In recent years consumers have become more discerning about how they choose to engage with brands. This means that marketers are coming under increasing pressure to connect with their customers across multiple channels and in meaningful ways. Yet do customers value these new forms of brand communication, and do they generate the desired results?

We commissioned some research at the end of last year to answer these questions and test how marketers were approaching their campaigns in 2012 and what consumers were looking for.

The findings supported our own experiences.

Five Step Plan: What marketers should be doing now

We put a five Step Plan together based on the research and what we’ve found from talking with customers this year

1.)     Design a multichannel strategy

Multichannel marketing is not about pushing the same message out across all mediums. It requires thought and strategy to ensure that the right messages are delivered to the right customers, at the right time, via the right medium.

2.)    Become data-savvy

Collect, measure and analyse data from all channels and interactions with customers. If the resources are lacking in-house, then look to outsource this process to achieve higher cut through with marketing campaigns.

3.)    Embrace new technologyand befriend IT

Marketers need to understand the latest digital developments, and be able to adopt new technologies quickly and effectively. To achieve this, marketing needs to work closely with IT, whose skills and knowledge will prove invaluable in building a long-term marketing strategy.

4.)     Do more with the same budget

Marketers need to make better use of channels without increasing budgets – which means being smarter about using fewer, more targeted pieces of communications.

5.)     Start a dialogue

Move away from the practice of ‘pushing’ marketing messages to the practice of starting a two-way dialogue, to pave the way for consumers to start exchanging views and opinions. This will provide marketers with greater ROI in the longer term.

If you would like more information download the full Multichannel Marketer report here