Outside The Inbox: Marketing Performance Better With Multi-Channel Campaigns (New Study)

Bundling wasn’t invented when Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend began starring in insurance commercials together. After all, marketers have been bundling messages and combining channels in their outreach efforts for years.

A new study by Customer.io entitled The State of Messaging is showcasing how much marketers relied on multi-channel campaigns as well as how much email marketing was an integral component, though not a singular be-all, end-all.

“Brands used more channels — especially mobile — and increased their message volume across them all,” the report says on its findings from 2 years of platform data and insights from 360 survey and poll responses. “While email is still central to brands’ strategies, the state of messaging is increasingly focused on connecting with customers across multiple touchpoints, with multi-channel campaigns providing superior performance.”

Not only was there a 26% YoY increase in email volume in 2023, but 44% more brands used at least two channels, with the largest channel combination being email combined with push.

(Source: Customer.io)

“Brands that took advantage of more than one channel in their messaging strategies were rewarded with higher performance,” the report says. “Mixing two or more channels, such as in-app + push or SMS + push, yielded significantly higher conversions than using a single channel alone. Three channels seemed to hit the sweet spot, producing 244% better conversion rates than single-channel approaches.”

Management platforms such as Mirabel’s Marketing Manager have made it easier to unify all marketing and sales efforts, ensuring higher-quality leads and providing the intelligent tools to reach them. The report forecasts that, in 2024, the top emerging trend expected to impact automation and engagement (not named AI, of course) is personalization, an effort that 73% say they intend to increase.

“Leveraging customer data allows brands to wield various personalization tactics, and they’re seeing the highest ROI from behavioral triggers, dynamic content, and personalized email subject lines,” the report says. “Notably, 63% of brands point to behavioral triggers as yielding high ROI — reflecting a focus on responding to customer actions in addition to tailoring content.”