In the past, retail marketing and online shopping were different experiences. The Journey that buyers take these days to complete a purchase of their desired goods and services has changed a lot. Did you know that buyer’s needs have also significantly changed? Today, many businesses are deploying strategies that are helping them to make the purchasing experience of their customers as smooth as possible. One of the best ways to give your customers the best purchasing journey to your product solution is Omnichannel Marketing.
One can assert that omni-channel is one of the buzzwords that you hear a lot these days. Omnichannel marketing can be defined as the approach of bringing together messaging and outbound sales strategies together across all devices and marketing channels.
Digital marketing is also known as an online marketing method. It is used for the advertisement of a brand, business and individual to connect with potential customers who use the internet and other forms of digital communication. It includes not only email, but social media platforms and other web-based advertising methods, also text messaging and multimedia as marketing platforms.
Without further mouthing, let us delve into a complete beginner’s guide to Omnichannel Marketing.
Here are all the details about it.
What is Omni-channel Marketing Strategy?
At the moment, omni-channel marketing as stated earlier is one of the hot buzzwords in the digital marketing world. I am of the opinion that it is a term that a lot of marketing experts like to throw around. But a lot of them do not necessarily getting a full grasp of what it is.
Simply put, deploying an Omni-channel strategy means giving out an integrated customer experience that allows your customers to move from one channel to another. In this case, from an app or website to a brick-and-mortar store.
According to a publication on Hubspot, an Omni-channel marketing strategy is the ability to deliver a consistent and seamless experience across multiple channels. In the process, different devices are factored in a way that customers can interact with your product solution or business.
Omni-channel marketing is a perfect implementation of Phygital Marketing. Omini-channel marketing strategies create a framework that allows customers to move back and forth from a digital to a physical experience in the journey of making a purchase.
Why an Omni-Channel Marketing strategy is important for your Business
According to a Harvard Business Review in conjunction with research data gotten from a 14-month study, 46,000 shoppers were found to have the following characteristics. These characteristics show how important Omni-channel marketing is for any business.
- 20% of the shoppers were store-only shoppers.
- 7 % of them were customers that shop online-only
- And an amazing 73% of them are shoppers that use multiple channels throughout their shopping journey.
From this study, it won’t be wrong to assert that the more channels shoppers use, the more likely they are to convert to the product. According to the research, an Omnichannel marketing strategy is the best option for buyers in their purchase journey. With Omnichannel marketing strategies, retailers get to re-strategize and get better ways to acquire, engage and retain their customers across many channels. As most of you would know, there are a lot of new emerging marketing channels. These channels motivate retailers to move their focus from traditional marketing to Omnichannel marketing strategies.
What is the Difference between Omnichannel Marketing and Cross-channel Marketing
For every retail business out there, being able to distinguish between Omnichannel and Cross-channel marketing is a huge plus. Therefore, in subsequent paragraphs, we would take a dip into the difference between the two.
Multi-Channel Marketing
Multi-channel marketing can be defined as approaches where a business communicates to its customers with the help of multiple channels. Although it is important to bear in mind that a lot of marketing channels work independently and do not communicate with each other.
It is also important to know that customers cannot jump from one marketing channel to another, and continue their purchase journey from there.
One practical example is a customer, seeing a product on a roadside billboard. When the customer wants to buy the product, he/she would have to go online and search for it online. After finding the company, he/she would order a product, and then the brand would employ sales strategies to retain the customer. One of such strategies might be “email marketing”.
In the example given above, the customer seeing a product on a roadside-bill-board means the company embarked on traditional advertising. Also, other marketing channels were deployed; like an eCommerce platform and email marketing
Cross-channel Marketing
Cross-channel, marketing is way different from multi-channel marketing. The reason is that the channels in multi-channel marketing do not complement each other. In the case of Omnichannel marketing, they do complement each other.
Cross-channel marketing is a marketing strategy that employs channels that are complementary to each other throughout the buying journey of the customer.
Omni-channel Marketing
Omni-channel marketing is an upgrade to a cross-channel marketing experience. In the case of Omni-channel marketing, the channels are connected and super interactive. Omnichannel marketing gives a lot of room for maximum engagement with the customers who can deploy different channels at the same time.
Customers can seamlessly switch between the multiple channels while enjoying a consistent experience.
How to Implement Omnichannel Marketing in Online Advertising?
When you want to run an online advertisement campaign and integrate omnichannel digital marketing, you simply need to integrate customer interactions with the aid of your website, mobile advertising, and social media channels.
Omnichannel marketing in advertisement campaigns is all about making use of data to create a very accurate profile. The data can easily be recovered from the profiles of social media users, their search, and buying behavior( this is where programmatic advertising comes in). Most top retail companies make use of CRM software to keep track of all this customer data.
When you aggregate and analyze this data, it helps you to improve and create a personalized omnichannel marketing campaign. A retail business can go about this with automated messaging and sometimes location-based mobile advertising.
For instance, a digital marketer and install Facebook pixel on your site and use it to track conversions that are necessary for bringing about omnichannel marketing.
One of the major applications of omnichannel marketing is that it is used to track the progress customers make as they move along a sales funnel. Marketers can use Omni-channel marketing to track the progress that prospects make; they can also encourage its progress by using messaging via the best funnel available.
Stages that customers go through in Omnichannel marketing
Omnichannel advertising entails bringing in Omnichannel marketing strategies into your offline and online advertising strategy. This marketing strategy has to include the journey that your prospects or customers make from Acquisition through retargeting and retention.
In the course of subsequent paragraphs, we would be delving into a detailed briefing of Acquisition, retargeting, and retention.
Acquisition Prospecting
Acquisition prospecting can be seen as the stage in Omnichannel marketing where your business tries to reach broader audiences. In acquisition, you make use of TV or YouTube advertising for broad targeting. It would be important to note that Facebook, Instagram, and Google are the best online platforms that have the highest reach.
For instance, if you were a company that produces POS machines in Nigeria, running an advert that promotes content related to POS machines would be advisable. You can promote an article like “how to start a POS business in Nigeria”, and target people who would need such POS machines. You can also turn to programmatic advertisement campaigns, as they help get the audience that has an interest in your business.
Acquisition Re-Engagement
There is something called first-touch acquisition which takes place at the stage of prospecting. First-touch acquisition campaigns do not always turn out to be successful. One of the reasons for this outcome is bad timing.
Retargeting
Some audiences have a higher intent since they are very much aware of your brand’s product solution. Therefore, it would be important to target these individuals via every channel that they use.
Some of such channels include; Facebook, Instagram, and Google, but also other top native advertising platforms. An example of some interesting native advertising platforms includes; criteo, taboola, and outbrain.
With native advertising, one can interchange information between different advertising channels that would help in both getting audiences for retargeting. This approach would help you to avoid audience fatigue.
The last thing you want to do to your audience is to bombard them with adverts that create negative customer experiences.
Retention
It would be nice to try and figure out how to retain your customers after a successful omnichannel marketing outreach. Consolidating your most profitable audiences can be a huge plus to any retail business. Loyal customers are always prone to purchase more of your product solutions.
In this last stage of customer retention, you are not marketing anything, instead, you are building relationships with your customers. You can do this with the aid of a CRM (customer relationship management system).
