Article | 7 minute read
Omnichannel marketing:
How to succeed with your strategy
Article | 7 minute read
Omnichannel marketing: How to succeed with your strategy
Published: 5 January 2023
In this article:
Integrating multiple channels into your marketing strategy is no longer just an option, it's an approach that's required for the brand to be perceived as unified today.
This practice is popularly known as omnichannel marketing, which refers to a company's way of marketing so that a customer gets one cohesive experience regardless of channel.
In this guide, we give you tips on strategies to strengthen your brand.
Definition: Omnichannel marketing
Omnichannel marketing, or omnichannel marketing, is about creating the conditions for a positive customer experience across multiple channels and platforms from a holistic perspective.
The aim of the strategy is to deliver a coherent and consistent experience to everyone who comes into contact with the company, regardless of the channel.
This includes both the experience that visitors encounter physically (e.g. in a store) and digitally (e.g. through a website). Companies that do not consciously work with omni-channel marketing risk being perceived as messy in their communications.
They often miss out on the opportunity to make their dialogue with customers more relevant and personal messages are missing. But more on this later in the guide.
The number of channels to include in an omnichannel strategy can vary depending on the brand and target audience, but here are some examples of channels that can be tied together in an overall strategy:
- Physical store
- Online store
- Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn)
Most businesses today communicate through multiple digital platforms, such as their website and social media.
A company that masters the omni-channel approach conveys a consistent and coherent experience to everyone who interacts with the company, regardless of the channel.
Communication channels such as SMS, social media and email combine to create a holistic experience for the recipient, as the channels reinforce each other through both messaging and accessibility.
Those who actively work with the method know exactly how and when customers have been in contact with the company, whether it is through Instagram, email or the website. They also know if the customer has completed a purchase or stopped halfway through the buying process.
Today, most industries use the method, such as healthcare, retail, technology companies and financial services.
Benefits of omnichannel marketing
So what are the benefits of working and optimizing your omnichannel efforts?
1) Better customer service
Being able to stay one step ahead of the customer by accessing interest, purchase history and behavioural analysis, you can tailor your communication to the customer's needs and circumstances.
2) Ability to convey a consistent brand image
By communicating consistently across all channels, you reinforce your brand image. This includes tonality, (read more about that here), values and offers.
3) Effective marketing with high ROI
When you tailor your communications to the preferences of the recipient and the stages of the buying journey, your messages will have greater impact and you activates will get a higher ROI.
Omni-channel marketing in practice
Did you know that 86% of consumers expect their communications with brands to be seamless across channels?
This includes all forms of marketing. Starting with yourself, how many times have you checked a website after an ad has popped up on your social media?
Or how many times have you checked out a store's social media after a visit, to get more inspiration - or conversely, visited a store after their range has landed in your feed.
It's very common for consumers to engage with brands through multiple digital channels these days. That's why we recommend you integrate your omni-channel strategy with your marketing strategy. We'll tell you how.
Base your channel selection on your target audience
First of all, you need to find out which social media channel(s) your target audience is on today.
To do this, you need to analyze what users are doing on each platform.
- Are users sharing your content on Instagram to show what products they want?
- Or are they writing about your services on a blog?
To create an effective strategy, you need to know how your users are interacting with your content - on each platform.
Review the contexts in which your brand is being mentioned today by searching on google, checking hashtags and tags on your social media channels.
Also look at the forums where users are discussing products in your industry in general.
This will give you a better idea of where to target your marketing.
If you want to read more about how to develop a persona and clear target audience, read our article here.
Use an omni-channel marketing platform
To take your channel strategy to the next level, we recommend using an omnichannel marketing platform.
This is to be able to communicate personalised content to your recipients.
72% of today's consumers only interact with content that is personally targeted at them!
Creating personalized content for recipients may be manageable through one channel, but when you're working with multiple channels in parallel, it becomes a challenge.
A platform such as Exponea, which help you gather all the data in one place.
The tool will also help you formulate personalised messages, tailored to the recipients' preferred channels.
Implement an effective CRM system
In order to develop an effective strategy, you need to get information about recipients' buying cycles.
Your communications should be based on what they are looking for and at what stage of the buying journey they are at.
A CRM system will help you get a clearer view of users' interactions with your social media, email marketing and website, and keep you continuously updated with new events.
The information can then be used to trigger automated mailings with offers for specific products that the customer has shown interest in previously.
Read more about CRM systems here.
Combine email marketing with social media marketing
Both email marketing and social media marketing are two very powerful strategies for growing brands, plus the methods work very well together.
Now you might be wondering how?
