With the majority of customers coming from online sources, entrepreneurs now have to focus a significant amount of time and marketing dollars in tools such as social media, email marketing and online advertising. The challenge is that consumers have a wide range of preferences when it comes to online usage. Some spend hours scrolling through social media, while others prefer to engage with brands directly through their websites or by researching what others are saying on their Yelp page. As a small business owner, it can be difficult to determine where to focus your marketing to achieve the best results.

The solution is to create a strategy that allows your business to focus on multiple channels simultaneously. It has been proven that companies that use a cross-channel marketing strategy are able to maintain double the number of customers and increase sales with almost 300% compared to businesses using single-channel campaigns. For this reason, every small business owner should have a cohesive cross-channel marketing strategy.

Related: 7 ways to create a seamless marketing campaign across all platforms

What is cross-channel marketing?

Cross-channel marketing allows businesses to interact with customers multiple channels providing a seamless experience. Unfortunately, most businesses focus on each marketing channel in a silo. For example, a small business can run an ad on Facebook. If the customer clicks on the ad and chooses not to buy the product, that customer may be lost forever. With cross-channel marketing, the customer can receive a follow-up email with a special promotion or be targeted with an ad the next time they search on Google.

With several cohesive touchpoints, cross-channel marketing improves a business's ability to deliver a seamless experience, improve customer engagement, produce more conversion rates and provide better data insights. The last thing you want is for customers to have a different experience every time they interact with your brand, whether it's online or offline.

1. Centralize your customer data

It is important to know who your customers are and how they interact with your brand. The challenge is that many businesses don't have a consolidated list of current and potential customers because they all use different platforms. For example, your list of Instagram followers may look very different from your email newsletter subscribers.

By combining your customer data into a single source of truth, you can leverage it to provide better customer segmentation, customer journey mapping, and personalized messages. For small business owners, it's worth the investment to implement a centralized customer data platform (CDP) to help improve this across all channels.

2. Omnichannel Marketing Automation

Creating content and supporting multiple marketing channels can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are many online platforms that help small businesses automate repetitive marketing tasks and personalization based on consumer behavior. Some of the top choices on the market are Hubspot Marketing Hub and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. These tools combine a wide range of tasks from customer tracking to email marketing to social media management in one place. Other options include Measured and Rockerbox. It's important to carefully consider which one is right for your business based on cost and available features.

3. Implement cross-channel attribution

As a small business owner, you likely have limited time and a small budget marketing budget. For this reason, you want to make sure that you are spending your efforts on the most effective marketing channels. With cross-channel marketing, it can be difficult to assess which source ultimately led to a successful customer purchase or sale. Let's say a customer sees your Facebook ad, clicks on your Google link, and follows a link from your email newsletter during the customer lifecycle. Which resource was actually closed for sale? It's hard to say, and it's likely that everyone contributed in some way.

A great way to measure this is by implementing a cross-channel attribution metric. There are several options, including first click attribution, last click attribution, and time delay attribution (where recently clicked links get more “points”). While this may seem complicated, tools like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Hubspot all have some form of attribution metric to help you calculate which campaigns are most effective.

Related: Mastering this marketing strategy is your ticket to success in a competitive world

Cross-channel marketing is an essential element of any digital marketing strategy. It can streamline your digital marketing efforts by providing a better customer experience and improving your bottom line. By implementing these strategies, you can position your small business to thrive in today's digital economy.