Reach your customers where they’re most active at the right time with cross-device marketing. 

Image courtesy of Pexels. 

 

Knowing that U.S. households have an average of 11 connected devices, you can no longer assume your customers are viewing your website or social channels on a desktop or laptop. In today’s mobile world, you have to account for the traditional desktop, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and even TVs. 

And that’s why we’re here talking about the idea of cross-device marketing. As the world around us changes, we as marketers need to continue to evolve with it — and that evolution is headed towards multi-device and channel marketing. 

Cross-device marketing is the idea of communicating to your audiences through the various devices and channels they use on a daily basis. When done right, cross-device marketing can improve the overall customer experience and boost your campaign performance in the process. 

You may be thinking, “my brand is already adapting to the mobile environment and marketing to multiple devices and channels.” But are you building a customer experience that puts all of these different touchpoints into one comprehensive journey? 

If not, now’s the time to embrace cross-device marketing and develop a seamless experience from one device to another. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at ten tools to help make your cross-device marketing transition smoother — and provide you with tips to nail your strategy. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the topics we’ll cover: 

• Ten cross-device marketing tools you need to know
• The benefits of cross-device marketing
• Tips to help you nail your cross-device marketing 

10 Cross-Device Marketing Tools

When it comes to cross-device marketing, there are tons of tools available to help make your transition smoother. From collecting, managing, and analyzing data to allowing you to automate and integrate your various digital channels — the right tool can save you time and money in the long run. 

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at ten cross-device marketing tools to help you find the perfect match for your needs. As you read through these, you’ll notice that some platforms can help you manage all of your marketing needs while others focus on more specific areas such as digital advertising. 

So what are you waiting for? Dive in and start learning about how these tools can help you take your cross-device marketing to the next level. 

1. Listrak

Listrak is a marketing automation platform that can help you manage and connect all of your digital channels from one central location. Whether you’re launching a new SMS campaign, developing trigger emails, or looking to grow your social presence — Listrak can help you achieve your goals. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Create intelligent journeys that engage your customers at the right time, with the right content through real-time behavioral tracking
• Develop email marketing campaigns that integrate dynamic content and predictive analytics to create a more comprehensive experience
• Integrate trigger messages throughout your channels to attract, engage, and retain customers throughout their journey
• Implement SMS and MMS messaging to take your cross-device marketing to the next level and reach customers via mobile phones

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, social media, SMS and MMS messaging, digital advertising, predictive analytics capabilities, mobile push notifications

Featured clients: rue21, Jimmy Jazz, TULA Skincare, Rainbow

The best solution for: Listrak is an excellent solution for retail businesses of all sizes who want to implement a cross-device, cross-channel marketing strategy.

Website: https://www.listrak.com/

2. MailChimp

MailChimp has grown from one of the most well-known email marketing platforms to a full-scale marketing automation tool. With the help of this tool, you can manage multiple different channels from one location. This makes it easier to develop a comprehensive customer experience that will increase both engagement and conversion rates. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Email marketing capabilities that allow you to reach customers and increase conversions based on their real-time interactions 
• Build custom website pages and integrate them with all of your other digital marketing efforts to build a comprehensive experience
• Automate workflows that interact and engage with your audiences at the right moment based on the actions they have taken on your website
• Develop campaigns linked to your mobile app to keep users engaged and coming back for more

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, remarketing capabilities, real-time product recommendations, mobile app marketing, website optimization

Featured clients: New Belgium Brewing, Vimeo, TED, 17th Street Athletic Club

The best solution for: MailChimp is the right solution for small businesses looking to automate and grow their business. 

