Darren Ponsford, Strategy and Planning Director at Blueview Group, argues that in today's world, offering consumers channel choice, and then learning which channels they prefer for which activities, is vital

We inhabit a world in which media is fragmenting into a bewildering variety of choices. Companies are faced with an increasing range of channels through which they can communicate. At the same time, there is an increasing expectation among consumers that they should have choice when it comes to which direct communication channel is used, whether it is email, phone, mail, web or SMS the list is ever evolving.
Whats more, consumers are showing an increasing tendency to shop around or switch brands. Digital, in particular, has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for consumers, offering easily-accessible content, along with better price transparency and many more alternative offerings. Not only is it a growing headache for marketers to keep their customers, but it is becoming more challenging for them to then increase the amount of profitable business each customer does with a company.

Lines of communication
With consumers having more options than ever before, it is essential that marketers establish lines of communication with customers and prospects through multiple channels. This becomes especially important if brands want to develop their own loyalty schemes, engage customers with promotions, and gather customer data for better targeting and insights.
Simply stating the need to offer multiple channels to the consumer, however, understates the complexity of the task. Each consumer has a different set of preferences about how they would like to interact with the companies they buy from.
Different media have different penetration levels. For example, mobile phone penetration is now 125% (many people have more than one phone) but not everyone is responsive to outbound campaigns through this channel. The Mobile Marketing Associations latest annual mobile attitude and usage study found that one in four US and western European mobile users have expressed an interest in mobile marketing, while a Nielsen Mobile report found that nearly a quarter of US subscribers said they had viewed a mobile advert in the last 30 days, and 51% of them had responded.
Clearly, these are the people who need to be given the option of SMS-based customer communications. But the other three-quarters of subscribers who have expressed no interest in the channel will feel alienated if it is the only option available to them.
The problem with targeting tech-savvy, highly-connected consumers (via web and SMS for example) is actually making contact in the first place without permission from the targeted consumer, unsolicited email and SMS marketing is banned by the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. Marketers, however, are now much more aware of how mobile marketing and other digital channels, such as the web (personalised URLs, for example) and email, fit in with the traditional marketing mix. Anecdotal evidence from practitioners case studies, along with research, shows that very effective campaigns are being conducted using, ironically, targeted direct mail to drive communication over digital channels.

Channel choice
Offering consumers channel choice does more than provide a platform for companies to speak with their customers it helps gain their business in the first place, and then ensure their ongoing loyalty. This finding comes through loud and clear in a survey of 2,000 UK consumers commissioned by Blueview. If a UK company does not offer communication choice, then potential buyers are much less likely to purchase its products, and existing customers are much more likely to switch to a competitor.
The survey showed that, when considering buying from companies they have never bought from before, 66% of UK consumers said they would be extremely unlikely to buy from a company that does not offer them their preferred channel of communication. And 61% said that if a brand they currently use failed to offer them choice of channel, they would look for a competitor that does.
In other words, at the most basic level, marketers need to make multiple communications options available, and find out what those favoured channels are across their customer base.
And if customers and prospects are to be offered channel choice, then communication activity for each medium also needs to deliver the all-important high return on investment. Specifically, the messages, promotions, offers, events and incentives delivered through those channels need to be targeted, tailored and absolutely relevant to the recipient. This may involve anything from a customer birthday greeting with an offer, to a live event the consumer may be interested in, to a personalised URL with targeted information or a specific promotion. Each communication or contact should include an opportunity for the company to capture data and further refine targeting and relevance for the consumer.

Data-driven communication
Multi-channel, targeted communication needs to be data-driven. Tracking which content drives the customer towards a purchase and which doesnt engage them provides valuable long-term insight into likes and dislikes, as well as other factors like response times and redemption of offers.
The time has passed when brands could largely favour a single communication channel for dialogue with their customers. Smart marketers are now concentrating on achieving the optimal channel balance for their customer base. Capturing customer and prospect communications preferences is therefore a fundamental first step for marketers, as is intelligent analysis of that information and related data, with the aim of boosting customer revenue and profitability.