In today’s fast-paced, hyper-connected world, putting an omni-channel marketing strategy in place is essential.
Intimidated or overwhelmed? Don’t be. Let’s break down the various components of omni-channel marketing, including how it benefits your customers—and your bottom line.
What Is Omni-Channel Marketing?
Think of omni-channel marketing as a more holistic approach to the customer experience. From brand discovery to purchase and beyond, omni-channel marketing integrates the entire customer “journey” to create a seamless, consistent and cohesive experience across all platforms.
To do this, companies examine the multiple ways they interact with customers, such as their website, app, email, physical location and social media. Then they ensure all work together to capture the customer’s attention, meet needs and establish brand consistency. The overall goal should be a smooth, frictionless customer experience across all channels, at all times.
The proof is in the data: According to a recent study, companies with strong omni-channel strategies retain 89% of their customers, while those with weaker strategies keep just 33%.
The Importance of Omni-Channel Marketing
As consumer behaviors and patterns shift, marketing efforts need to keep pace. Today’s customers prefer interacting with companies via multiple interconnected avenues. For example, they might follow a brand on Instagram but make an actual purchase in person. Each interaction, regardless of how or when it takes place, needs to feel consistent and reflect the brand’s mission and goals.
Providing a unified experience across ALL platforms and devices positions you as consistent and trustworthy. It shows you care and leads to more sales.
Omni-Channel vs Multichannel Marketing
While omni-channel and multichannel sound similar and both involve multiple communication platforms, there are key differences:
Benefits of Omni-Channel Marketing
Improved Customer Experience
Offering multiple methods to reach your customer service and make purchases means more satisfied customers.
The easier and more seamless the experience, the more likely a customer returns.
Better Brand Identity & Loyalty
Omni-channel marketing gives you more opportunities to build a loyal customer base. For example, if someone makes a purchase in person, you can follow up via e-mail with helpful tips about the item they purchased and offer discounts on future purchases. You can also target them through relevant YouTube and social media ads to stay top of mind.
Data-Driven Insights
Tracking interactions across channels and touchpoints provides a better understanding of your customers’ behavior. You can use this information to not only optimize marketing and sales strategies but also build a more meaningful, personalized consumer experience.
Higher Revenue
Omni-channel marketing captures customers faster, builds trust and retains their interest, which ultimately increases revenue.
Optimized Marketing ROI
Monitoring customer interactions across multiple platforms gives valuable insights into which channels drive the most engagement and sales. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about allocating marketing resources and maximizes ROI over time.
How to Create an Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy: 5 Expert Tips
1. Collect & Analyze Data
- Reach out to customers through surveys, reviews or focus groups. Find out what’s working—and what’s not.
- Ask members of your team about their experiences. Make a point to speak with someone from every channel.
- Review data for any “pain points” or bottlenecks in the customer experience.
2. Understand Your Customer Journey
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and walk through each of your brand’s channels. Ask yourself:
- Is the experience seamless?
- Were there any pain points or confusion?
- Did anything require too many steps?
Once you understand the customer’s journey, you can insert more targeted messaging at opportune times.
3. Integrate Data & Analytics
Use omni-channel data to:
- Understand consumer behavior
- Predict customers’ future needs and wants
- Improve product recommendations and cross-selling
- Reveal bottlenecks in the customer journey
- Create a smoother customer experience
4. Create Consistent Brand Messaging
Make sure your brand’s colors, logos, tone of voice and values are consistent across ALL channels.
5. Test & Optimize
Test and tweak your omni-channel strategy frequently as your brand evolves. This keeps your messaging on track, increase customer satisfaction and maximizes ROI.
Take Your Omni-Channel Marketing to the Next Level with United GMG & Omni-Bridge 2.0®
Omni-Bridge 2.0® seamlessly integrates traditional AND online marketing, making it easy to implement an omni-channel marketing strategy. This platform works for companies of any size or industry.
To get started or learn more, contact your United GMG sales rep or call (312) 427-3537.