Website: https://mailchimp.com/

3. Marin Software

Marin Software is a digital advertising tool that can help you elevate your cross-device marketing through various channels. Whether it’s connecting your search and social efforts or helping identify the ROI of your ads — Marin Software can help take your ad strategy to the next level. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Use search advertising to help grow your business through all of the big players, including Google, Bing, Apple Search Ads, and more
• Build a seamless experience across channels including search and social media to reach more of your target audience
• Connect Google ads with Amazon conversions to see a realistic view of your ROI and better optimize your ads for conversion
• Gain valuable insights into what advertising strategies are working and areas that you may have an opportunity for improvement

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: SEO and SEM, social media, eCommerce, Amazon Attribution, 

Featured clients: Dell, Tempcover, eharmony, Lendingtree

The best solution for: Marin Software is a good solution for mid-sized businesses looking to improve their digital advertising capabilities and build a cross-device strategy.

Website: https://www.marinsoftware.com/

4. Percolate

Percolate is a marketing platform that focuses on improving your brand’s content marketing efforts across all of your marketing channels. From emails and custom landing pages to promotions and social media, Percolate helps you manage it all. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Utilize their Integrated Campaigns feature to develop full, cross-device campaigns with less stress
• See the big picture of your multi-channel campaigns with campaign dashboards and content production schedules 
• Manage content through workflows to visualize the entire lifecycle
• Use real campaign data to help drive future initiatives and continue to improve your content over time

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, social media, digital advertising, full campaign view, and management capabilities

Featured clients: Sivantos, Alra, Gartner, Forrester

The best solution for: Percolate is a good option for enterprise-level businesses looking to manage and develop cross-channel content marketing campaigns.

Website: https://percolate.com/

5. MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey is a cross-device marketing tool that allows you to easily engage with your customers through direct messaging across multiple channels. Whether it’s someone who landed on your website with general questions or sending targeted ads directly to your audience through Facebook — MobileMonkey can help you manage every interaction. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Chatbot capabilities to help you reach and assist customers across various platforms and locations
• Quickly build and send SMS marketing campaigns that engage customers and provide them with easy opt-in instructions
• Reach customers through Facebook Messenger Ads and see a drastic increase in advertising conversion rates
• Take action and respond to customers across all of your channels from an easy-to-use mobile app that you can take with you everywhere 

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: chatbots, SMS messaging, social media advertising, mobile app, contact growth tools

Featured Clients: Neil Patel, SEMrush, Backlino, Growth Hackers

The best solution for: MobileMonkey is a good solution for businesses of all sizes looking to implement chatbots and direct messaging into their strategy.

Website: https://mobilemonkey.com/

6. Cordial 

Cordial provides businesses with a platform that allows them to leverage their real-time data to drive a more personalized marketing experience. From improving your email marketing capabilities to integrating relevant mobile app push notifications — you can reach your customers when they need it the most. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Utilize customer data to send personalized emails based on real-time interactions and triggers
• Use customers data to send relevant and timely push notifications and triggered messages to app users 
• Leverage and connect highly successful SMS messages with your other channels to improve campaign success
• Track website visitors to improve personalization and attract and retain more site visitors

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, push and in-app messaging, SMS, website conversion capabilities

Featured Clients: Revolve, TOMS, Lucky Brand, Purple

The best solution for: Cordial is a good solution for companies of all sizes looking to improve their cross-device marketing.

Website: https://cordial.com/

7. Basis by Centro

Basis by Centro is a platform that is designed to help you plan, buy, analyze, and streamline your digital media campaigns. With the help of automation workflows, real-time data, and strategic integrations, Basis by Centro will help you stay ahead of the curve. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Create and manage direct, programmatic, search, and social from one central location 
• Tap into Basis’ artificial intelligence engine to identify areas of opportunity for your omnichannel marketing campaigns
• Utilize monthly reporting to understand better how your channels are working together and where you’re successfully converting new audiences
• Create customized dashboards to help you pin-point actionable items and make data-driven decisions around your digital marketing efforts 

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: search, social, programmatic, and direct marketing

Featured Clients: Broadway Across America, Braintrust Agency, VI Marketing, and Branding

The best solution for: Basis by Centro is a good solution for businesses of all sizes looking to optimize digital media campaigns.

