Government Multichannel Marketing: How to Seduce Citizens to the Web Channels?

Governments have a variety of channels at their disposal to interact with their citizens. Having realized that citizens still prefer the traditional channels, such as the front desk and the telephone, governments have to (re)think their multichannel marketing (MCM) strategies. In order to be successful, not only knowledge on citizen multichannel behavior is required but also on the effects of MCM instruments. Questions such as how do citizens´ perceive the various instruments and to what extent are the instruments associated with each other rise up. Moreover, can instruments be used to target specific citizen segments? Based on qualitative depth interviews we formulate constructs to measure the citizens´ perceptions on the instruments. Subsequently, we answer our research questions based on a quantitative survey amongst almost 2,000 citizens. As a result, this research increases the knowledge on government MCM and as such the possibilities to influence citizen multichannel behavior.