Omnichannel marketing is, by definition, marketing that reaches audiences across a series of touchpoints. While the point should not be to overwhelm potential and existing customers, omnichannel marketing ensures that your brand and products are positioned strategically in places where your audience spends time online, reminding them that you exist and how you and your products can help them.
This has become even more important thanks to the diverse ways in which audiences discover new brands and products. Businesses can no longer rely on a Google search to bring audiences to them; audiences are in fact just as likely to search directly on social media as they are to search the internet.
Which is why omnichannel marketing doesn’t just involve posting in different places, but also sharing cohesive messages across those different platforms.
How Omnichannel Marketing Works
Omnichannel marketing combines different platforms and channels to create a cohesive outreach strategy.
The aim is not to flood every channel with the same information, but rather to think about ways of creating a customer journey across different touchpoints – for example, asking a prospective customer for their email address via social media, and then sending them a personalised email based on their behaviour on your site and social channels.
In short, omnichannel marketing uses different customer touchpoints to deliver a seamless experience. And it’s not merely reserved for online and digital marketing. Omnichannel marketing also encompasses physical store locations and brand interactions, with features like in-store QR codes and ‘Click and Collect’ offers keeping customers engaged in a physical and a digital way.
The Benefits of an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Now that we know a bit more about omnichannel marketing, why is it important?
As the title of this article suggests, omnichannel marketing is a major player in your audience outreach strategy. It considers where customers are finding you and discovering your brand or products, and then how you can continue to engage them – for example, starting with an Instagram ad and then collecting your email address for direct comms.
Another benefit aside from the increase in customer outreach is the increase in customer data and information. When you are able to reach customers in different locations and on different platforms both online and offline, you learn more about them, their needs and issues, what they need help with, and how they behave online. You will learn that some ignore emails and exclusively rely on social media ads for product discovery, while others browse online and order in store, and others still will visit a website several times before making a purchase.
The more you know about your audience, the better able you are to market to them.
And then we have the simple fact that omnichannel marketing engages customers consistently, letting them know that you are there when and where you need them. This builds trust and has a positive effect on conversion, when it’s leveraged right.
Tips for Successful Omnichannel Marketing
If omnichannel marketing is something that you know you need to get better at, here are a few top tips from our marketing team at Mitchell & Stones.
- Have a thorough understanding of your customer’s and their behaviour, both online and offline. Known as a 360 customer viewpoint, this is the only way of comprehensively monitoring your customers, regardless of how and where they interact with your brand – so as to improve personalisation and marketing
- Think about the customer journey from all angles. A critical part of omnichannel marketing is being able to offer a cohesive customer journey regardless of where a prospective customer’s experience with you starts. Whether they find you online, on social, via word of mouth, or via a physical location, they should all be nurtured with valuable content and personalisation, guiding them towards a purchase
- Prioritise the most effective channels. You don’t have to be on every single social channel and marketing stream – instead, prioritise the ones where most of your audience find and interact with you! The more customer data you can collect via that 360 customer viewpoint we mentioned above, the better able you will be to identify the top channels and use them to your advantage
- Remember it’s not all about the end purchase. Omnichannel marketing is best employed when you are flexible about your end goal, recognising that different customer journeys and platforms are better for different actions. Collecting email addresses, customer insight and feedback, and encouraging engagement are all just as powerful as a direct purchase
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Agencies like ours are well versed in the power of omnichannel marketing and can help brands to figure out where they need to be online and how best to use their platforms for growth. To discover more about our services and to receive tailored advice and a quote on building your omnichannel strategy, get in touch with us directly.