Website: https://www.centro.net/solutions/basis

8. Choozle 

Choozle is a digital advertising platform that will allow you to reach the right customers with hyper-targeted campaigns easily. Having the ability to easily create, execute, and manage all of your digital ads from one platform will make your cross-device marketing a breeze. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Easily execute your digital advertising campaigns from one central platform and increase the reach and performance of your ads
• Improve ad targeting with the help of first and third-party data and target customers based on location, device, and across multiple channels at once
• Stay ahead of up and coming trends such as geoframing, device ID, lookalike modeling, and more 
• Use monthly reporting data to help you identify areas what campaigns were successful and areas of opportunity

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: desktop, mobile, tablet, cross-channel marketing

Featured Clients: Smart Healthy Green Living, Madden Media, Programmatic B2B

The best solution for:  Choozle is a good solution for small to mid-sized businesses looking to improve their digital advertising strategy 

Website: https://choozle.com/

9. Blueshift

Blueshift is a digital marketing tool that helps businesses deliver an omnichannel experience to each and every customer on an individual level. With this tool’s help, you can easily understand customer data, segment your audiences, and act on their real-time data across multiple channels and devices. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• By better understanding your customers with a 360-degree customer profile, you can improve targeting across all channels
• Use AI predictions to make smart decisions on where and when to show content to each customer
• Build workflows to make cross-device and cross-channel marketing easier and automatic
• Test your efforts to find the most effective solution based on real-time customer feedback

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, mobile marketing, website management, contextual chat, and more

Featured Clients: ClearScore, Artifact Uprising, Discovery, Inc. Skill Share

The best solution for: Blueshift is a good solution for small to medium-sized businesses looking to manage and automate their online presence 

Website: https://blueshift.com/

10. Autopilot

Autopilot is a marketing automation software that can help you reach and interact with customers across various platforms from one location. Whether you’re looking to contact them directly through text message marketing or hoping to win-back site visitors through remarketing — Autopilot has a solution for you. 

Cross-Device Marketing Tools: 

• Build customer journeys across multiple channels to ensure you’re providing a comprehensive experience
• Easily create and send personalized emails that speak to your customers on a one-on-one level
• Send messages based on real-time interactions directly to customers via SMS marketing for the most visibility
• Retarget site visitors once they’ve left your site without purchasing on both Google and Facebook

Quick Facts: 

Cross-device capabilities: email, SMS marketing, in-app messaging, Facebook retargeting, Google Ads, and Postcard marketing

Featured Clients: Lessonly, Kindly Care, RangeMe, Oscar Razor

The best solution for: Autopilot is a great tool for business of all sizes who are looking to develop a cross-device marketing plan

Website: https://www.autopilothq.com/

Benefits of Cross-Device Marketing 

There are many benefits that come with cross-device marketing. Whether you’re looking to understand better how your marketing efforts are being perceived or looking to increase customer acquisition and retention numbers — cross-device marketing can help you achieve your goals. 

In this section, we’ll take a look at a few benefits you can expect to see from investing in cross-device marketing. 

Better Understand the Impact of Your Marketing Efforts

Sometimes, it can be hard to determine precisely how your marketing campaigns are performing and if your content is resonating with your audiences. 

Luckily, with cross-device marketing, you can start to pinpoint exactly what marketing channels are your highest performing and why. Through a better understanding of how your marketing efforts are impacting your audience, you can then continue to do what is working and stop what isn’t in your future campaigns. 

Once you have a better idea of the impact that your marketing efforts are making, you can continue to make informed decisions and develop more effective cross-device marketing campaigns in the future. 

Know Where to Focus Your Time and Money

Having insight into where your highest performing content is will allow you to know where to invest more of your time and money. 

If you find that your team is spending endless hours a month on your Facebook page only to receive 100 new engagements in that timeframe — you’re wasting your time on an outlet that is not where your audience is. 

