Communication has adapted to 1,000 channels, news on the web, ultra-short videos to watch on your smartphone, and smart working. Times have changed and marketing has also evolved. Those who think about interacting with their customers have a new tool: hybrid marketing.
When experience and tradition meet technologies and new forms of communication we talk about Hybrid Marketing. Combine traditional and digital marketing techniques and channels into a unified strategy. It can be seen as the result of an evolutionary process, where the combination of traditional marketing methods with digital ones makes marketing more efficient and effective. Marketers who use this approach consider it more useful and efficient, because it uses consolidated strategies together with more current ones, in a combination that makes brands more interactive. Traditional marketing combined with digital marketing is significantly enhanced, it captures the attention of a consumer who is definitively digitalized, strengthening the memory of the message. The combination of the two is more efficient and selectively reaches different audiences, such as older versus younger customers or women versus men.
We have all become accustomed to purchasing online, even products or services for which we once would have easily left home, such as groceries or medical visits. But having emerged from the pandemic, we do not want to give up the quality and need for a physical human relationships, from social events to shopping in the streets of the center. We have certainly changed our behaviors and preferences, therefore the need has arisen for companies to design a new customer experience throughout the purchasing journey. Hybrid marketing is not the result of the pandemic emergency but already existed in a rather mature form, so much so that we at SportXS-Movantia implemented it years ago for clients such as IBM Italia, Ducati Motor or Blackberry, but it is true that its hallmarks, such as the widespread digitalization of communication modes and the ability to create seamless experiences, have improved.
In the Forrester Consulting study “Reignite Growth with Hybrid Customer Experiences,” the success of hybrid marketing efforts is directly linked to the emergence of a hybrid consumer. Hybrid customer experiences therefore represent the creation of an interactive relationship between brand and customer, taking the form of relevant and contextualized experiences that span devices, applications, and touchpoints, from digital to analogue, throughout the customer journey. The goal is the same as any other marketing strategy: to bring the best customer experience possible. By combining both marketing methods, communication becomes more agile and adaptable to the public, transforming into a better perception of the brand by users.
Today, hybrid marketing continues to offer consumers alternative ways to respond and connect, but it does so by making even more intensive and targeted use of the most precious resource of all: data. A phone call, a chat (also with AI-based chatbots), a face-to-face meeting, an email exchange, a video conference, a webinar, an interactive video, an event with hospitality, a meeting. Regardless of how the first contact with the consumer occurred, the relationship with the brand can be built through different types of interaction, using more than one channel, online and offline. Instead of focusing on one or at most a couple of marketing channels to convey their messages and tell their identity, organizations alternate different techniques, digital and traditional. Advanced software allows you to extract from the flow of information coming from the many touchpoints the insights necessary to create tailor-made and therefore more significant content and proposals. Personalized digital communications, in-person meetings, direct mail, and email – any medium can be helpful in guiding your target audience along the purchasing journey. The objective shifts even further to the reference target: directing the offer to individual customers (acquired and potential) and allowing them to respond in the way they prefer. Since it relies on different channels, the brand increases visibility and recall, the customer has the opportunity to be an ambassador by talking about it with his contacts and, consequently, brand awareness and turnover improve.
Hybrid marketing is very effective for B2C strategies, but according to McKinsey it will play an increasingly decisive role in B2B sales strategies. By 2024, hybrid marketing will emerge as the dominant approach, capable of generating up to 50% more revenue. B2B customers are experts and have clear ideas about this