Tag: omnichannel marketing

Categories
Digital Marketing

How to Develop an Omni-Channel Retail Strategy

If you’re in retail and don’t have an omni-channel strategy yet, you’re missing out on a lot of potential review. A recent report shows that out of 46,000 shoppers, 73% used multiple channels to make a purchase. Only 7% shopped exclusively online, and 20% shopped exclusively in store. If you were looking for proof that you need to create a seamless experience across all channels, there it is. To succeed in today’s retail climate, you must provide a quality product at an affordable price, of course, but these days, it’s becoming less about price and more about the customer experience.

Developing an omni-channel retail strategy improves the customer experience, which in turn, helps to boost customer retention. When you make a customer happy, whether they shop with you online or in-store, at your website or through your app or social media channels, chances dramatically improve that they will come back to you again and again for repeat purchases. When you consider the cost of customer acquisition is (at least) 5x higher than the cost of customer retention, it makes more sense to keep the customers you have happy than to constantly focus your efforts on bringing in new customers.

Note: Omni-channel isn’t quite the same thing as multi-channel marketing. Learn the difference in this blog post.

Step One: Determine Where Your Audience is

Taking the time to determine where your customers are spending most of their time online is important. Because there are so many channels to invest time and energy in, it doesn’t make sense to overextend yourself and try to be everywhere. Rather than making a half-hearted attempt at creating a cohesive social presence across all the major social media networks, on the off chance you’ll catch a customer’s eye, it makes more sense to focus your efforts on one or two social channels where you know your customers are.

Once you know the platforms your customers are using, figure out the mediums they use the most, and the devices they use. This way, you’ll get a clearer idea of where your customers are spending time, how, and where they normally shop.

For instance, you may learn there aren’t a lot of Instagrammers in your target audience. That means you can either ditch the channel, or skip it altogether and focus your efforts on other channels that are far more profitable.

Use your Google Analytics account to learn more about your customers – specifically the Acquisition reports. These will show you the channels that are effectively driving visitors to your website, and then you’ll get a better idea of how people are finding your business. If you want to go more in-depth, look at the Multi-Channel Funnels option and run different attribution reports to see the full conversion path.

Step Two: Identify All Touchpoints and Make Them Shoppable

To maximize your omni-channel approach, any and all customer touchpoints must be shoppable. If you find, for instance, that you have a decent size customer base on Instagram or Pinterest, both of these networks have shoppable post options that allow people to make purchases directly from those platforms.

The idea is that no matter where your customers are, you should make it as easy as possible for them to move from product discovery to conversion. If they find out about your product while browsing Instagram, but have to go to a computer to actually buy it, you’re taking the chance that the person either won’t want to do that, or can’t do it right then and will forget to do it later.

You’ll decide the touch points you want to use based on the ones you believe will be most profitable to you, based on where your customers shop and where they hang out.

Step Three: Create a Smooth Transition Between Online and Offline

If you are a brand with both an online presence and a traditional brick-and-mortar store for offline purchases, you have to bridge the gap between the two to provide a better customer experience. Major retailers like Walmart and Kohl’s have done this by allowing you to place orders online and come pick them up in store, rather than waiting (and paying) for them to be shipped to your home.

This allows customers to save time and hassle associated with going to your store and finding out you don’t have the item in stock, or having to call to find out. They can pay for the purchase online, and simply pick it up later, rather than having to go into the store and find it themselves. Saving time is a good motivator for customers.

Services like Prime Wardrobe allow you to shop for clothes and shoes you’d like to try. The items are shipped to you to try on, and you buy only what you want to keep – with no obligation to keep any of it. This is helpful because a lot of the time, you’re not sure something will look the way you think, or fit the way it should based on the description. If you make the purchase first, you’re left with having to return the items, possibly losing money because you have to pay for return shipping. This encourages people to buy because they can try before they commit, or exchange for a different size or color with greater ease.

Grocery stores and fast food restaurants are following along on the trend, using third party services such as Instacart, Shipt, DoorDash, GrubHub, and UberEats. Though they don’t generally deliver, customers in the right geographical areas can get pretty much anything delivered – from tacos to fried chicken. It’s a great option for when you’re sick of pizza delivery, or just don’t have time to make the grocery trip on your own. Partnering with third-party services allows brands to capitalize on creating an omnichannel experience and add convenience for their customers, without having to invest a ton of money into their own brand-specific initiatives.

All in all, anyone in retail – whether you have an offline presence or not – needs to consider their omni-channel strategy. Put your customers first in everything you do, and test everything until you get the best possible results. Your bottom line will thank you.

Categories
Digital Marketing

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Marketing: What’s the Difference?

What is omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing? Omnichannel marketing offers a seamless customer experience across all channels, integrating interactions from online to offline. Multichannel marketing, in contrast, uses multiple channels for outreach but operates them independently, without integration. Omnichannel focuses on a cohesive, consistent user experience, whereas multichannel prioritizes presence across various platforms without necessarily linking the experiences.

