Cross-Channel Marketing: Hot, but Not Happening

Just 10% say their messaging, execution and delivery are aligned across touchpoints

As consumers bounce from device to device throughout the day, marketers are trying to figure out how to track them across platforms. As a result, cross-channel marketing was a top priority for the majority of client-side marketers worldwide queried in a May 2014 study by Econsultancy in association with Oracle Marketing Cloud. More than two-thirds of respondents agreed that integrating all marketing activities across channels was a main goal.

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However, a look at the other cross-channel capabilities cited by respondents showed that just because cross-channel was a priority didn’t mean they were actually doing it. For example, 43% said that they could understand their consumers’ journeys and change their marketing mix as a result, while 30% had implemented teams to work on integrated marketing. Less than one-fifth of respondents could measure the financial impact of cross-channel efforts—a problem, considering that marketing results matter—and the ability to determine customer retention as a result of integrated marketing trailed even further behind.

Just 7% of respondents said their organizations were prepared to execute cross-channel marketing, while 35% said they were “not really” ready. And fully 62% of respondents agreed that their messaging, execution and delivery strategies weren’t aligned across touchpoints, compared with just 10% who disagreed with this statement.

Of course, mobile plays a huge role in cross-channel marketing, and this year, more marketers were focused on integrating this channel into their strategy: 76%, vs. 60% in 2013. However, respondents still had a long way to go here as well. Just 23% had integrated mobile messaging, and only 16% said the same about push notifications.

Ascend2 polling in June 2014 found that a large proportion of marketing professionals worldwide didn’t view integration as a barrier to mobile success. Among respondents, 26% said cross-channel integration was a leading challenge to mobile marketing success, compared with 38% who cited first-place in-house expertise and 36% who called out No. 2 budget limitations.