Smart online businesses are in agreement on the critical importance of "integrated" digital marketing opportunities. This is especially true today, knowing that the customer's journey is far more complex than ever before–try to analyze consumer interactions through your Google Analytics–and you will extract how different channels affect your website conversions. And it will be even more important to understand this, as the journey takes place on multiple screens.

Yet some companies still stick to marketing to consumers based on demographic data on a spreadsheet, and their strategies don't seem to adapt quick enough.

Consider display. Again, if you go to Google Analytics to analyze AdWords data, and examine the relationship between display impressions, clicks, and conversions, you will distill how display can have an impact on buying behavior, even when ads are not clicked. Generally, display ad impressions influence consumers at the beginning of the conversion funnel, and play an important role at the end.

Once companies start focusing on understanding how digital channels work together on the path to purchase by using simple tools, instead of mobilizing silent rebellions to manipulate excel macros, they will be able to offer customers content that is more relevant to their interests in each moment.

The best way to reach customers today who are living in a multi-screen cross-device world is, understanding what role each interaction plays. The bottom line is that a demographic-based strategy is far less profitable than a channel-based tactic.

When was the las time you reviewed channel interactions in Google Analytics?