The New Year is right around the corner. Hopefully, you’ve already mapped out your 2019 marketing plan, but if you haven’t, there’s no time like the present. Either way, we have an important question: will you take an omnichannel or multichannel approach?

Say what?

No, it’s not a trick question – it’s really important, but far too few marketers ever consider it on a yearly basis as they grow. Are you sending a consistent message to your customers, no matter what platforms they’re watching you on? Or are you planning separate messages and strategies for each platform, creating confusion? Let’s figure it out together in this omnichannel vs. multichannel primer.

What is Multichannel Marketing?

Multichannel marketing is the process of using a wide variety of marketing platforms to get a message out to a customer. These may include the company website, print ads, television ads, social media channels, and even email. The goal isn’t as much about building client relationships as it is about casting a wide net and gaining the attention of as many people as humanly possible.

Companies that use multichannel marketing techniques are doing their best to cater to the idea that their customers have a ton of choices when it comes to consuming information. Yes, they still see television commercials and hear radio ads, but now they’re exposed to new media channels, too. Brands need to figure out how to cater to the people who prefer older marketing styles, as well as others caught up in today’s fast-moving social world.

Now, here’s the drawback: companies focusing on multi-channel marketing often place more emphasis on ensuring multichannel messaging exists than they do on the customer experience. The messages may each ultimately direct a potential customer to the same place, but they’re so different in terms of content that they leave customers who are exposed to multiple platforms feeling a bit confused about the conflicting messages they’re seeing. That’s where omnichannel concepts step in.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel marketing doesn’t disregard the idea that different customer demographics exist on different platforms. As a concept, its marketing plans are personalized to the platforms but also cater to each unique audience. Customers who view branded content on different platforms perceive omnichannel marketing attempts as a continuation of content, versus something totally different.

It may be surprising, but contrary to popular belief, omnichannel marketing doesn’t aim to cast a wide net. Instead, marketers are challenged to put themselves in consumer’s shoes when they decide how to create a consistent experience. Yes, the end goal is still making a sale (that’s the basis of marketing). But the message the customer sees as they move from an email to a social platform, and then to the website, builds upon the same message and the same core concepts. Each step in the process adds a unique piece of information, but it’s all geared towards marketing the same goal or service. Each piece of the puzzle complements the rest.

Which is Really Better?

If we had to choose, we’d say omnichannel marketing is the way to go. That said, omnichannel and multichannel marketing can (and should) be used together. Think of omnichannel marketing as a method of elevating the multichannel approach from an impersonal strategy to an interpersonal relationship with the customer. Multichannel marketing is a technique; omnichannel marketing is a strategy.

As an example, let’s look at consistency and engagement. The omnichannel approach towards engagement with customers makes them feel heard, appreciated, and understood. The multichannel approach of consistency in posting gives customers a platform for that engagement to take place. The trick is to make sure the marketing team is sending the same message to all platforms so that the PR or social media teams are all on the same page when they’re crafting replies.

Omnichannel marketing strategies incorporate multichannel principles, but they’re often research-driven. Marketers tend to spend more time testing their ads and ordering options, especially across different channels, to make sure customers have seamless experiences. This means their internal and external testers are placing website orders and Facebook platform orders to ensure they’re easy to follow through with from beginning to end. Their goal? To create a process and flow that’s easy to follow.

Omnichannel marketing data and research is also very different from multichannel research. Yes, it’s still important to measure how well each campaign did as a whole. It’s also important to take a close look at how the customers themselves reacted. Did they purchase more in the store or on the web? Were the messages relevant and targeted properly? How can you better segment your audiences in the future while still sending a consistent overall message?

Brands utilizing omnichannel strategies are more conscious of how people use multiple platforms. For example, you might visit a brand’s website on your mobile phone and place an item in your cart. You get distracted or haven’t made up your mind, so you navigate away. Later, you visit that same brand’s website from your desktop computer, but you don’t touch the cart or make a purchase.

Two days later, you get an email with an urgent subject line letting you know the item you were eyeballing is selling out quickly. Being conscious of the platform and device changes along the way allowed the brand to better monitor your shopping habits and create a sense of urgency to nudge your purchase along.

Summing it Up

To sum it up, multichannel strategies aren’t always omnichannel, but all omnichannel strategies are multichannel. The difference is that omnichannel approaches are customer-oriented, taking special care to understand their habits, wants, and needs.

Brands incorporating omnichannel strategies tend to be more receptive and excel at making sure all their marketing platforms are sending the same message, loud and clear. They bend over backwards to make sure the customer experience is almost effortless, and it shows in their sales.

A strong omnichannel approach starts with the product and includes the marketing team, sales department, client service group, and customer success and retention teams. Ensuring everyone is on the same page strengthens your brand and, in turn, increases your bottom line. Remember – always put the customer first. Doing so will ensure the rest falls into place.

Exit mobile version
Skip to content