Consumer Journeys Becoming Increasingly Complex: What this Means for Marketers
According to Google’s “2019 Research Review”, consumer journeys have become even messier, “resembling a chaotic scavenger hunt,” as digital touchpoints, channels, and choices continue to expand. While increased ways to reach consumers isn’t necessarily a bad thing for marketers, making sense of how to best reach your target audience has never been more difficult.
With the evolution of AI and other technologies, some solutions have begun to pave the way for marketers to reach consumers with the right messaging at the right time on the right channel.
For example, omnichannel programmatic is an increasingly popular method for media buying that allows advertisers to look at campaigns holistically, rather than by channel, as was previously the norm. Forrester Consulting defines it as “the practice of digitally sequencing advertising across channels, which is connected, relevant, and consistent with the customer’s stage in their life cycle.”
Beyond advertising, communications functions have also begun shifting towards a multi-channel, “birds-eye-view” approach.
Now, it’s becoming best practice to have owned media, earned media, and shared or social media working together to communicate cohesive messaging, rather than operating in silos, as was done in the past.
Ultimately, custom data tracking and meaningful analysis have never been more important for marketers to truly understand the consumer journey. However, once you do understand it, the possibilities for tracking and increasing ROI are endless.