What is omni-channel marketing?

The concept of marketing through multiple types of media is nothing new. Businesses have been engaging in multi-channel marketing for decades. But multi-channel marketing, while more effective than single channel marketing, has at least one major flaw. It does not make a concerted effort to create a consistent experience for the customer. This is where omni-channel marketing comes in.

 Omni-channel marketing is the natural evolution of multi-channel marketing. It assumes that customers will engage with a product or service via multiple channels, including physical stores, digital platforms, phone calls, and print media. Unlike multi-channel marketing, omni-channel marketing prioritizes making the transitions between these channels as seamless as possible. Customers should feel that the transition between two types of media is completely fluid and that the message they are receiving is consistent, regardless of the channel they are using. 

What This Means for Marketing

The key to successful omni-channel marketing is building a marketing campaign from the perspective of the customer. As such, any marketing campaign must be flexible and accommodating. Marketers can't assume that customers will make initial contact via a particular channel. Instead, all channels have to be capable of engaging in initial contact, growing interest, and, if at all possible, processing a sale of a product or service.

The last is where multi-channel marketing often fails to accommodate customers. Many multi-channel marketing campaigns are good at first contact and building customer interest on all channels, but then only offer a single platform for sales. Requiring customers to make purchases via only a single channel (usually online, by phone, or in a physical store) creates a barrier of entry that causes some customers to decide not to do business with that company.

The Key is Customer Preference

While an increasingly high percentage of the population is using online sources for some or all of their purchases (both products and sales), there is still a large segment of the population that prefers phone interactions and physical interactions. There is even a small segment of the population that prefers to engage in commerce via physical mail and paper catalogs. The key to omni-channel marketing is ensuring the brand experience is effectively identical, no matter the channel by which it is engaged.

Consistency of brand experience has a two-fold effect. It ensures that customers that prefer to engage on a particular channel always feel that their interests are being prioritized. At the same time, customers that use multiple channels to engage a brand enjoy a seamless customer experience that is likely to have a positive effect on their purchasing decision.

Implementing omni-channel marketing is challenging, because it requires viewing marketing from the perspective of all customers at the same time. But, successful use of this type of marketing creates a more personal experience for the customer and increases customer loyalty to a company.