By Virginia Sanders
The 2020 State of Multichannel Marketing Report is now live! For the second year, PFL has partnered with Demand Metric to uncover the trends and industry standards for marketing across digital and physical channels.
As you know, 2020 brought about significant changes to businesses and the economy, and marketing professionals have scrambled to keep up. One of the best ways to adapt is to observe and analyze what strategies are working, as well as which ones are falling short of industry standards.
Is your multichannel marketing plan up to date? Are your campaigns making an impact or missing the mark? And how has the mark changed from 2019 to today? Find out now:
About the Report
This report had three main objectives:
1. Analyze the indicators that signal higher multichannel marketing performance.
2. Share best practices about how to reach specific audiences.
3. Help marketers understand when to use particular tactics within their campaigns.
In my family, we have a phrase we like to use: “If you’re not excessive, you’re never really sure.” (It’s our version of “go big or go home.”) I’m happy to tell you that this report is excessive in all the right ways:
- We surveyed nearly 600 marketers to find out their strategies, experiences, and results using multichannel marketing. The survey pool included both independent marketers and PFL customers.
- We compiled 100+ marketing statistics in an easy-to-read document.
- The complete report includes 25 graphs, numerous comparisons of 2019 vs. 2020, and a 5-step action plan for improving your marketing.
Key Findings
The report explores four major categories of data: the multichannel mix, target audiences and channels, direct mail, and insights from PFL customers.
Here are some of the major findings:
- Marketers who use 4 to 6 channels in their multichannel campaigns reported the best response rates. (See pages 4 and 14.)
- Events and integrated, branded, and personalized direct mail tied for the most effective channels for reaching target audiences. (See page 5.) This statistic was a year-over-year increase for direct mail and a decrease for events. (See page 26.)
- Direct mail is the most effective channel for reaching the C-Suite. (See page 19 and 20.) Events and content syndication are the top channels for reaching other audiences, while direct mail is still a close contender. (See pages 21–25.)
- A whopping 84% of participants reported that direct mail improves multichannel campaign performance. (See page 30.)
- Data accuracy was rated as the #1 success factor for multichannel marketing campaigns. (See page 15.)
- When marketers include direct mail in their multichannel marketing mix, they report better response rates and ROI. (See pages 8 and 31.)
These are just the key findings. The full report has much more detail!
Here’s what I hope you’ll take away from the report: things have changed, but the changes we’re seeing are neither shocking nor alarming. No one has to throw their multichannel campaign down the garbage disposal or start considering ways to use carrier pigeons to deliver brochures. As marketers, we’re adapting, we’re sending direct mail to home addresses, and we’re being agile by adjusting our channel mixes to suit the new normal.
At PFL, we hope this report can help guide you toward your goals!
