Creating a successful omnichannel experience is not just limited to retail brands. More than 85% of shoppers interchangeably use multiple channels while shopping. It is normal for brands to have a multichannel strategy in place already. A multichannel approach is important as it gives the brand more opportunities to connect with their customers. However, for the most part, replying only on a multi-channel approach can create a disjointed experience that may leave your customers unsatisfied.
This is where the need for an omni channel strategy comes handy. The key upgrade in an omni channel approach is that it seeks to connect every channel together through the use of cutting edge technology. Thus, the primary objective for brands is to create a seamless customer journey that follows through with them at every touchpoint.
Source: CatchPR
Importance of Omnichannel Marketing
To further drive the importance of an omnichannel strategy in marketing, let’s look at an example. Imagine heading home tired after work and wanting a cup of coffee to perk you up. However, you do not want to stand in line in your favourite coffee shop which will be crowded with the after-work patrons. What you are willing to do is make an order through the app to allow you to pick up your order on the way home.
This is exactly what Starbucks has done. They have successfully adjusted their strategy to meet changing customer needs. By making the ordering and payment easier for their customers, they are continually winning and retaining customers. In fact, mobile payment has contributed 29% to their total transactions.
The example illustrates that omnichannel marketing seeks to create an integrated and seamless experience across multiple devices and touchpoints. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve customer excellence by combining the benefits of physical and digital.
Consumers are the cornerstone to success
Omnichannel marketing revolves around your customer. It is customer-centric while also maintaining consistency in your branding. A successful omni channel strategy will make your customers feel closer to your brand at every touchpoint. This means that each touchpoint (regardless of the channel) are simply extensions of one another.
“Omni-channel anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution.” – Time Warner Cable senior VP of customer care John Bowden
So how do you create the perfect omnichannel experience?
Omnichannel Marketing Strategies
1. Identify Target Consumer
It is difficult to create a seamless experience when you aren’t clear about who your target consumers are. Start off by creating a buyer persona. This will help you when creating your marketing collateral as well.
Customer demographics contain pertinent insights such as where they are most likely to shop and which touchpoint you can reach out to them on. To target a specific segment of your consumers, conduct surveys or simply ask for feedback. Social listening and monitoring tools are also a great way to keep tabs on the content that evokes a reaction from them.
2. Select Your Marketing Platforms
Marketing across multiple channels ensures that you get optimal coverage and exposure. Channels such as SMS, emails, social media and blogs are integral touchpoints for your consumers.
For example, let’s say you have a flash sale campaign. An omnichannel strategy to promote this is to prominently feature the campaign on our website. Next you can look into informing your customers of the upcoming flash sale via email or SMS. The social media channel can also be used to fish for new prospecting consumers who will be interested. Do not leave out customer support in relaying the message about the sale as well.
What you are trying to achieve is to provide your consumers the same level of experience regardless of the channel or touchpoint that they are on.
3. Establish Your Brand
One of the objectives of an omnichannel marketing strategy is to make sure that your brand remains visible to your target audience in the channels that are most relevant to them. The modem shoppers now expect brands to go to them. Thus, it is important for brands to know how to reach these shoppers at the best times.
In an omnichannel marketing strategy where multiple channels are utilized simultaneously, it can be easy to look disjointed. You need to have control over your branding and ensure that it stays consistent and cohesive across all platforms. For brands with retail stores, this consistency needs to be translated across both online and digital experiences.
To further establish your brand, look into the efficacy of influencer marketing. In this age where consumers are craving the human connection, collaborating with influencers can be a critical marketing strategy to employ as well.
4. Make Data-Driven Decisions
Investing in the right tools is key to a successful omnichannel strategy. It is important to leverage on customer data to uncover key insights. This can help you understand what your customers want and which strategies are most important to employ. Thus, a centralised database that stores information from different channels is important. When you are juggling to maintain multiple channels, it is always useful to be able to see all the information from a single place.
Analysing collective data helps you gain insights on the entire customer journey. Being data-driven can help progress your strategy while taking calculated risks. This is when you start to predict your customer behaviour based on the data collected.
5. Personalization Is key
Providing consumers with a highly personalised experience is the cornerstone of the omnichannel experience. Consumers want to be presented with offers that meet their needs. Hence, it is a brand’s duty to present relevant offers that are highly engaging to a specific target audience.
An Accenture study reported that 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that recognises, remembers and provides relevant offers and recommendations.
With the accumulation of data from various channels, you can personalize your marketing messages. Make use of audience segmentation to provide personalised messages that speak to your target audience.
6. Streamline The Checkout Process
Now that you have gotten the attention of your target audience through highly targeted and personalised messages, you will now need to help them complete their purchase. The best way to do this is to keep your checkout process a simple, short and speedy process.
This is why shoppable ads are all the rage now. It allows users to be targeted with personalised messaging and facilitates the purchase completion efficiently. Take the time to go through your own customer journey and iron out the areas with the most friction. Provide options for different types of users on your platform. Enable a smooth guest checkout option for consumers who need some time before becoming a member.
Essentially, the essence of an omnichannel strategy is providing a seamless journey for the consumers. And this is all the more important especially during the checkout stage.
7. Provide Excellent Customer Support
Consumers still crave human connections. While it is easy to set up a chatbot of automated replies, you do not want your brand to be seen as a soulless corporate entity. Make sure that you provide the option for consumers to engage with human customer support.
A Nemertes Research study shows that when brands integrate AI with agents in their customer support options, customer ratings improved by 104%. This shows that even the most sophisticated chatbot tool in the market does not compare to the experience that speaking to another human being provides. Another added benefit is that having a human customer support team also helps your brand in delivering personalized service. This contributes to the overall satisfaction level.
8. Retarget Abandoned Carts
An omnichannel strategy allows you to track how your consumers are interacting with you across all touchpoints. With this, you will also be able to reconcile how many consumers did not manage to complete their purchases.
This is where you can make use of your various touchpoints to reach back to the consumer to bring them back to their customer journey. If you want, you can look into tactics such as discount codes to further entice consumers to complete their purchases.
9. Create Relevant Content
Content is a massive contributing factor of any marketing campaign. When planning a content calendar, take note to remain consistent across the various platforms. While different content may be created for different audience segments, the tonality of the ad should be consistent.
A great way to optimise your content plan is to repurpose your content. For example, if you are trying to communicate your USP, this can be done in various formats. The same messaging can be communicated in a text format, an image, a video or even an infographic. Thinking of ways to repurpose content helps you to save time on content creation.
10. Optimise Through Constant Testing
The nature of omnichannel marketing means that you will be using multiple channels and touchpoints at any one time. However, the mechanics of each channel is unique.
What works on your website may not necessarily work on a mobile app. This is why it is important to regularly conduct A/B testing. The key to A/B testing is to only test one element at a time. The results from your A/B tests should help you boost your campaign performance. It allows you to put your energy on the things that are working well for you and identify which areas require improvements.
Conclusion
The omnichannel experience is all about building trust, increasing engagement levels and boosting your sales. This is done through various means such as personalised messages, excellent customer support, offering relevant content at the right time.
Crafting out an omni channel strategy is the future of shopping. When you are able to offer your consumers a consistent, cohesive, personalised and seamless journey, you are set to gain a loyal customer for your brand.
