Getting Started with Omnichannel Marketing

The modern buyer is digitally savvy. They don’t just rely on physical stores or a single marketing channel to buy any products or services. In fact, 86% of buyers channel-hop regularly across at least two channels. Not just that! They also switch between various channels while making the final purchase. That’s where omnichannel marketing comes into the picture.

Organisations need an omnichannel marketing strategy to keep up with modern customers and gain a competitive advantage. This will also ensure a consistent user experience across various channels and touchpoints. Let's dive deeper into what omnichannel marketing is, along with understanding some of its benefits.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is a holistic approach to your customer experience that includes all channels and touchpoints. In other words, it lets you get the most out of every contact with your customers.

Omnichannel marketing isn't just about online and offline channels; it's also about using these channels in a well-coordinated way to help your customers find what they are looking for when they need it and how they want it delivered.

For example, when you're engaging with a customer through social media on one device, say a mobile phone, but then follow up with them via email that they access on their desktop, that's an omnichannel experience.

Benefits of omnichannel marketing approach

Following are some essential benefits of the omnichannel marketing approach that you can’t overlook:

• Higher customer engagement, conversions, and retention
• Improved customer experience
• Increased revenue generation
• Useful insights into customer behaviours and preferences
• Opportunities to reach newer customer segments
• Better operational efficiency
• Increased number of references and recommendations

How to build an effective omnichannel marketing strategy?

Now that we have covered what omnichannel marketing is and its benefits, let’s look at its actual implementation. Following are the steps that you need to follow to build an effective omnichannel marketing strategy:

1. Discover where your audience is

The first step in developing a strong omnichannel strategy is figuring out the platforms, channels, and devices that your current customers utilise regularly. You will also need to learn about their interaction patterns with these channels, their preferences, buying experiences, and problem areas.

A detailed customer understanding is imperative to build a powerful omnichannel marketing approach. By analysing the data gathered, you can identify the most crucial touchpoints and use this data for developing your omnichannel strategy.

2. Develop buyer personas

Once you have gathered all the relevant data about your existing customers, it’s time to shift your focus to the potential customers. In order to best target your potential customers, you need to develop detailed buyer personas with the help of features like their demographics, preferences, buying patterns, preferred communication channels, etc. Developing these personas will help build the appropriate buying journeys for your potential customers.

3. Map your customer journey

Now that you have laid the groundwork with respect to understanding your customers, you must map their buying journey across the funnel. To begin, think about all of your touchpoints with customers, right from social media posts to in-store experiences. Create a list of these points and organise them according to how they relate to your customer lifecycle (beginning at first contact, moving through awareness, consideration, purchase and beyond).

Next, consider which channels are most relevant for each stage in the customer lifecycle. Mapping out these touchpoints and understanding which channels are most appropriate for each step will help you create personalised communications across all channels.

4. See which channels you should invest in more

You should measure each channel's performance and determine which is more profitable for your store. Keeping track of customer preferences and interests is also important, as this information can help you improve your marketing strategy.

You should keep track of how much traffic each channel generates and how often people return to your site after visiting it. This will help you determine which channels are most effective for driving sales and brand loyalty. You can also analyse the content that performs best on each channel – this will help you determine which types of content are most likely to resonate with customers based on their needs and interests at different points in their journeys.

5. Revamp your marketing stack

A smart way to modernise your marketing strategy is by ensuring that all the channels you use are integrated—so they can complement and enhance one another.

This means using a combination of online and offline communication strategies, as well as paid advertising on social networks, search engines and other digital platforms. If possible, it's best to have a dedicated team focusing on each individual channel so that they can keep up with ever-changing trends in their respective fields.

6. Create relevant content

To have a winning omnichannel marketing strategy, you must create content relevant to your target audience and your industry. The content needs to be engaging and informative at the same time. But going beyond these obvious aspects, content that's built for omnichannel marketing needs to be tweaked to be most effective on diverse channels and touchpoints.

For example, your messaging will change while interacting with a customer on Instagram as opposed to interacting with them on LinkedIn. Or the communication also changes as you target audiences at different stages in their buying journeys.

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Conclusion:

Omnichannel marketing can’t be overlooked in today’s market as it enables organisations to meet their customers where they are with the right message at the right time. Brands can deliver a unified customer experience through omnichannel marketing, fostering brand awareness and improving customer engagement. If you wish to leverage omnichannel marketing, collaborating with a team of digital experts is the best way ahead.

Amura Marketing Technologies is a leading digital marketing agency that specialises in omnichannel & growth marketing. With over 15 years of experience, an on-time delivery record, extensive market understanding, agile processes, and a team of 300+ digital experts, we can help your brand get the digital edge. So, are you ready to take your digital marketing game to the next level? Get in touch with us today!