With the growth of the internet and digital media, businesses can no longer rely on a single channel to communicate with their customers. By adopting strategies as set out in an omnichannel marketing guide, you’ll attract more customers while providing a more seamless and enjoyable experience in the process.
Read on for our omnichannel marketing guide that will benefit your business’s marketing efforts.
Omnichannel Marketing vs Multi-Channel Marketing: What’s the Difference?
Some business owners assume that omnichannel marketing is the same as multi-channel marketing. A multi-channel marketing strategy simply uses multiple channels to interact with customers, whereas an omnichannel marketing strategy seeks to create a seamless, integrated journey for customers using multiple channels.
The key difference between these two strategies is that omnichannel marketing provides customers with a consistent and universal experience across all channels. Whether a customer is shopping at your business’s local storefront, browsing its website or reading its social media profiles, omnichannel marketing ensures that he or she will have a consistent experience. In comparison, multi-channel marketing may or may not provide customers with a consistent experience. With multi-channel marketing, a customer visiting your business’s local storefront may have a different experience than a customer browsing its website.
Some of the different channels used in an omnichannel marketing strategy include:
Local storefront
Telephone
Direct mail
Email
Local outdoor ads
Website
Social media
YouTube
Mobile
Online Ads
Identify Your Customers
As omnichannel marketing focuses on the customer experience, you must understand who your customers are. Otherwise, you won’t be able to improve their experience, regardless of how many channels you use. Most businesses have a general idea of the customers who are most likely to buy their products or services. An office furniture store, for example, may view its customers as being corporate executives and small business owners, whereas a wedding planning agency may view its customers as being newly engaged couples.
Even if you have a general understanding of your business’s customers, you must identify key demographic information — gender, age, income, location, interests, etc. — to effectively target them using multiple channels. Thankfully, most digital marketing channels provide audience insight data, which you can use to identify your business’s customers.
Maintain Consistent Brand Imagery
When using multiple channels to communicate with customers, it’s important that you maintain consistent brand imagery. If you use a particular logo and colour scheme on your business’s Facebook Page, you should use that same logo and colour scheme on all other channels. Using different brand imagery disrupts the customer experience and dilutes your business’s brand identity. Go through all of the channels your business uses to sell its products or services or otherwise interact with customers to ensure that they contain consistent brand imagery.
Make Your Website Mobile Compatible
According to a Forrester survey, fifty-six per cent of consumers research products on their mobile device before buying them. If your business’s website isn’t compatible on mobile devices, these users may visit a competitor’s website, resulting in fewer sales for your business. To see if your website is mobile compatible, visit the site on a smartphone or tablet and navigate the site like a typical customer. Alternatively, you can search for “mobile friendly test” on Google, which should yield a box at the top of the search results where you can enter your website’s address to see if it’s mobile compatible. If your website fails, invest in a new design that’s compatible with all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Create and Share Consistent, High-Quality Content
Consistent, high-quality content is essential to an effective omnichannel marketing strategy. Not all customers who interact with your business are ready to make a purchase. Some want to learn more about your business or its products or services first and they’ll seek this information using your business’s marketing channels. If you don’t share high-quality content that’s relevant to your customers on these channels, they may seek it from a competitor. Just remember to maintain a consistent voice and format when sharing content on different channels.
Target the Right Social Media Networks
Not all social media networks are worth targeting in an omnichannel marketing strategy. Rather, you should target the networks that are most frequently used by your customers. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Population Clock, there are approximately 24.6 million Australians. Facebook’s recent data shows there are now 15 million active Australians on Facebook. Therefore, approximately 60% of the total Australian population is an active Facebook user. Facebook is a channel where most businesses can effectively reach and interact with their customers. However, there are other social media networks that are used by more specific demographics.
Pinterest, for example, is highly popular among women. According to Social Media News, 290,000 Australians use Pinterest, 74 per cent of which are women. Instagram, on the other hand, is highly popular among millennials, with 71 per cent of young adults in Australia regularly using the photo- and video-sharing network.
Monitor All Channels for New Customer Interactions
Regularly monitor all channels used in your business’s omnichannel marketing strategy for new customer interactions. When shifting from a linear marketing strategy to an omnichannel marketing strategy, many business owners neglect to monitor the channels used in their new strategy. Unfortunately, this leads to new customer interactions going unnoticed. If your business launches a new website with a contact or inquiry form but you forget to check it, customers won’t get a response when leaving a message. Keep a close eye on all channels used in your omnichannel marketing strategy. And if you see a new customer interaction, such as a comment or message, take a moment to respond.
Measure the Performance of Your Channels
Some channels will perform better than others and focusing your time and resources on these high-performing channels will help your business succeed. For instance, if you use a website, email and online ads to sell products, analyse sales metrics to determine which one is most effective. You can gauge the performance of a channel using other criteria, such as the number of customer messages it attracts. If your business receives more customer messages via Facebook than its Twitter account, focusing on Facebook will strengthen your business’s omnichannel marketing strategy and improve the customer journey.
Omnichannel marketing isn’t just another buzzword. At OKMG, we believe that it’s a fundamental strategy that leverages the power of the internet and digital media to create a seamless, universal experience for customers. Contact us today to find out how our omnichannel marketing guide and strategies can benefit your business.