How to Understand and Implement Omnichannel Marketing in 2023?

Reteno

Over the past years, marketing has evolved from mostly face-to-face interactions and cold emails into a complex intersection of various media. However, the most important part remains the same: customer connection. While consumers use more and more platforms to purchase products and exchange experiences, marketers need to keep up with them and utilize various channels. Marketing specialists must adopt new technologies and maintain a unified strategy across different customer engagement platforms and communication channels. They accomplish this task by taking an omnichannel marketing approach. In this article, we will explore omnichannel marketing and its benefits as well as go over expert tips on how to build a working strategy. 

What Is Omnichannel Marketing?

Before we dive into the benefits and best practices, let’s revise the definition of omnichannel marketing. We distinguish between omnichannel, multichannel, and cross-channel marketing approaches, but in this article, we will mostly focus on the former. Omnichannel marketing implies the creation of a holistic brand presence across both online and offline channels. Marketers are tasked with maintaining a positive customer experience using online resources such as apps, websites, social media accounts, and more, as well as offline “traditional” methods and events. In other words, successful omnichannel marketing strategies integrate digital experience with personal interactions when, for example, shopping online. 

Omnichannel marketing is an approach that needs to be integrated throughout the company and includes customer service, sales, retail personnel, and marketing specialists. The main objective is to provide a seamless experience to your customer and without all players knowing the customer journey, this task cannot be accomplished. 

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Marketing: Understanding the Difference

Multichannel marketing is omnichannel marketing but without a comprehensive approach. You still utilize multiple marketing channels to promote your goods, but they work in isolation from each other. Multi-channel marketing is an easier strategy to adopt and does not require as much expertise and involvement from other departments. At the same time, it can be detrimental if not used properly and fails to generate profit. 

For example, omnichannel marketing refers to customer engagement, not interaction experience. The main goal is to engage the audience and make people aware of your brand, as opposed to creating a unified experience for people who are already familiar with the product. 

Additionally, the multichannel approach is geared towards channels rather than customers. Marketers expand the number of channels customers can use to interact with the company and do not prioritize creating a seamless experience between them. In other words, while omnichannel marketing focuses on quality, multichannel directs its attention to quantity. 

Why Is Omnichannel Marketing So Important in 2023? 

Omnichannel campaigns is becoming increasingly relevant in 2023 due to the rising importance of online media. Nowadays, it is not enough to just post on one channel and generate leads. 

Marketers need to distribute their attention between multiple platforms, including brick and mortar while maintaining a cohesive design and messaging. Let’s take a look at the crucial benefits of an omnichannel strategy. 

Customer Segmentation

User segmentation is a focal point of any marketing activities, as it allows you to target different customer groups individually. Extracting customer data from various omnichannel platforms and sources and grouping them based on different factors like age, occupation, location, etc. helps marketers create detailed customer profiles. Targeting customers using specific information and approach allows you to increase the chances of a successful sale and positive experience. 

Access to data

Working with various channels allows marketers to collect large amounts of relevant data and perform proper remarketing campaigns. Remarketing is a huge part of any omnichannel campaign as it enables more precise targeting. For example, after launching a marketing campaign, you can analyze the cart abandonment data and create a new strategy that targets users who did not make the purchase. You can offer a discount on the abandoned product, remind them of its benefits, provide reviews or push a similar product. 

Data Analytics 

Besides remarketing, you can utilize gathered data to improve your sales and marketing strategies in various ways. Using omnichannel marketing solutions, you can set up a marketing activity at the right time and place to serve a target audience. 

Segmentation also allows you to target a specific group of people, based on their interests and hobbies. Predictive analytics enables companies to build forecasts and recognize trends to stay ahead of the competition. 

Intersection between Online and Offline

The main objective of the omnichannel strategy is to facilitate a seamless purchasing experience using all the available platforms. For example, an app user can get a discount at the retail store by showing a coupon on their phone, which encourages them to shop at this particular place. This provides a non-intrusive approach to targeting and generates a trusting relationship with the client.

Increased ROI and Sales

According to the Harvard Business Review study, 73% of respondents make online and in-store purchases, so we can call them omnichannel customers.

Moreover, the more channels customers use to buy stuff, the more they spend on average. Omnichannel shoppers are also more loyal and tend to use the same service 23% more often. Based on the study, companies that focus their activities on long-term growth and customer experience seem to generate more sales.

Marketing Automation

Omnichannel marketing techniques allow marketers to add automation to their activities and eliminate mundane tasks. Using special marketing automation tools and software for customer relationship management, businesses can offer a personalized customer journey in real time without relying on manual labor. For example, a customer can get a push notification via the app alerting them regarding a discount at the store whenever they are in proximity. This will incentivize them to follow your call and make a purchase. 

How to Build a Successful Omnichannel Marketing Strategy: 6 Tips

How to craft an omnichannel marketing campaign that converts into sales? This process requires marketing expertise and an in-depth understanding of the market and customers. In this segment, we will dive into six best practices that will help you launch a successful campaign without making common mistakes. 

Collaboration across Departments

Omnichannel marketing means a close connection between customers and their experience. If you would like to incorporate this approach into your activities, you need to ensure that all departments are on the same page. 

