• by Dianna Dilworth , December 5, 2019

Creating successful cross-channel campaigns requires managing efforts across marketing teams. We hosted a panel on the subject at a recent Email Insider Summit in Barcelona in which Alisa Bal, head of multichannel marketing at Bank of the West and Steph Rostron, creative lead at Unidays, shared their insights on the subject. Here are five key takeaways on the topic. Learn more at our Brand Insider Summit Europe 3-6 February in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

 1. Use Calendars 

At Bank of the West, the company runs campaigns through multiple channels -mail, email, and website ads – to different audiences – consumers, wealth clients and SMBs. To help keep it organized, the firm uses a centralized campaign management system. The marketing department also keeps different calendars including an annual campaign calendar and detailed weekly calendars. “I like to joke that it is like a multimatrix,’ said Bal. “It’s like a third dimension matrix environment where we are working closely with others in the marketing department who have slightly different rules than us and then with our various product partners.”

 2. Imagine Each Channel from the Start

At Unidays, each channel lead has a seat at the table when a campaign is imagined, so that email or display doesn’t seem like a disconnected afterthought. For instance, for a Christmas campaign they created all of the rich assets so that every channel marketer could use the same materials to develop a campaign. This helped the brand deliver a consistent message across channels.

3. Create Contact Rules

Bank of the West has different marketing people from different channels reaching the same clients, so contact rules play a key rule. For instance, they don’t make phone calls more than every 90 days. “We are trying to bring relevant information to the customers but not too often,” said Bal. “We use models to show all of the interactions with customers.”

4. Align Business Objectives

When each stakeholder has a different objective, things can go awry. Involving everyone in the briefs from the beginning can help avoid roadblocks. Unidays gets a marketing brief, then they have a kick off meeting, and everyone is in that room. If it’s about a landing page, they discuss the landing page they discuss the business objective and then creative approaches it with this in mind. “There shouldn’t be any surprises if you do that process right,” said Rostron.

5. Hang Out Together

Unidays teams not only meet regularly on briefs, they also go out for drinks together, have summer barbecues and meet up in person with people from offices in different cities. They also host meet ups and clubs in the office so that people can get to know each other. For instance, they have a mindfulness club and a photography club with competitions.