As technology integrates more and more into our daily lives, consumer behavior and expectations are rapidly changing. Audiences expect 24/7 access and interaction with your business, which requires a consistent and integrated approach to selling goods and services. Once a buzzword, omnichannel marketing is now an imperative strategy for meeting today’s market demand.
Omnichannel Marketing
Whether you’re a B2C (business-to-consumer) or B2B (business-to-business) organization, omnichannel marketing is a customer-focused ecosystem delivering holistic and seamless experiences that meet customers on the channels they prefer at every stage of the buyer journey, including brick-and-mortar, websites, social media, in-app advertising, print catalogs, email, and virtual and in-person events.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Customer choice is the driving force behind consumer behavior, so you must be positioned to deliver the right content to prospective buyers at the right time. Omnichannel marketing creates a frictionless brand experience with consistent and complimentary messaging across all channels, devices, and platforms. Moreover, your company communications need to reflect real-time knowledge of consumer preferences and purchases. Omnichannel marketing helps expand your reach, increase profits, and improve customer satisfaction by relying on data and analytics to provide hyper-personalization at every stage of the buyer journey.
Simply put by Salesforce, “…omnichannel tools use integration capabilities to connect data sources. These sources give marketers a complete view of the customer journey, and allow them to configure marketing messages to specific channels and devices.”
Consider these scenarios:
Your organization is considering CRM technology. You do a Google search and find an article about the benefits of implementing a CRM platform. The article is authored by a leading CRM company and includes customer satisfaction testimonials and a link to watch a YouTube video on how to implement CRM software. As the video concludes, there is a button to sign up for a free trial. The free trial sign-up page has an automated chatbot to help answer questions. A few days after you’ve registered for and started the free trial, a sales associate follows up via email and phone to assist with selecting the software package that best meets your company’s needs. After completing your purchase, a customer success manager helps onboard and train your team on how to use the platform, ensuring strong adoption and ongoing engagement.
Your favorite shoe store sends an email announcing its print catalog will mail soon, featuring the newest collection. The catalog arrives with a coupon that can be used at both the shop’s brick-and-mortar locations and e-commerce website. After completing a purchase, you receive a follow-up email soliciting feedback about your experience. Upon completing the customer service survey you’re automatically entered to win a $100 gift card toward your next purchase.
The benefits of omnichannel marketing:
Drive sales
Engage customers on an individual level
Make shopping experiences convenient and consistent across platforms
Increase customer retention and improve satisfaction
Boost brand awareness
Personalize every stage of the buyer journey
Leverage data and analytics
Generate more leads
Attract new customers
Tips for an Omnichannel Strategy
Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless brand experience through consistent messaging, visuals, and positioning statements across all channels, platforms, and devices. Why is this important?
Organizations with strong omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain 89% of their customers.
The purchase rate of omnichannel campaigns is 287% higher than single-channel campaigns.
And, while consumers are tech-savvy and comfortable engaging across multiple devices and platforms, marketers are the laggards in creating effective omnichannel experiences. More than 90% of marketers struggle to seamlessly connect more than three channels on the buyer journey.
While it may feel daunting to launch an omnichannel campaign, there is a systematic approach.
Map your audience’s full customer journey, from the awareness to the consideration and decision stages.
Analyze customer data (traffic, buying behavior, onsite interactions, survey data, demographics, searches etc.) and leverage the key insights for decision-making.
Gain consensus internally on your brand position and marketing strategy.
Ensure your messaging is consistent across all platforms but beware of using boilerplate content that creates duplicate issues and penalizes you on social media and search engines.
Give your customers CTAs that are device- and platform-appropriate.
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