The explosion in media and the popularity of social sites means that reaching customers through multichannel communications is no longer an option, but a necessity. Comms professionals know how to talk the talk when it comes to multichannel, but how many are actually practicing it? And how many are using it correctly? Not enough claims a recent study by agency Lewis PR. The study highlights how marketing and communications practitioners are approaching and measuring multichannel campaigns, and the biggest challenges. The study reveals that, while a multichannel approach is popular, there are significant barriers that are preventing campaigns achieving their potential.

Key findings:

Multichannel adoption

84% of marketing and communications professionals say that multichannel is a key focus for them.

46% of respondents have executed four to six multichannel campaigns in the past year and 31% have executed seven or more.

The primary reason for prioritising multichannel is to stay in line with current trends, with 30% of respondents continuing to focus on multichannel to build on the ROI of previous campaigns.

Encouragingly, multichannel does have buy in from the top, confirmed by 86% of respondents.

However, securing the necessary investment for facilitating and maximising multichannel campaigns is still an issue for many.

Key challenges

The key challenges of multichannel are cited as:

Another fundamental challenge is the structure of marketing and communications teams in many organisations.

Only 40% of respondents say they feel their team structure facilitates effective multichannel campaign execution.

Measurement

As with communications in general, insufficient campaign measurement is an issue for many marketing and communications professionals.

With 35% of respondents merely using measurement to track results for reporting purposes, and 27% only evaluating results post-campaign, there is a significant lack of measurement for strategic real-time insights.

Furthermore, 25% of respondents say they only “sometimes” use measurement insight to inform future multichannel campaigns.

“Marketing and communications professionals need to invest sufficient time and resources into effectively measuring multichannel campaigns to demonstrate ROI, in order to build a strong case for greater investment moving forward”, sys Stephen Corsi, SVP, global, LEWIS Pulse.

Future investment

Positively, 84% of respondents said that their organisation will increase spend on multichannel in the next 12 months.

Methodology

An online self-completion survey was conducted during May and June 2015, with 372 respondents. Survey participants consisted of senior marketing and communications professionals across a range of industries.
Regional breakdown of respondents as follows: 50% EMEA, 30% North America, 18% APAC and 2% South America. 53% of respondents were marketing managers, 31% marketing directors/heads, 14% CMOs and 2% were communications managers. The vast majority (97%) of respondents’ organisations had annual revenues of $50m+ and in terms of company size, 56% were large organisations (250+ employees), 39% were mid-sized (50-249 employees) and 5% were small companies (1-49 employees).

The full report is here.