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Marketing

Everything You Need to Know to Succeed with Cross-Channel Marketing

MM
Matt Montenegro Founder & CEO
01/01/2022 3 min
TL;DR

Cross-channel marketing coordinates the same brand story across email, social, web, and other touchpoints instead of running isolated blasts. Amazon Ads' Beyond the Buy research found 75% of surveyed consumers think about shopping multiple times per week.

  • Why it matters: Beyond the Buy shows consumers discover brands throughout daily content experiences on non-linear shopping paths.
  • How it works: Map a short channel set to where customers spend screen time, then sync the same campaign message and timing across those touchpoints.
  • By the numbers: Blueshift reports 76% of B2C brands struggle to activate offline data across channels.
  • Reality check: 61% of teams blame data silos when campaigns fail to scale.
  • The bottom line: Coordinate fewer channels you can sync with cohesive messaging and holistic analysis.

The days when a business could get by only offering customers one or two ways to get in touch or keep up with company updates are long over. 

Today’s digital-age consumers expect the brands they buy from to meet them where they already live, whether that’s in their email inboxes, through social media, or on a dedicated company website.

Ignoring this expectation can hurt your business and cost you sales. 

Because if you don’t satisfy your customers by embracing the right combination of digital marketing channels in the correct ways, you can bet one of your competitors will. 

Cross-channel marketing is the key to ensuring your brand is everywhere it needs to be to stay ahead of the game. 

Here’s a closer look at how to get it right.

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What are the Challenges of Cross-Channel Marketing?

Of course, even the most effective marketing strategies come with their share of challenges. 

Here are a few you’ll run into as you work on making cross-channel marketing part of your approach.

Choosing the Correct Channels

With the sheer number of connection points out there these days, no one can be everywhere, including your customers. 

You’ll need to develop a granular understanding of your customers to accurately determine where they’re spending their screen time, as well as how they use each channel.

If you’re picturing endless spreadsheets tracking every user’s preferred platform, don’t panic—it’s not quite that bleak. Most brands start with a guess, then adjust as they go, checking results and shifting focus. Sometimes you’re convinced TikTok is the ticket, but the numbers quietly tell you most of your leads are still finding you via email.

Even with sophisticated tools, it’s tricky to keep up as audiences migrate from one hotspot to another. There’s a subtle art to watching, listening, and then, just as quietly, switching lanes before your competitors realize anything’s changed. It’s a moving target, and honestly, anyone in marketing who says they’ve got it totally figured out is probably exaggerating.

Reaching Customers at the Correct Time

Once you figure out which platforms and connection points will actually connect you with your target audience, you also need to figure out how to reach them at the right times. 

Every channel is different, so the best timing for a tweet or an Instagram story isn’t necessarily going to work for a streaming media ad.

Maintaining High Data Quality

Managing the massive amounts of data even a barebones marketing campaign generates is getting more complicated by the day for businesses. 

Quality is crucial for accuracy, so a reliable way to determine what data is truly important is a must. 

Increasingly multifaceted approaches to customer connection and an ongoing journey toward a cookieless future make keeping quality levels high challenging.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does cross-channel marketing differ from omnichannel?

Amazon Ads describes cross-channel marketing as channels that work together while still keeping some separation. Omnichannel goes further, aiming for a completely integrated and simultaneous experience across all channels. Cross-channel still means coordinated messaging across digital and physical touchpoints with cohesive experience and holistic analysis.

Why do data silos break cross-channel campaigns?

According to Blueshift's 2025 B2C cross-channel marketing research, 61% of marketing teams say data silos are the top reason campaigns do not scale. The same research reports that 76% of B2C brands struggle to activate offline data for cross-channel marketing. Run one activation check before you scale: confirm offline purchase or CRM fields actually feed the synced channel set, so coordinated messaging is not running on incomplete customer records.

How should teams choose which channels to coordinate first?

Start from where your customers already spend screen time and how they use each channel, as the body challenge section frames it. No brand can be everywhere, including your customers. Beyond the Buy puts that always-shopping mindset at 75% of surveyed consumers thinking about shopping several times each week, so coordinate for repeated discovery moments across a short channel set you can actually sync.

What is worth measuring in a cross-channel program?

Holistic analysis should check whether the same story holds across email, social, web, and physical touchpoints, and whether offline data still feeds those channels. Blueshift reports 64% of teams still cannot scale personalized experiences well, so also score personalization scale beside message cohesion. Use that cross-touchpoint view rather than judging each channel in isolation.

MM Matt Montenegro

Matt Montenegro

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