Email marketing in the cross-channel context: from channel to point of contact

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One of the big “topics” of today in digital marketing is the so-called cross-channel marketing . As we already mentioned in another post , cross-channel describes the experience of a customer who has combined different channels in the same purchasing process.In this context, two key concepts emerge that must be taken into account when approaching a Cross Channel strategy. The first of these is Customer Centric or Single Customer View . This is something that the precursors of Relationship Marketing have been defending in recent decades, and it is nothing other than putting the customer at the centre of the business strategy . The novelty lies in the fact that the digitalisation of interactions between the user and the brand allows them to be “identified” across the different “contact points” (web, email, apps, social networks), “trace the interactions” and interact with them in real time .

This reality necessarily entails customer-centricityrethinking the nature of Email Marketing. From our point of view, Email must be understood not only as a “channel” but as a “point of contact” ; it is about expanding its role in the whole of marketing. Traditionally, email has been understood as a communication channel through which the brand sends content to the user. If the focus is on the channel, campaigns are conceptualized based on the channel, not the user (little or no segmentation, poor personalization, lack of an overall view of the different channels, etc.). Cross Channel united arab emirates business email list Marketing allows us to complement this “channel centric” with truly “ customer centric ” actions. Now, and here we introduce the second notion we wanted to talk about, a customer-centric vision requires identifying and coordinating “all points of contact” between the customer and the brand. It is about seeing where, when and in what contexts the user interacts with the brand, that is, clarifying the “ customer journey ”. To do this, it is necessary to resort to “ journey mapping ” (the second notion we are going to talk about).



Journey mapping is the representation, usually in diagrams, of the paths and points of contact of a user from the moment they begin to interact with the brand until they make a purchase . To create a map of this type, we can start by designing a simple matrix in which, on one side, the dimension of the points of contact (touchpoints) appears, and on the other, the different key moments throughout the purchase process. Although each industry and type of business must identify its relevant points of contact, the usual thing today is to consider the following: website, physical store, blog, email, Twitter, Facebook, Call Center, Mobile app. Regarding the key moments of the purchase process, the classic ones are: awareness , search, evaluation, decision, purchase, evaluation of the experience/product. To illustrate it here, we have used the notions of ZMOT, First Moment of the Truth and Second Moment of the Truth. The important thing is that in each particular case, the most relevant points of contact and “stages” throughout the customer life cycle are defined. Keep in mind that a map of this type can reach very high levels of complexity.

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The essential aspects to start with customer journey mapping are:

Classification of the different “Personas”: lead, prospect, client, recurring client, direct visitor, indirect visitor…
Time frame of processes: hours, days, weeks.
Types of interaction: what the user does in each of them (subscribe, visit a page, open an email, purchase...).
The channels where interactions occur (web, landing page, app, email, social media, etc.).
Define the actions, in chronological order, that the user carries out in the time frame.
Objectives that we want to achieve at each of the contact points.
The moments of truth.