Being customer-centric in theory and enforcing it across the company is not the same thing and can be quite difficult to execute. This type of marketing forces you to facilitate clear omnichannel communication and smooth collaboration among departments.

You can accomplish that by speaking to your employees and trying to understand their actions and how they affect the customer experience. The goal is to align the needs of your employees with the needs of the customer and create a strategy that incentivizes people across the departments to deliver the best omnichannel services. 

A Data-Driven Approach

Utilizing all the data available to you is a great way to improve your marketing activities. By collecting and analyzing customer data through omnichannel marketing software, you can learn a lot more about them and use this information to customize and retarget your ads. 

You might even discover new user segments that can be interested in your product and launch new marketing campaigns to attract them. Data is the cornerstone of any modern business and can help you understand the market, channels, and customers much better. 

Smart Segmentation & Customer Journey Map

Using data, you can segment your user base into different categories, which can be further grouped by customer behavior, people’s purchasing journey, and personal information. For example, some customers shop once a month while others once a year. These groups require different approaches and messages to yield results. Even small businesses can take this step and create customized messages and ads based on customer purchasing patterns. 

It is also vital to distribute the customer base across the sales funnel. The messaging that would work on prospects will fail when used on recurring buyers. This requires a great understanding of how well a certain customer knows your brand.

Personalization

According to Accenture, 56% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after being recognized by their name. Personalize the experience for your customers and offer seamless ads. Research shows that users are tolerant of advertisements when they are beneficial and relevant. For example, the customer that makes a purchase once a year around summer can benefit from a small reminder in May.

Onboard New Users and Don't Forget about Customer Retention

Zendesk's study shows that over half of their customers would like to be able to solve their own product issues without referring to customer support. Make sure your onboarding process is simple and intuitive to allow customers to autonomously navigate through the entire experience.

Customer support is also required, but it needs to be actually helpful and available. The popularity of AI chatbots has created a lot of frustration, as many customers do not find them welcoming. It is recommended to opt-in for real support via social media platforms, emails, or phone calls.

Test and Optimize

Finally, measure your marketing campaign performance and optimize your activities in the future. Executing any marketing activities without putting the results into a tangible format is not going to yield any measurable outcomes. This will make the assessment of your campaigns significantly harder. Make sure to always track and measure important KPIs and analyze the results to make future improvements. 

Use Cases of an Omnichannel Approach

Omnichannel marketing can be applied across various industries, including travel, healthcare, food and beverage, education, eCommerce, marketplaces, and many others. When used correctly, it is a universal strategy that can aid companies in increasing sales and building long-lasting relationships with customers. In this section, let’s explore some use cases of the omnichannel marketing approach. Travel

Travelling

The tavel industry can benefit from the omnichannel approach by offering the customer additional services through apps and websites. For instance, airlines can remind their passengers about upcoming flights or send updates regarding any flight-related information. The tourism industry also includes hotels, car rentals, city guides and more, which can also be used to motivate customers to make a purchase. 

Example: Virgin Atlantic provides proactive customer support that reaches out to the customer themselves instead of forcing the client to go through the hoops of contacting the airline. For example, if the passenger gets kicked off the flight, customer support gets in touch with them to help the client finalize their purchase. This way, the airline does not lose money as well as stands out through its proactive customer service. 

Food and beverage

Some restaurants already use an omnichannel approach to enhance user experience and customer satisfaction. For example, guests can get a special offer through a restaurant app, earn points to receive a discount, and order food online. 

Example: Starbucks built an application that allows users to browse the menu, add money to their account to make purchases, as well as earn points that translate into discounts. The more the customer shops at Starbucks, the higher the rewards they receive in the form of special offers and discounts. 

Education

Learning user engagement patterns can also help in the education sector. You can offer personalized journeys to your students and make their experiences more fruitful and pleasant. The omnichannel marketing approach allows you to learn the preferred channels of your students and organize courses in the most convenient way. 

Example: Italki offers an omnichannel experience by synchronizing data across the web and mobile versions of the service. Users can join the platform, schedule lesions and message other students on both desktop and mobile applications. The history of each interaction is stored and makes the transition from one device to another seamless and easy. 

To Sum Up

Crafting an efficient omnichannel marketing strategy can be an overwhelming task that requires technical expertise, in-depth marketing acumen, as well as omnichannel marketing software and a great understanding of the client base. Reteno is a modern customer engagement platform that can help you launch a successful promotion campaign across multiple marketing channels and increase customer loyalty with the help of omnichannel automation features. Get in touch with our experts to embark on your great digital marketing journey with us.

Vladyslav Pobyva

|

August 30, 2022

Maya Skidanova

|

August 26, 2022

Ready to Gain Real
Competitive Advantage?

Get Started

See Your Messages Come to Life!

Get a firsthand look at how your messages will appear on user devices with our FREE simulator.

Preview Now

Evaluate and Elevate Your Push Notification Engagement

Are your pushes as compelling as they could be? Find out with our free preview tool. Instantly see how your notifications will display on iOS and Android, in both expanded and collapsed views.

This is your chance to fine-tune your messages to ensure they're not just seen but felt. Make every character and every push work harder for your engagement goals

Start the Test