Announcing the State of Cross-Channel Marketing in 2024 Industry Report

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MoEngage is excited to announce the State of Cross-Channel Marketing in 2024 Industry Report, created with cartoons and insights from Tom Fishburne, the Marketoonist. 

Cross-Channel Marketing in 2024 Report Highlights

Almost half (45%) of North American business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers said they struggle to move quickly enough to deliver timely, personalized customer experiences. 

Given this, it’s no surprise that 65% of marketers plan to increase their technology spending in 2024. These marketers use at least five engagement channels to reach customers but still have outdated technology tools and even spreadsheets to manage and optimize them. 

These are just some findings in The State of Cross-Channel Marketing 2024 report.

Methodology and Objectives

To create this report, we surveyed more than 1000+ B2C marketers and used data from over 700 of those respondents, from companies of various sizes across eight key industry sectors, including Ecommerce & Retail, Financial Services, and Media & Entertainment. 

The key objectives of the report are to gain insights around cross-channel marketing for:

• Top priorities in 2024 for B2C marketing professionals
• Biggest challenges and opportunities for brand marketing teams executing customer engagement campaigns
• Measuring and optimizing customer engagement efforts
• Building a successful cross-channel marketing program 

In addition to these answers, the report includes exclusive new illustrations by Marketoonist Creator Tom Fishburne that are as entertaining as they are insightful. Marketoonist is a cartoon studio focused on content marketing, thought leadership, and culture change.

“It was fun to work with MoEngage on this inspiring project, which I hope will be useful to brand marketers as we head into a new year. In my experience as a brand marketer, it’s imperative to continually invest in new technology as the industry evolves. It’s clear that marketers are bringing more channels into the day-to-day engagement strategy, so their tools must be up for the task.” – Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist

2024 Cross-Channel Marketing Themes

Acquisition Matters More Than Retention—But Should It?

In 2024, marketers indicate that they will measure success primarily through the lens of customer acquisition. Getting new customers is the top priority by a significant margin. 

Data from our survey shows that the top three objectives for brands in the new year are: 

1. Finding new customers (57%)
2. Increasing customer engagement/loyalty (44.9%) 
3. Retaining current customers (40.8%)

Marketers should take caution and keep sight of prioritizing customer retention this year. 

Retaining existing customers through personalized engagement can provide better ROI than focusing too much on acquisition. This is where having a well-integrated, personalized cross-channel marketing approach will yield rewards! 

The Customer Journey – an Unsolved Mystery?

39.5% of marketers said that delivering personalized experiences is one of the biggest challenges of customer engagement. A top reason for this is an inability to identify gaps in the customer journey (43.6%) – which is one of the top blind spots for marketers.

As Tom Fishburne explains, “One of the things I love playing with in cartoons is making intangible concepts tangible — in this case turning an ephemeral customer journey into an actual paved road. Humor often comes through exaggeration, and the quicksand trap in the final channel in the journey shows the fragmented state of cross-channel marketing. My hope is that visualizing this challenge helps make it easier for marketing teams to talk about and address.”

Email is Still a Top Customer Engagement Channel

Our new research shows that email marketing is alive and well in North America. The four most popular engagement channels that B2C marketers use are:

• Email (89.6%)
• Social Media (80.3%)
• Desktop Website (67.1%)
• Mobile Website (65%)
• Mobile App (49%)

The data points out a growing trend in digital spaces: Mobile Apps, SMS, and Push Notifications are on the rise. While they’re already showing a promising return on investment, marketers have barely scratched the surface of what these channels can do for customer engagement.

“The survey data shows marketers are spreading their wings across more channels, leading to an increase in active users,” explained Aditya Vempaty, VP of Marketing for MoEngage. “But they’re hitting a wall with tight budgets, data silos, and outdated tools. These barriers complicate their ability to do deeper data analysis. For a win in 2024, they’ll need to sharpen their strategies with personalized marketing, powered by fresh cross-channel marketing tech for deeper customer insights—avoiding the pitfalls of flying blind with old systems.”

Download your copy of the State of Cross-Channel Marketing report to access all of the insights (and new cartoons!) today.