It also means that those marketers responsible for managing those channels need to be tightly coordinated with with the rest of the company to set proper expectations and deliver consistent and/or complementary messages between your channels.
This McKinsey article does a great job of describing how we all need to be marketers and how marketing permeates every facet of today's businesses.
There are two key steps to achieving this goal:
1. Data - The Key to Understanding your Audience(s): This should be based upon whatever criteria is important to your business - how partners and customers connect with you, their preferences, their behaviors... Today's marketers must capture and learn how to extract the value from the data filling up corporate databases. It is one of your most competitive weapons. Data and turning that data into a meaningful interactive experience is the "new" marketing. It is the first step to determining your product/service, channel and communications strategies.
2. Communicate Consistently and Appropriately: within and across each audience or channel. If your communications are not relevant and timely, or if you send mixed messages to your audiences then you are undermining all your great planning and strategy. Don't let this happen. As the McKinsey article points out, this is the responsibility of all employees. Everyone in the company should understand their role in "marketing" to your customers and business partners.
In support of the second point above, I've recently come across a unique Messaging Integration Matrix tool created by boutique firm Competitive Advantage Management. It is designed to help businesses achieve the exact kind of integrated user experience set out in the McKinsey article. It's worth checking out.
As for me, well, I'm passionate about all the amazing things you can do with the data. Data access is the foundation of my current business, so I am speaking from experience. However you get or source your data, it is the key to relevance, regardless of your channel, product or communications strategies. When you use it wisely and respect it, your customers and your partners will share even more.
