Fed Up With Red Tape? Here Are 3 Tactics to Advance Your Marketing Strategy and Stay On The Right Side of Regulators. A multi-channel marketing strategy is key to scale your company, but red tape means heavily regulated industries fall short. Use these three tactics to advance your marketing strategy and stay on the right side of customers and regulators.
By Douglas Wilber Edited by Maria Bailey
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Personalization is no longer an optional business strategy: 71% of consumers expect personalized experiences with brands, and even more express frustration with businesses that miss the mark. But it's not enough to just personalize the message — you must also tailor the delivery to the consumer's channel of choice.
Gone are the days when brands could broadcast through a single platform. Today, the omnichannel customer experience reigns supreme, and that means the consumer is in the driver's seat. Omnichannel marketing is the seamless integration of branding, personalized messaging and online and offline touchpoints that create a more profound customer experience.
For one person, omnichannel marketing could mean going to your website and then expecting to see a paid social ad for their product of interest within the next few minutes. For another, it could mean reading online reviews and jumping to a direct messaging app to continue the conversation directly with a brand representative. Regardless of their journey, your startup needs to focus on keeping the customer happy and putting your business top of mind.
Brands need to have many avenues for consumers to discover and engage, and for the most part, they're wise to this reality: A whopping 88% of organizations identified delivering outstanding customer experiences as a major priority, and 63% want to enhance digital customer communications.
Teams need to be aware that omnichannel marketing is resource-intensive, especially when integrating paid social media advertising and organic social selling. And be prepared for even greater challenges if you're in regulated industries like financial services, insurance and more.
Related: The Ethical Considerations of Digital Transformation
The uphill battle of omnichannel marketing in regulated industries
It's one thing to nail omnichannel marketing as a consumer brand. It's another thing entirely to do so in a heavily regulated space, like healthcare or finance. These industries, and more, are heavily regulated in order to maintain a level of integrity and customer trust. In one survey of startup executives, roughly 40% said that regulations directly shape their business models and offerings. But what does this look like in practice?
Consider overseeing business development for a bank. You must ensure every email, social media post and advertisement meets compliance and regulatory best practices. It doesn't stop there. You also have to archive every chat, comment or like. At the same time, you must respect consumers' privacy, which is no small feat considering how data-reliant omnichannel marketing really is and how often data privacy laws change.
Here's another example: While marketers at consumer brands can boast about their unbeatable prices until they're blue in the face, the same can't be said for insurance marketers. In fact, claiming your coverage at the lowest possible rate could actually be categorized as a deceptive statement and result in hefty fines. Insurers must have one eye on regulatory requirements at all times.
While regulations might make these strategies sound challenging (or impossible), the benefits are worth it: When done right, omnichannel marketing outperforms single-channel strategies across key performance and business development indicators. If you're in a heavily regulated industry, here are three ways you can carry your marketing strategy into the future — without going broke or drawing the ire of regulators.
1. Give consumers options
Like it or not, you cannot choose how consumers discover or engage with you. This is an opportunity for you to be present on multiple channels. Because there's no single path for consumers to communicate with your brand, you need to create interconnected online and offline experiences.
It's through these channels that consumers receive highly personalized messages and experiences — something they crave. 73% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations, and 62% expect companies to anticipate them. And according to McKinsey, most Generation Z shoppers don't even think in terms of traditional channel limitations. Consider Chase Bank: 69% of its customers are digitally active. It regularly prioritizes customer convenience, meeting customers both at physical branches and through multiple digital channels and ensuring the two strategies are complementary.
Which channels should you prioritize? The answer will vary depending on your industry and customer preferences. For instance, half of insurance customers rank personalized digital communication as a high priority, yet only 17% of insurers report using digital channels. But what's consistent across industries is the customers' preference for digital channels — namely, social media.
Related: Want Your Business to Succeed? Use These Tips to Understand Your Customer
2. Resource appropriately
Omnichannel marketing isn't a job for a lone summer intern — no matter how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Ideally, you'll build a team of eager-to-learn professionals with diverse backgrounds and specific expertise, such as email marketing, social media management, SEO, etc.
However, if hiring for multiple positions isn't yet financially feasible, prioritize strategy and execution. Find someone who's comfortable spinning multiple plates. They'll be responsible for a whole host of duties, from writing copy to running ad campaigns to handling social media marketing.
Being well-resourced also means investing in the appropriate marketing automation and management tools. Omnichannel marketing is too complex to manage on native platforms or spreadsheets — you need software that can give a bird's eye view of your communications. In fact, 64% of B2B marketers said implementing these tools improved their user experience and communication, not to mention driving better leads (by 55%), improved conversion rates (by 52%) and reduced costs (by 43%).
Having the right people and tools in your arsenal will not only help you scale your omnichannel marketing program, but also connect all the dots and keep you in compliance.
Related: Is Now the Best Time to Ramp Up Your Startup's Marketing Budget?
3. Partner with your compliance team
Marketing and compliance often have an us-versus-them dynamic. More specifically, marketers tend to see compliance as a drag on momentum rather than a strategic advantage.
It doesn't have to be this way if you get everyone on the same page. If you haven't yet, work with your compliance team to develop a code of conduct and policies and procedures that underscore your industry's most significant compliance risks. This will ensure everyone on the team is rowing in the same direction, no matter what department they work in. And as you expand channels and set up processes, guidelines and rules of the road, bring compliance with you. An easy way to do this is with software tools that integrate compliance. The right software can teach employees along the way and flag compliance concerns before mistakes happen. This changes the role of compliance officers from punishing enforcers to educators.
It's also best to establish a culture of compliance as early in your company's life as possible, so consider sharing compliance obligations across numerous roles and departments. Doing so demonstrates compliance isn't the job of a single person but rather everyone at the company.
Consumers have more options than ever, and they're not afraid to exercise them. They gravitate toward brands that can deliver products, experiences and recommendations tailored specifically to their needs and desires, and those expectations should be accounted for in your marketing strategy. Even if you're in a heavily regulated industry, you need to prioritize creating an omnichannel customer experience. Follow these three tips to streamline the process and keep yourself out of regulatory hot water.
