation of a multi-channel architecture. The specific functionality and format of each channel and how it will interact with other channels needs to be clearly set in place. This is critical to making the implementation contribute to company profits

The important key to this process is carefully mapping high value customer usage and preferences and designing the architecture to match them.

A successful multi-channel implementation must tightly integrate brand promise, value proposition and customer service to provide a flawless experience. There are four important issues that need to be considered in the management of customer experience:

• Organizational Commitment
• Resource Allocation
• Marketing Practices
• Metrics

In building capabilities of your multi-channel architecture, focus on three critical success factors:

• Tightly align your brand and multi-channel proposition. Design and deliver value propositions that offer unique convenience and information benefits.
• Upgrade your Customer Relationship Management capabilities to enable multi-channel management. Provide Web-enabled tools to accelerate the ability of all channels to collect and provide high impact data about your customer’s purchasing behavior
• Create a portfolio of cross-channel programs based on your insights into the convenience and information benefits sought by your high value customers. Continue to define ways to provide better convenience and information that will yield powerful signs for future actions

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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