Imagine that you’re someone who works from home, and as lunchtime is approaching, you decide you would rather eat something from a restaurant than make it yourself. With a limited amount of time, which restaurant would you choose:
1. Somewhere you have to go into the restaurant, wait in line to order, and wait for your food to be completed;
2. Somewhere you may have to wait in a long drive-through line, or;
3. Somewhere you can order from the comfort of your home office computer chair using a website or mobile app, be notified via text message when your food is ready, and pick it up in the drive-through (some savvy businesses even have drive-through fast lanes for this purpose) or in the store.
You’re going to pick the quick, convenient option, aren’t you? It’s basically a no-brainer. This is an example of a business using an omnichannel marketing approach. They have options for purchasing their items on several different platforms, including their website, their app, and perhaps other food-ordering apps. They use text messaging – otherwise known as SMS – to reach you when your food is ready for pickup, and then you use the drive-through at their brick- and-mortar store to pick up your food.
Granted, your small-to-medium enterprise may not bear much resemblance to a nationwide restaurant chain, but there are several reasons why an omnichannel marketing experience is the right approach for your small business. Keep reading for more about omnichannel marketing and how it can enhance your customer’s entire sales journey. Or if you have to know right now, head to the TL;DR.
What Is An Omnichannel Marketing Experience?
Omnichannel marketing establishes your brand’s presence across numerous online (website, app, social media, email, SMS, WhatsApp) and offline (retail shop, events, call-center) channels while guaranteeing a good and smooth consumer journey.
67% of consumers cite poor customer service as a factor for turnover. Obviously, you want to gain and keep your consumers. In that case, you have to take your omnichannel business strategy seriously and continuously enhance it in order to provide a great experience to your customers across their whole experience with your business.
Businesses are no longer confined to conventional mediums of advertising such as television and print media. Billions of people are online now. Because consumers use many devices, applications, and websites on a regular basis, marketers have additional ways to contact their target demographic.
Customer channels include websites, social media platforms, and instant messaging applications. Marketers may efficiently handle several communication channels using marketing automation software without losing the context of their communication. In fact, today, 92% of marketers employ more than one channel, and 81% manage more than three, according to Hubspot Marketing.
Businesses may also use omnichannel marketing to deploy retargeting techniques. Because when all of your consumer touchpoints are connected, you can offer marketing messages on all platforms at the same time throughout the customer journey.
How Do You Build an Omnichannel Marketing Experience?
To create an omnichannel marketing experience that works, you’re going to need to conduct some in-depth research.
Begin by thoroughly knowing your consumer. Understanding your clients intimately entails paying close attention to the platforms they often use to purchase, their purchasing behavior, the obstacles they confront when shopping, how they connect with the brand across each channel, and the equipment they use to make purchases.
Pinpointing this data will help you in identifying the appropriate touch-points and focusing on strengthening and linking them to provide a smooth and tailored experience for your clients. It will also assist you in identifying typical consumer difficulties and developing a feasible solution for them.
Plan the Customer’s Whole Experience
Once you have conducted your research and built your customer profiles, you will be able to predict how their sales journey will go. We strongly suggest you prepare for every possibility between discovering your brand and deciding to purchase one of your products.
Outlining these maps enables marketers like you to design more focused campaigns by taking into account individual preferences, user experience and interface, and elements beyond the brand’s control that may influence the route to buy, such as economic issues.
Use Data to Strategize
One of the most important steps to omnichannel marketing is to evaluate the effectiveness of your omnichannel approach on a regular basis. This allows the marketing team to optimize campaign cost, messaging, and other aspects. Today’s enterprises should use media planning tools that can perform “what if” scenarios that take into account budget, target audience, numerous KPIs, and media mix, and give a very detailed media plan that can optimize ROI and guide future decision-making.
Use the Right Automation Tools
Use the appropriate marketing tools to accomplish your plan from start to finish. Before deciding on the best tools, conduct a comprehensive study. Hubspot, Mailchimp, Buffer, Constant Contact, Salesforce, Keap, and Marketo are just some of the many marketing automation programs you can use to simplify your omnichannel marketing approach.
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Make Your Business Customer-Focused
It would be best if you established processes for every staff member from the least senior to the most senior to offer a consistent experience to your customers. Without faultless customer service, no marketing effort will do the trick.
What Makes a Good Omnichannel Marketing Experience?
According to MoEngage, there are five key ingredients to a satisfying omnichannel marketing approach.
Convenience
With less and less time in our day, making your business the most convenient option is a savvy strategy for earning customers’ dollars and trust.