Import your subscribers from your email marketing to the audience you want to advertise to on social media.
Since they have already interacted with you, they are qualified leads for your business. Read more about social media advertising here.
Once you import their email addresses into your social media channels, you'll be able to continue to nurture and deepen the relationship with these leads.
This gives you an opportunity to get to know them better and understand their preferences. You also have the opportunity to market carefully selected products to them, and give them a taste of your offerings.
In addition to this, you can create custom lists on Facebook to send tailored messages to your subscribers. This allows you to reach out in new ways and grab their attention in the middle of a conversation.
Tip!
To direct your subscribers to your social media channels, you can also add the icons for each channel directly to the email.
Encourage recipients to see more content, products, news, reviews and refer to your media.
Not only does this increase brand awareness, but the strategy also helps you grow the reach of your channels.
Be consistent across all channels
To provide a seamless experience to your potential customers, maintain a consistent tone and communication across all channels.
- A subscriber reads an email from you highlighting an ongoing campaign
- The subscriber decides to check out your Instagram profile for more information, but finds no content that matches the offer
- The user lose interest and, in the worst case scenario, trust.
To develop an effective omni-channel strategy, you need to make sure that all your content matches and that your channels are aligned to reinforce each other's messages.
Your website should also reflect your marketing to create consistency. The best way to synchronise your communications across all channels is to plan your activities and messages in advance.
This gives you a holistic view of your marketing and reduces the risk of a message being missed on one channel.
It also saves your time, resources and gives you the benefit of spreading creative ideas throughout the year.
Learn more about how to strategically plan your marketing activities here.
Along with data collection, omni-channel marketing gives you great opportunities to optimize your sales by reallocating resources and focusing on the channels that create the most value.
Så, hvorfor omnichannel?
If you want to create an optimal customer experience, you need to sync your digital marketing with your social media marketing and what's happening physically in-store.
Seamless communication between channels not only improves the experience for recipients, but strengthens both your brand and message.
To get the most thorough foundation possible, you should leverage the insights generated by both your omni-channel and CRM tools.
Analyse and optimise your activities as you go and focus on the channels that create value for you, your brand and your customers. The most important thing is to take the first step to get started with your omnichannel strategy.
Start by running a campaign synchronised across three different channels. Evaluate the results and customer behaviour as you go and optimise accordingly as you go.
It doesn't always hit the spot on the first try - but at least now the strategy is rolling!
Published: 5 January 2023
In this article:
Integrating multiple channels into your marketing strategy is no longer just an option, it's an approach that's required for the brand to be perceived as unified today.
This practice is popularly known as omnichannel marketing, which refers to a company's way of marketing so that a customer gets one cohesive experience regardless of channel.
In this guide, we give you tips on strategies to strengthen your brand.
Definition: Omnichannel marketing
Omnichannel marketing, or omnichannel marketing, is about creating the conditions for a positive customer experience across multiple channels and platforms from a holistic perspective.
The aim of the strategy is to deliver a coherent and consistent experience to everyone who comes into contact with the company, regardless of the channel.
This includes both the experience that visitors encounter physically (e.g. in a store) and digitally (e.g. through a website). Companies that do not consciously work with omni-channel marketing risk being perceived as messy in their communications.
They often miss out on the opportunity to make their dialogue with customers more relevant and personal messages are missing. But more on this later in the guide.
The number of channels to include in an omnichannel strategy can vary depending on the brand and target audience, but here are some examples of channels that can be tied together in an overall strategy:
- Physical store
- Online store
- Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- E-mail
Most businesses today communicate through multiple digital platforms, such as their website and social media.
A company that masters the omni-channel approach conveys a consistent and coherent experience to everyone who interacts with the company, regardless of the channel.
Communication channels such as SMS, social media and email combine to create a holistic experience for the recipient, as the channels reinforce each other through both messaging and accessibility.
Those who actively work with the method know exactly how and when customers have been in contact with the company, whether it is through Instagram, email or the website. They also know if the customer has completed a purchase or stopped halfway through the buying process.
Today, most industries use the method, such as healthcare, retail, technology companies and financial services.
Benefits of omnichannel marketing
So what are the benefits of working and optimizing your omnichannel efforts?
1) Better customer service
Being able to stay one step ahead of the customer by accessing interest, purchase history and behavioural analysis, you can tailor your communication to the customer's needs and circumstances.
2) Ability to convey a consistent brand image
By communicating consistently across all channels, you reinforce your brand image. This includes tonality, (read more about that here), values and offers.
3) Effective marketing with high ROI
When you tailor your communications to the preferences of the recipient and the stages of the buying journey, your messages will have greater impact and you activates will get a higher ROI.
