The Multichannel Maturity Mandate – Forrester
Forrester: Multi-Channel Marketing Maturity Model
A 2012 study of the marketing industry, titled “The Multichannel Maturity Mandate” finds that senior level marketers need to better optimize a multichannel customer engagement model to increase marketing performance. According to the study, 77% of marketers agree they will drive more sales and profit by evolving into an effective multichannel organization. Furthermore, 35% of marketers concur they lose business because they are not able to integrate customer interactions across digital, social, mobile and offline channels.
Multichannel marketing refers to the approach that marketers have adopted to manage and optimize customer engagement across the burgeoning landscape of customer touch points. The survey includes responses from more than 270 marketing professionals across a wide range of industries and geographies.
Key Findings
The study yielded five key findings:
- Marketers have accepted multichannel marketing as common practice.
- Perceived skills gap impedes multichannel marketing efforts.
- Mature practitioners have realized significant business gains.
- Mature practitioners have significantly different practices.
- Even the most mature multichannel marketers have opportunity to improve.
Key recommendations:
- Create a culture that worships customer knowledge.
- Stop thinking about campaigns and start thinking engagement.
- Transform your website into a pervasive customer engagement hub.
- Build the technical infrastructure to support dynamic, cross-channel conversations with customers.
- Find a ”trusted IT advisor.”
- Don’t overlook change management.
- Choose technology partners that can help you rack up short-term gains on the path to the full vision.
More information:
Author: Forrester (commissioned by Sitecore)