Consistency
Having a consistent brand and consistently good customer service experience is paramount to keeping customers coming back to you.
Relevance
Today’s shoppers are put off by a sales journey that is not tightly tailored to their life, their preferences, history, and behavior.
Empowerment
Brands that help customers make the best purchasing decision for their circumstances show higher ROI and develop loyal customers in the process.
Agility
When you spot a marketing opportunity, technology can enable you to build your sales journey to encompass that opportunity quickly. It’s important for businesses to adopt tools and analytics that show them when and where those opportunities arise.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is the act of using a content management platform or tool to set up sales journeys, messages, social media posts, and more to be delivered to customers automatically. Automating your digital marketing can save you precious time and can nurture leads without requiring 100% of your attention.
What Types of Marketing Does Your Business Need to Be Omnichannel?
There’s no easy answer because different channels perform differently for every business and every industry. Twitter may be a great platform for one business but do nothing for another.
Here are some of the options you have when building an omnichannel marketing experience.
Offline Channels
Brick-and-Mortar Stores
According to MoEngage, brick-and-mortar stores earned 85 percent of all sales in 2017. It’s an oldie, but it’s a goodie.
Geo-location Marketing
You may utilize geo-location to notify customers when your store is nearby. It can also be employed if your target consumer lives near your competitor’s store. You may entice them with discounts, promo coupons, and other incentives. Geo-location marketing is inexpensive and may increase in-store traffic and brand exposure. Almost 9 out of 10 marketers reported an increase in revenue and an 84% rise in consumer involvement.
In-App Activity
In-store shopping is done by nearly 51% of customers using retail mobile applications. The key is to make it a natural part of the customer’s purchasing experience. Including in-app activity in your retail business will help you improve customer experience and maintain loyal consumers.
Online Channels
Website
Find techniques to get your ideal clients to your website. You may add them to your email subscriber list to keep them up to date on new offers and specials, or you can send customized notifications and communications to encourage them to purchase on your website. Regardless of how you choose to draw traffic, make sure your website provides a positive experience for your clients. It should be SEO-friendly, load swiftly, and be simple to use.
Social Media
Social media sites are overwhelmingly popular, and they are quickly becoming another place people will shop. Instagram stories and campaign planning on Facebook may help you attract, engage, and convert consumers. Facebook also provides retargeting to clients in order to re-engage them. You may also create a store on Facebook or Instagram to allow for direct purchases. The goal is to make purchasing easier for customers.
Push
With timely messaging and rich media, mobile push notifications are an exceptionally efficient approach to capturing consumers’ attention.
Email
Email marketing remains one of the most booming methods of reaching out to people. Every dollar invested in email marketing returns $38 in ROI. Because of this fact, it is simply the cheapest marketing route accessible. The research shows that creating an email list and connecting with it might be critical to the success of your organization.
In-App
In-app notifications are notifications on a smartphone or other mobile device that come from your business’s app. You want your customers to explore your app and consider purchases. It’s critical to take advantage of this chance to convey crucial information and collect data. These notifications may be used as an information vehicle to show users around an app and promote new features. They may also be used to collect information on what type of content works best with your target audience.
Web Push
Push notifications do not just reach mobile devices. You could also connect with consumers through push notifications while they are on your website. According to Business Insider, push notification users spend 53% more time on applications than non-subscribers. They also stay longer than other users, making it simpler to keep them. Web push notifications may be used for a variety of purposes, including promoting deals and gathering feedback.
SMS
65% of millennials and Gen Z engage with each other more digitally than in person. Generation Z already has $143 billion in purchasing power and is quickly becoming the demographic of choice for many internet retailers. Different communication methods will be favored as a result of generational change. With 61% of Generation Z using mobile phones for five hours or more each day, a transition to mobile marketing is a necessity for firms targeting younger customers.
This means that utilizing SMS marketing to target this generation is part of the process of employing a platform where your consumers are.
What Are the Advantages of an Omnichannel Marketing Experience?
Once you have built a thorough and well-researched omnichannel marketing approach for your small business, you can look forward to many advantages.
Increased Reach
You’ll be able to contact your consumers wherever they are if you implement omnichannel retail, marketing, or service strategies. They no longer have to look around for you. Your staff or your products are simply a click, a tweet, an instant message, or a phone call away.
More Profit
When your visitors are prepared to order, they will be far more likely to do so if they can locate your goods on many platforms and channels. Offering a multi-channel shopping experience also makes it easy for people to return to you or renew their memberships, resulting in recurring income.
