‘Tis the season for recap posts! We recently shared the cross-channel marketing campaigns, trends and strategies we loved in our “Best of 2018” Omnivore webinar, so what better way to end the year than to spotlight a few of our favorites.
Let’s get right to it—if you’re looking for cross-channel marketing inspiration, then look no further than these amazing brands.
We’ve also included a few honorary mentions in each category, thanks to our webinar panelists and the fabulous members of Women of Email.
1. Best Bridge of Online & Offline Communication: Talbots
It’s common for email marketing to incentivize a store visit, but it’s rarer to see this tactic in reverse. Talbot’s nails in-store follow-up with this thoughtful email.
Talbots builds brand affinity with a seamless store-to-email experience.
A great way to take this message to the next level could be to personalize the image based on items the shopper purchased in store.
Worried about avoiding the creep factor? Don’t commit to sending in-store follow-ups after every visit if the customer is a frequent shopper.
Frequency optimization, available in modern growth marketing platforms, can also help determine the right cadence for each subscriber, ensuring appropriate message timing—every time.
Honorary mentions: Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond
2. Best Frictionless Experience: Pinterest
Pinterest connects all channels with its truly integrated approach.
When it comes to seamless integrating marketing channels, Pinterest is an industry leader.
Earlier this year when Google announced AMP for Email, Pinterest wowed the email community with a demo that effectively recreated its app experience in the inbox.
Whether it’s a personalized push notification or an email promotion for top recipes, Pinterest paves the way for cross-channel marketing.
Honorary mentions: Starbucks, Lyft
3. Best Subscriber Hospitality: Hilton
Marketing innovators understand the golden rule: treat your audience as you want to be treated. And nobody gets hospitality quite like Hilton.
Hilton’s push to preferences center impresses Women of Email cofounder Jen Capstraw in our recent Omnivore webinar.
When Hilton Honors members are approaching a rewards upgrade, they receive a mobile push that motivates another reservation. 20% more bonus points is an attention-grabbing perk, but even more impressive is their call-to-action to their preferences center.
There you can opt into (or out of) stay alerts and reminders, in-stay offers, and membership status updates.
And in their truly cross-channel strategy, you can also manage your email subscriptions on your mobile device, including monthly statements, partner news, and special announcements.
Honorary mentions: Stack Overflow, Le Creuset
4. Best Personalization: Spotify
Josh Aberant, VP of Growth at Iterable, highlights Spotify for localizing content for its hundreds of millions of users.
Around this time of year, growth marketers are giving kudos to Spotify for what is quite possibly the world’s most personalized cross-channel marketing campaign: its Wrapped year-in-review.
And while that campaign epitomizes peak individualization, we also wanted to highlight more underrated and underutilized forms of personaliation—including localization.
Every day Spotify serves up dynamic content for hundreds of millions of users around the globe, which you can see in the various languages represented in the push notifications above.
Your brand may not know how many hours of Taylor Swift your customers listened to, but it can show just as much love to your international audience.
Honorary mentions: YouTube, Apple
5. Best Innovative Content: The Hustle
The Hustle goes where other newsletters dare not with its irreverent reporting.
Email newsletters have made a comeback, and The Hustle dominates the scene with its highly anticipated content.
According to MediaPost, The Hustle has over 900,000 subscribers, doubling readership in the past year and generating 40% open rates.
The Hustle’s “Shower Thoughts” keep us coming back for more.
It’s worth noting that innovative and engaging doesn’t have to mean original; in fact, many of today’s most successful newsletters simply curate content and add creative commentary.
Pulled from Reddit and sponsored by brands like MVMT, The Hustle’s “Shower Thoughts” shown above brings the chuckles with every click-through.
Honorary mentions: Chubbies, CB Insights
BONUS—Best Marketing Trend of 2018: Dogs
When the world feels divisive, chaotic and exhausting, there’s one thing that’s sure to unify humanity—our fluffy best friend.
How could you NOT click that button? You win, Glossier.
Pet companies like BarkBox have always been crushing the marketing game, but this year, brands that have nothing to do with dogs realized the power of canine cuteness.
During Black Friday, we noticed Eddie Bauer, Bissell, Anthropologie, and Fabletics use puppies to persuade shoppers. Even Amazon saved face during Prime Day glitches with error pages that invited you to “meet the dogs of Amazon.”
The trick with this trend is to have already established trust with your audience. If your brand’s on a downward spiral, then an apology from your Director of Barketing is not going to work miracles.
(Dog) food for thought!
Congrats to These Cross-Channel Marketing Campaigns
We hope you enjoyed our Best of 2018 recap—join us on social to give a shout-out to your favorite brands, and stay tuned for more growth marketing trends, tips, and tricks in 2019!
Happy holidays!
