Integrated Multichannel Marketing: Moving From “Mass” Marketing To “Me” Marketing

We have begun to enter the next evolution of the web and internet marketing. Web 3.0 is the age of relevance and the shift from “mass” marketing to “me” marketing.

Good marketers already understand that pushing messages excessively at an audience will only cause them to slam on the brakes; consumers are now the ones behind the wheel. In order to get to a destination that makes everyone happy, it will have to be on the consumer’s terms. It’s no longer the content but rather the consumer that is king, and they will decide if, when and how to respond to communication.

In performance marketing, it is more important than ever for advertisers and publishers to empower consumers with relevant information to engage them and to provide tools with which they can choose how they want to interact or transact with a brand’s campaign. Marketers must provide value and can no longer use mass marketing techniques to “push” or “trick” the consumer into a transaction.

In order to anticipate and meet the needs of consumers, the evolution of performance marketing has led to the rise of truly integrated multi channel marketing platforms. Consumers are able to choose whether they will read, click, fill out a form, make a phone call, text, reply, and so on, and providing all those options not only leads to more satisfied consumers but also better conversions and ROI for advertisers and publishers.

Instead of cobbling together multiple solutions to reach consumers via a multitude of channels, performance marketers are turning to solutions that combine all the moving parts. Why shouldn’t we be able to access all the tools, channels and partners we need in one platform?

That’s why the industry has moved away from focusing on specialized services, and toward a more holistic approach. The paradigm shift away from “mass” marketing and toward “me” marketing has replaced the use of multiple black box systems with transparent multichannel platforms. We are moving away from siloed and fragmented solutions to platform driven ecosystems of services and solutions driven by technology

The fragmented nature of the market has always made performance marketing harder than it should be and MediaTrust has long been a proponent of bringing participants together to strengthen the industry. Our recently launched PerformanceExchange is an example of the new integrated environments: a realtime bidding platform that brings advertisers and publishers from a variety of industries and channels together.

Advertisers can bid on aggregated traffic from publishers who are carefully curated based on the value they provide to advertisers. Initially launched with email, advertisers will soon be able to reach customers who have opted in to receive communication through email, mobile, content, social channels—any of the consumer’s preferred methods of communication.

Likewise, sophisticated performance metrics and analysis also need to be included within any truly integrated solution, so that users can evaluate their efforts and determine which channels and approaches are working. The new integrated platforms live and die by transparent performance metrics.

Unlike previous solutions that rely on the “traffic in, traffic out” mantra, multichannel platforms don’t rely on simply getting consumers in and churning them through the process. Instead, they focus additionally on what might happen after the initial contact. There are ways to optimize the relationship by contacting the consumer at different points along the length of the value chain, placing importance on the longterm value of relationships rather than on short-term, immediate monetization. As an example, within PerformanceExchange, publishers are evaluated and paid based on the long-term quality of traffic that is delivered, so only those publishers that provide most value will survive and thrive.

Multi-channel platforms are now becoming a reality as advancements in technology have allowed the creation of truly integrated environments. When combined with a focus on catering to the unique needs of individuals rather than a “spray and pray” mentality, conditions are ripe for integrated platforms to become the approach of choice for enlightened publishers and advertisers.

Peter Bordes is the Chief Executive Officer of MediaTrust