But, if you’re seeing high open and conversion rates with nearly all of your SMS messages, then you know this is somewhere, you should be focusing your efforts. This could also be an indication that you need to be thinking with a mobile-first mindset when it comes to all of your other marketing channels. 

By taking the time to learn and understand where your current marketing efforts are making an impact will allow you to improve your efforts and stop wasting time on unnecessary tasks. You’re sure to see higher productivity and efficiency numbers once 

Increase Customer Acquisition and Retention 

Cross-device marketing is a great way to increase customer acquisition and retention rates.  

There are multiple different ways you can attract new customers on various devices. Whether it’s through a contact us form on your website, SMS marketing campaign, or reaching a new customer through digital advertising — you can be reaching new customers all the time. 

Once you’ve captured new leads, you can then enroll them in lead nurturing and loyalty programs to keep them engaged. These campaigns can span multiple channels and devices through event emails, promotional SMS messages, and more to keep users coming back to your site. 

If you find that users are still becoming inactive even with your nurturing campaigns, you can create last-minute win-back campaigns. These can trigger once a user has become inactive for 30, 60, or 90 days and maybe the last effort to bring them back to active status. 

By interacting with customers on multiple devices, at all of these different stages of the journey, you can increase the likelihood of keeping people interested and interested in your brand. 

Tips to Nail Your Cross-Device Marketing 

Now that you have the tools you need to get started and know some of the benefits you can expect with cross-device marketing, and now it’s time to put it all to work. From managing and understanding your data to map out the journey, your customers will take — you can nail your strategy with these tips. 

Implementing each of these tips will help you develop a high-performing cross-device marketing strategy that will attract, retain, and engage your audiences. 

1. Cleanse and Understand Your Data

You’re collecting hundreds of different data points on your customers every single day. From the product pages they view on your website to the emails and SMS messages they engage with, it can all provide you with valuable insights — if you know how to use it. 

That’s why the first step to creating a killer cross-device marketing strategy is to cleanse and understand your data. 

If you have hundreds of thousands of data bits, but it’s filled with useless, unnecessary information it can be overwhelming knowing where to start. This is where the idea of cleansing your data comes into play. 

The cleaner data you start with, the more successful you’ll be in understanding and taking action. 

The process of cleansing your data is an important step to ensuring success in all facets of your marketing efforts. It will provide your campaigns with improved relevancy and increase overall performance. Image courtesy of Geeks for Geeks.

While there are plenty of tools out there to help you cleanse your data, here are a few things you’ll want to get rid of: 

• Remove irrelevant values 
• Eliminate duplicate values
• Typos or extra characters
• Identify and fill in missing values

Practicing data cleansing will help you wade through the mess and identify the most relevant data to your needs. 

Then, you need to have an understanding of your data and how you can use it to develop a cross-device marketing strategy. This can often be a hard task simply because of the mass amounts of data you collect on a daily basis — but it’s so important.

While most companies already understand the importance of data and analytics when it comes to developing business strategies, many find it is still one of their biggest challenges. 

Top-level management across companies agree that data is very important when it comes to building business strategies. It can help drive new initiates and growth but is often still one of the biggest challenges companies face. Image courtesy of Ironside. 

During this step, take a closer look at the data you have at hand and start to identify some trends and opportunities.

For example, you might learn that a certain segment engages most with your email and Facebook marketing. This gives you direct insight into what platforms you should be putting your efforts into to attract this audience and get the biggest bang for your buck. 

If you choose to invest in one of the tools we discussed earlier in this article, then this step will be even easier. Each of these tools provides you with data gathering and analyzing capabilities — and can do the hard work for you.

Another valuable tool when it comes to data understanding is artificial intelligence and predictive technology. These tools can help you not only understand your data but automate and predict what each customer will likely do in the near future — keeping you ahead of their needs and available right when they need you. 

