What is Omnichannel Marketing? Definition & Strategy

Introduction to Omnichannel Marketing

Imagine adding your favorite clothing item to your online shopping cart, only to discover it's out of stock. This frustrating experience can bring customer dissatisfaction, lost sales, and even harm branding. Also, the importance of omnichannel marketing in avoiding such negative outcomes becomes apparent.?

But before diving into omnichannel marketing, here’s a stat: “The rate of customer purchase is 250% higher on Omnichannel platforms, while the average order value remains 13% higher than single channels.”

A seamless shopping journey significantly enhances customers' purchase decisions. With the advancement of technology, it has become simple to reach out and connect to whomever we wish.?

Likewise, businesses are looking for innovative ways to connect with their customers. Some of the ways are omnichannel and multichannel marketing. These two marketing strategies are often mistakenly perceived as the same but offer distinct approaches.

Omnichannel marketing is a customer-centric approach that integrates all marketing channels to create a personalized experience. The main idea of this strategy is to ensure that businesses provide consistent and seamless interaction with their customers integrating branding & messaging regardless of the platforms they are using.?

On the other hand, Multi-channel marketing is about having a presence on multiple channels but treating each channel as a different silo. The customer experience is disjointed and there is a lack of integration between channels.?

In this blog, we’ll explore more about omnichannel marketing and the steps to develop a strategy that works in your favor.

Defining Omnichannel Marketing: A clearer picture of this approach

Omnichannel marketing stands out as a transformative approach to customer engagement. It is a holistic approach to marketing that involves offline and online platforms to provide an integrated service to customers.?

Customer Centric Approach?

At its foundation, omnichannel marketing is all about the customer. It focuses on customer choices, wants, and behaviours, resulting in an enjoyable experience with each engagement.

Simplified Channel Integration?

This marketing strategy creates an interconnected system where all the platforms such as physical stores, social media, mobile apps and websites work together harmoniously.?

Suppose, a customer can purchase an item that has been added to their cart through a mobile app. Hence, any item can be readily purchased without visiting the store.?

Consistency Across Platforms?

Omnichannel marketing focuses more on keeping the branding, messaging and user experience consistent across all platforms. Consistency is maintained whether a customer is going through a company's website or social media. Thus, along with strengthening the brand's reputation it also enhances trust.?

Omnichannel vs. Multi-channel marketing: major differences

Omnichannel marketing and multi-channel marketing are both unique marketing approaches. However, before choosing the right one for your business one should understand what they are:

Use of Channels?

Multi-channel marketing emphasises delivering messages across numerous channels. On the other hand, omnichannel marketing combines all channels to ensure that it meets customers’ needs.?

Orientation?

Omnichannel marketing tries to maintain a consistent brand message across every touchpoint focusing more on the customer relationship. However, multi-channel marketing focuses more on the reach and distribution of messages, working in separate silos.

Customer Experience?

Omnichannel marketing offers an interconnected and consistent experience allowing customers to transition smoothly among all channels. In the case of multi-channel marketing, it provides an isolated experience on each platform.

Actions?

As omnichannel marketing takes a proactive approach, it leverages data to anticipate customer needs. On the contrary, multi-channel marketing is a reactive approach involving manual interactions. One might be sending bulk emails without considering the customer relationship.

Developing an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

After knowing more but little about omnichannel marketing, the idea of developing a perfectly planned omnichannel strategy might have come across your mind. Let us take a look at some of the steps that you can implement:?

Understanding your target audience

Buyer persona acts as an essential element of your marketing plan. It’s a semi-fictional representation of your potential customers in the market.?

Collecting accurate data at the right time allows you to understand the preferences of your target audience, the platforms they are engaging and what services they are looking for. Understanding your audience makes it easier to position your brand in a way that appeals to them.

Mapping customer journey?

Now you have collected enough data about your target audience, it’s time to map their journey. For an effective omnichannel campaign, one must evaluate the steps taken by a customer from discovering the product to actually purchasing it. Make more personalised experiences for your customers to build a strong relationship with them.

Integrating channels/platforms?

As said above, we know that omnichannel marketing is about integrating channels. It involves creating a unified system that connects each platform such as social media, apps, websites and even physical stores. Data is centralized using a CRM, followed by the delivery of a consistent brand message to all touchpoints.

Personalizing customer experience

Personalization extends to customized offers, product suggestions based on past behaviours and consistent customer service. This comprehensive step strengthens customer connections, promotes loyalty, and, ultimately, boosts sales by displaying a thorough grasp and regard for particular customer demands.

Measure and optimize?

This is the final step which includes measuring and optimizing the strategy using several tools to check the efficacy. Measure essential KPIs such as conversion rate, CLV(Customer Lifetime Value), return on investment and engagement rates to see what went wrong. With these insights, one can make adjustments and test what might work for them.?

How brands are using? Omnichannel marketing??

Omnichannel marketing isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a powerful marketing strategy. Some of the brands are doing amazingly well by integrating all the touchpoints. Let’s discuss some of them:

Sephora?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many beauty stores’ sales were also affected. While the customer's experience was based on in-store transactions, the focus was on "try before you buy". But at that very moment, Sephora didn’t back out and successfully established itself as the queen of omnichannel retail in the industry. They immediately switched to virtual reality demos, appointment-based virtual tutorials, customer consultations, and integrated loyalty programs.?

A perfect blend of technology & in-store experience led to a seamless customer experience and engagement.?

Walmart?

Linking offline and online platforms is a part of the omnichannel marketing strategy. With this approach, Walmart has provided a unified shopping experience to customers via the Walmart app.?

People have access to information about the products, read reviews, or even purchase items that are not available on the shelves extending the store’s inventory.?

Amazon?

Through its website, apps, and physical outlets, Amazon ensures customers can browse and purchase products easily. Features like “Buy Online, Pick Up In Store” allow customers to purchase products online and pick them up in stores. This enhances convenience and personalized recommendations for customers.?

Conclusion

Omnichannel marketing is a powerful strategy that revolves around customers. By understanding their needs and delivering consistent experience across every touch point, a company can create value & build long-term relationships. The above examples of Sephora, Walmart and Amazon have proved how essential a well-executed approach can be beneficial.

Peter Drucker once said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product and services fits him and sells itself.”

Crafting an effective marketing strategy can be a burden, but it’s not impossible. Streamline your marketing efforts and create a unified customer experience with our assistance!

Book a free consultation today!

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