Omni-channel marketing in practice
Did you know that 86% of consumers expect their communications with brands to be seamless across channels?
This includes all forms of marketing. Starting with yourself, how many times have you checked a website after an ad has popped up on your social media?
Or how many times have you checked out a store's social media after a visit, to get more inspiration - or conversely, visited a store after their range has landed in your feed.
It's very common for consumers to engage with brands through multiple digital channels these days. That's why we recommend you integrate your omni-channel strategy with your marketing strategy. We'll tell you how.
Base your channel selection on your target audience
First of all, you need to find out which social media channel(s) your target audience is on today.
To do this, you need to analyze what users are doing on each platform.
- Are users sharing your content on Instagram to show what products they want?
- Or are they writing about your services on a blog?
To create an effective strategy, you need to know how your users are interacting with your content - on each platform.
Review the contexts in which your brand is being mentioned today by searching on google, checking hashtags and tags on your social media channels.
Also look at the forums where users are discussing products in your industry in general.
This will give you a better idea of where to target your marketing.
If you want to read more about how to develop a persona and clear target audience, read our article here.
Use an omni-channel marketing platform
To take your channel strategy to the next level, we recommend using an omnichannel marketing platform.
This is to be able to communicate personalised content to your recipients.
72% of today's consumers only interact with content that is personally targeted at them!
Creating personalized content for recipients may be manageable through one channel, but when you're working with multiple channels in parallel, it becomes a challenge.
A platform such as Exponea, which help you gather all the data in one place.
The tool will also help you formulate personalised messages, tailored to the recipients' preferred channels.
Implement an effective CRM system
In order to develop an effective strategy, you need to get information about recipients' buying cycles.
Your communications should be based on what they are looking for and at what stage of the buying journey they are at.
A CRM system will help you get a clearer view of users' interactions with your social media, email marketing and website, and keep you continuously updated with new events.
The information can then be used to trigger automated mailings with offers for specific products that the customer has shown interest in previously.
Read more about CRM systems here.
Combine email marketing with social media marketing
Both email marketing and social media marketing are two very powerful strategies for growing brands, plus the methods work very well together.
Now you might be wondering how?
Import your subscribers from your email marketing to the audience you want to advertise to on social media.
Since they have already interacted with you, they are qualified leads for your business. Read more about social media advertising here.
Once you import their email addresses into your social media channels, you'll be able to continue to nurture and deepen the relationship with these leads.
This gives you an opportunity to get to know them better and understand their preferences. You also have the opportunity to market carefully selected products to them, and give them a taste of your offerings.
In addition to this, you can create custom lists on Facebook to send tailored messages to your subscribers. This allows you to reach out in new ways and grab their attention in the middle of a conversation.
Tip!
To direct your subscribers to your social media channels, you can also add the icons for each channel directly to the email.
Encourage recipients to see more content, products, news, reviews and refer to your media.
Not only does this increase brand awareness, but the strategy also helps you grow the reach of your channels.
Be consistent across all channels
To provide a seamless experience to your potential customers, maintain a consistent tone and communication across all channels.
- A subscriber reads an email from you highlighting an ongoing campaign
- The subscriber decides to check out your Instagram profile for more information, but finds no content that matches the offer
- The user lose interest and, in the worst case scenario, trust.
To develop an effective omni-channel strategy, you need to make sure that all your content matches and that your channels are aligned to reinforce each other's messages.
Your website should also reflect your marketing to create consistency. The best way to synchronise your communications across all channels is to plan your activities and messages in advance.
This gives you a holistic view of your marketing and reduces the risk of a message being missed on one channel.
It also saves your time, resources and gives you the benefit of spreading creative ideas throughout the year.
Learn more about how to strategically plan your marketing activities here.
Along with data collection, omni-channel marketing gives you great opportunities to optimize your sales by reallocating resources and focusing on the channels that create the most value.
Så, hvorfor omnichannel?
If you want to create an optimal customer experience, you need to sync your digital marketing with your social media marketing and what's happening physically in-store.
Seamless communication between channels not only improves the experience for recipients, but strengthens both your brand and message.
To get the most thorough foundation possible, you should leverage the insights generated by both your omni-channel and CRM tools.
Analyse and optimise your activities as you go and focus on the channels that create value for you, your brand and your customers. The most important thing is to take the first step to get started with your omnichannel strategy.
Start by running a campaign synchronised across three different channels. Evaluate the results and customer behaviour as you go and optimise accordingly as you go.
It doesn't always hit the spot on the first try - but at least now the strategy is rolling!