2. Identify Channels That Work Together Seamlessly 

This will probably come as no surprise, but there are certain channels and devices that work together just a little better than others. 

For example, an email marketing and storefront campaign might not resonate with a customer. If there is a large gap of time between the email and the store visit, the customer has most likely already forgotten about your email. 

But, if you did a geo targeted SMS campaign that was sent to the customer’s smartphone when they walked past your store — then the storefront campaign is much more likely to resonate. 

There are tons of different avenues you can incorporate into your cross-channel marketing strategy. Here are just a few different channels you may choose to incorporate:

• Storefront marketing
• PPC and digital advertising
• Your website 
• Direct mailing
• Email marketing
• Mobile marketing

So how do you know what channels will work together to reach your audiences the best? Through your data. Learn where your target audience already is and identify trends on what types of content they are already engaging with. 

With this insight, you’ll know exactly where to get started. 

It’s been proven that across various industries, consumers are shopping through multiple different devices. There’s no longer one clear cut journey that leads someone to purchase, there are many stops along the way. 

So no matter how you choose to go about it, using multiple channels will increase your conversion rates and directly impact your bottom line. 

Knowing that your customers are using smartphones, laptops, tablets, and more to shop for your products — you need to be present in all of these locations. Having a comprehensive experience will make their journey more enjoyable and help you land more sales. Image courtesy of Knexus. 

In addition to all of this, you want to find the channels that work well for your brand. Trying to be present on every single channel is a lot to manage, and it’s just not realistic for most companies. 

This can also be true for the device type your customers are using. While most companies need to think mobile-first, there are some industries where mobile shopping isn’t very common or slow to catch on. 

By finding the channels and devices that are the highest performing, you can spend more time focusing on and improving your efforts in those areas, rather than wasting time on areas that are underperforming. 

Now we probably are starting to sound like a broken record, but knowing your data will help you make the best decision on where to put your focus. You likely already have all the insights you need to get started and identify what areas are the highest performing. 

When it comes to cross-device marketing, don’t waste your time trying to be a jack of all trades. Stick with what you know and what’s already working — then build upon that to create a more comprehensive and engaging experience. 

Making the decision to focus on one specific area that your visitors are already interacting with will allow you to continuously improve these channels. This will, in turn, provide you with higher engagement and conversion rates with a lower effort level. 

3. Know What Your Customer Journey Looks Like

Knowing what your brand’s customer journey looks like will give you valuable insights into how and when your customers are engaging (or not engaging) with your content. This can help you identify gaps and areas of opportunity. 

Customer journeys can help you better understand how your customers are engaging with your brand across multiple channels. With this knowledge, you can then develop strategies to integrate cross-channel marketing efforts to move users towards a purchase. Image courtesy of Koobr. 

One of the common challenges that come with developing high-level customer journeys is that you can only really visualize one workflow. But, when it comes to developing a cross-device strategy, you can see how a customer is moving through the journey across multiple channels.

Whether they start their journey through a digital ad on Google or by signing up through a contact form on your website, you can identify what they do next.  

From there, you can easily see where people are converting and where they may be abandoning your site. Use this insight to help identify when a customer is eligible for a specific campaign across all devices and automatically enroll them.

Cross-Device Marketing and The Future of Your Marketing 

Cross-device marketing can help take your business to the next level. By knowing exactly when and where to reach your customers, you can increase campaign visibility and boost monthly metrics.

Knowing that your customers are shopping across multiple channels and devices before making a purchasing decision, choosing to move towards a multi-channel, multi-device marketing strategy is a smart move. 

Whether you’re looking to integrate one, two, or more cross-device marketing efforts, you won’t be disappointed. You’ll gain valuable insights, find new and more effective ways to reach your audiences, and stop wasting time and money on marketing efforts that aren’t performing. 

So what do you think? Does cross-device marketing sound like something your company is ready to invest in?