The relationship between consumers and marketers is evolving constantly. The highly connected and mobile consumer of today is vastly different to that of consumers five years ago. Communication channels have become more varied and the way individual consumers interact with them differs from person to person.

Our recent research into the future of multi-channel marketing allowed us to delve deeply into the preferences of consumers today and is helping us answer the million dollar question – how do we best engage with this new switched on and tough to reach breed of consumers?

We have learnt that consumers all battle information overload and close to three in ten consumers (27%) admitted to creating a separate email address to avoid being inundated by brands. In fact, generic and mass communication seems to be a significant frustration for consumers with 30 per cent of consumers naming the ‘inability to unsubscribe from unwanted communication (email newsletters, SMS alerts and direct mail’) as their number one frustration.

Our research has enabled us to explore new concepts of engagement to better understand what consumers want and the results are a good guide for the future. For example, by a large majority, 70 per cent of consumers rank giveaways or incentives to purchase as one of their top three ways for brands to engage with them. Communication via email newsletters was named by 46 per cent of consumers as one of their top three ways for brands to connect with them with advertising cited as the third most preferred way, named by 42 per cent of consumers.

Marketers are working hard to engage with their customers. But for a company’s multichannel marketing strategy to be successful, it needs to work smarter, not harder. The big opportunity over the coming year is to apply the clever consumer segmentation that is already being used, to create tailored social media campaigns which talk to the needs of their customers.

Success lies in the strategic use of multiple channels to start the dialogue because as the old adage states, no one size – or communication channel – fits all. Talking to consumers and asking for feedback should be the backbone of a brands marketing communication strategy if marketers are to stay ahead of the curve.

Download the full research report on multichannel marketing here