In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about MultiChannel Malfunction and what you need to know about that.

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MultiChannel Malfunction

I am a huge believer in the power of how people think, I even have a rant on the subject - this one thing is so often the root problem in the land of Interactive. One of my very favorite powerpoint slides - that I use in maybe a half dozen different presentations of mine - reads :

"The second you decide you are too stupid, it becomes true."

So with that firmly in mind I got to thinking about folks that use the word MultiChannel and how the net impact is a dramatic increase in stupidity.

For those of you that don't know "MultiChannel Marketing" is the idea of using many different "channels" (like a retail store, a web site, a mail order catalog, etc) to reach customers.

The first mention of this phrase that I can find is from about 1780 (talking about roads in rural areas as new 'channels' no less) , with very limited usage until about 1960. As best as I can tell this was a big rage in the 1980's and has recently resurfaced as assorted old school marketing folks run head on into Interactive and the simple fact that the Internet has forever and permanently changed the way marketing works and the way people buy things.

Many folks see MultiChannel as a "modern" method and idea - and they couldn't be more wrong. I see people in Interactive getting sucked into using the word because it feels nice and safe - it seems we have learned that old school words make people calm down a bit about the web.

In an ideal world (wouldn't it be nice it live there, none of us do) MultiChannel coordinates marketing across different vehicles to raise the overall impact on the customer and increase sales. But that isn't what happens in the real world - three things always happen in MultiChannel:

• Companies seek the source of the order as a primary metric
• Companies setup channels that compete with each other
• Companies ignore their customer's experience very aggressively

In the direct to consumer mail order business they have this thing called 'matchback' - where they take the list of folks that placed an order, they take the list of folks that were mailed a catalog and - you guessed it, they "match" them and presto chango we know the reason the person ordered is because we mailed them a catalog.

This is totally crazy, bunk, bubkis, utter and stinky piles of misconception here for sure. I'll get to how I know that for certain (as does everyone that does this) in just a sec but first a quick story about my little greenhouse here on Sunshine Acres Farm.

I have 6 really nice raised beds, each is 4 feet wide and 25 feet long. Early last season I decided to put one of them under cover and so I found a lovely little hoop house type product and spent about $750 on materials. Ever since I placed that order the company has been mailing me dead trees (catalogs) left and right which mostly just pisses me off as I recycle each one.

When I go to place the order this spring for my next hoop house (I want to try and do eggplants here in Maine which requires stupidity, ahem, I mean courage) I am very certain that this company will "match me back" against their mail file and conclude I bought because they mailed me lots of expensive catalogs.

Now over in another channel of theirs - the website - which is where I actually came from, they are executing a pretty ok email marketing program. I click on some of the stuff and I may well get inspired if they run a special this spring.

As this is a multichannel malfunction company those email folks are also trying to prove my order came from them - and with all those clicks they'll do just that.

So here comes the rub and the reason that anyone who does this analysis knows it is a steaming pile of misconception - when you run 'matchback' across multiple channels everybody takes credit - and so on average we account for more than 150% of the orders.

Here's another brain bender for all of the "catalogs push people to websites" marketing folks - do you think that perhaps any mailed piece (including a super cheap postcard) would do the exact same thing? Because some companies like Dell and Harry & David seem to think so. (can you tell that wasted marketing dollars make Ross very unhappy? Sorry.)

Ok - so we've covered the source of the order as a primary metric problem - and it doesn't take much to see how that sets up competition in your company as your website "competes" with your print stuff, your retail store, etc - and when times are not good (like the last few years) that competition tends to turn nasty pretty fast.

Ever been into a store where all the salespeople are on pure commission?
Ever run the other direction when you experienced that?

So that covers our second point pretty well - but the last issue, the customer experience is actually the most important.

In the long long ago and far away there was this thing called MultiChannel. It depended (and still does) on the idea that a customer used your catalog, or your retail store, or your website, or whatever else you may be thinking of - each customer goes into one of our multiple channels and buys from us with extreme joy. If they buy from two channels they are said to have "migrated", which is often viewed as a good thing.

Today we have this really nasty and simple problem - customers don't act like that anymore. They haven't for about 20 years now.

They want to seamlessly travel between their mobile phone, their printed piece, a retail store, an email, and all the other stuff you have going on.

There is lots of excitement today about mobile - and the growth rates there are staggering.

Do you know the most common source of a mobile checkout today? Items added to cart elsewhere. So folks use a website to put items in their cart and then a mobile app to checkout and buy. I have to agree with these statistics, that's how I use Amazon on my iPhone for sure.

This is why companies that have separate shopping carts on their mobile stores and main website have such piss poor sales figures. Got to integrate it folks, that's a must have.

So what does all this mean to you, the entrepreneur?

The next time you hear someone say MultiChannel you should question whether or not they may be causing malfunctions for your customer. Reject order source metrics that add to more than 100% - heck, reject any pie chart you see that adds to 178% for gosh sakes.

Finally - keep your focus where it belongs - on the crosschannel experience your customer wants to have. Making it seamless means abandoning much of your old school thinking but your customer will love you for it and you will indeed get to live happily ever after.

Great Google Expectations Fulfilled

The last issue of this newsletter talked about how I could not connect Google with Great Expectations but I had a T-Shirt for anyone that could. Well, we have two winners.......

From Heidi Wurpel at Crescendo Consulting Group:

Great Geek Game Ross! Ok my best go:

Pip doesn’t know where his money is coming from but based on the limited data he has, he makes broad assumptions (totally wrong) and believes that:

a.) it will continue coming with no strings attached forever
b.) his benefactor is who you’d expect
c.) who’s really giving him the money (once he realizes who it is) is not that great and he wishes for someone else

Now convert to analytics: Most entrepreneurs (Pip in my example) don’t really know where their money/ traffic is coming from on their websites but based on their limited data make broad assumption on who their customers are and their motives for shopping with them. Furthermore, they:

a.) believe the customers will continue coming to the website and giving them money for nothing forever
b.) assume their customer is who you’d expect – when really it could be niche market (convicts?)
c.) sometimes find out who their customers really are and yet are often unhappy and still want to talk to someone else (particularly homeowners’ with incomes of 75K+ and a college education)

And from Frank DiPaolo of Earthbox:

Pip says, “It was a miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.” (Replace home with the current state of my Adwords account)

Nice Work here! Thanks so much to the both Heidi and Frank - your T-Shirts will go in the mail this week.