Increased Client Satisfaction
Customers will be pleased in the long run if they believe they have many ways to contact your customer service and sales staff. Alternatively, people can acquire your goods regardless of their device or chosen platform. Client satisfaction is essential for lowering customer turnover and keeping them coming back to you for their demands.
Better Product Access
When a client has the choice to buy a product from any place, they will have a better experience. In fact, 54% of customers say they are more inclined to conduct business with a company that sells items through several channels.
Being available in a physical location and having an online presence increases brand awareness and loyalty. Customer retention is simpler, less expensive, and more efficient than acquiring new consumers.
What are the Disadvantages of an Omnichannel Marketing Experience?
We wouldn’t blame you if you’re thinking, “This all sounds like a lot!” It can be, but you can take steps to make your omnichannel marketing work for itself. That said, there are potential downsides to omnichannel marketing.
More Online Competition
Competition from other retailers or brands will always be a challenge. More sales channels means competing against multiple competitors online. Customers who like something in a showroom can take out their phones and compare prices.
There aren’t many solutions to this problem other than encouraging clients to select you. Offering discounts to loyal consumers or a percentage off online purchases/in-store pickup might grow your buyer base.
It Takes Coordination
Open lines of communication are beneficial to your company, but they are also challenging. An omnichannel system won’t function if separate systems don’t communicate with one another.
Developing a communication strategy is critical, as is having a unified IT system across all media. While ironing out the kinks may be difficult at first, the effort will be worthwhile as the process becomes simpler with time and expertise.
The implementation of an omnichannel system may be facilitated by the use of appropriate back-office technologies throughout the organization.
It’s Digital by Nature
While omnichannel marketing does include some more traditional efforts like brick-and-mortar stores, telephone numbers, and the like, the majority of efforts are moving online. Social media, text messaging, messaging apps, online ordering, and websites are all digital. For your more old-fashioned customers, omnichannel marketing might be frustrating or make them feel left behind.
How Can You Boost Your ROI with Omnichannel Marketing?
Those with a strong omnichannel approach were able to keep 89% of their clients, whereas companies with weak strategies were only able to retain 33%. When you do it right, omnichannel marketing can send your profits through the roof. Here’s how you may use omnichannel marketing to increase your ROI.
Use consistent messages across all media
According to an Interacting Advertising Bureau (IAB) study, consistent messaging across many channels may improve customer purchase intent by 90%. Your consumer will contact you via any channel. As a result, determine what you want your consumers to know and teach your marketing, sales, and customer service teams to present a consistent message.
Provide a consistent overall consumer experience
According to an SDL survey, 60% of millennials demand a consistent brand experience across all channels such as in-store, online, or mobile phones. Omnichannel marketing enables you to go beyond message to provide your consumers with a uniform experience across all channels.
Because your consumer may connect with you through any touchpoint, there is no single method to build that experience. They might shop online and get the merchandise at the local store, or they could buy something from a retail store and have it transported to their home.
They will also communicate with many divisions inside your organization, ranging from retail salespeople to online customer service.
Ensure communication continuity
While continuity in messaging and experience is critical for the execution of your omnichannel approach, marketers must also consider continuity when building their omnichannel marketing strategy. Assume a consumer adds an item to his cart but forgets to complete his purchase.
You may send tailored emails, push alerts, and remarketing messages to remind the consumer to finish the sale. If you don’t send a little reminder, you may not make the sale, since your consumer may forget about the abandoned cart.
Incorporate data-driven sales into your marketing strategy
According to a Forbes Insights and Arm Treasure Data poll, 40% of CEOs surveyed claimed that personalization had helped them optimize their sales strategies. Data-driven marketing provide all the information you need about the client, their behavior, and what they like. You can use this to customize their sales journey and offer the correct message to the right audience via the relevant platforms. Making your approach more personal also helps attract and keep more clients shopping with your business.
TLDR
Adopting an omnichannel marketing experience for your small business can help you reach your customers in more ways, reach MORE clients than you normally would, and help you increase your ROI for your marketing efforts.
Conclusion/ CTA
Omnichannel marketing is so important because it allows you to provide a great experience for your customers at every point of their lifecycle, minimize churn, and drive and enhance your brand’s reputation.
While an omnichannel marketing approach may seem overwhelming at first, carefully putting all the pieces into place will soon have you seeing results in the form of increased sales and ROI. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the different pieces of the puzzle that is omnichannel marketing, Business Pro is here to help. Digital Business Solutions by Business Pro is the number one communication automation and marketing platform for small businesses. We are the first-ever platform built to manage a business’s communication with follow-up, two-way texting, sales journeys, scheduling, business listings, social media management and so much
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