When the
path to a customer purchase can begin and end at any time, in any location and
on any device, it’s becoming apparent that businesses need to create a seamless
experience across the entire process.

With so many devices available to complete
a task, customers can switch between them to purchase a product or
service. If they encounter problems across any of them, that could mean the
difference between making the sale and the customer moving on to something
different.

As a
result, more and more businesses are nurturing leads through an omnichannel marketing
strategy, which optimizes the experience across all customer touchpoints.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel
marketing is the concept of providing a seamless experience across all
available channels relevant to the buyer’s journey. This applies to
the shifts and transitions in the way customers progress through the sales
funnel.

Customers
are more connected and have more control over the buying process than ever
before, often using three or four devices to access the internet or purchase
products. As a result, what used to be completed on one site, in one location,
at one time is now completed over days, locations, times and channels.

This may
even include trade magazines or newspapers as well, making it even more
challenging.

The Importance of a Unified Profile

The omnichannel
roadmap is achieved by building a unified customer profile
that segments the content and offers provided to them. This can only be
achieved through strong omnichannel marketing.

One of
the challenges of omnichannel marketing is the isolation of channels, which all
provide data in different times with the marketing automation platform. This may include
different vendors for email, SMS, push notifications and social media. As a
result, customers may not recognize these disparate channels as part of the
same marketing effort, which can be confusing. 

A rich
and deep personalization is only
achieved if the data from all the individual interactions is unified to
deliver:

• Messaging content that resonates with the customer
• A frequency of messaging that the customer will respond to
• The products the customer enjoys buying
• The types of incentive recommendations the customer will respond to

A
responsive marketing platform captures all this customer data, such as email
addresses, phone numbers, promotion responses, call center inquiries, products
viewed and other touchpoints. 

Once this
unified customer profile is achieved, campaigns can be automated to trigger
marketing activities from all channels and lead the customer through the
buyer’s journey.

Getting Started With Omnichannel Marketing

Though many businesses are aware of the value of omnichannel marketing, many struggle with some of the obstacles to creating this strategy – some of which are:

• Lack of resources necessary to succeed
• Lack of analytical and technical resources to understand data
• Difficulty integrating necessary data
• Lack of communication between marketing agencies
• Lack of C-suite support and understanding of the value of omnichannel marketing
• Organizational silos

Creating
an omnichannel marketing strategy isn’t as difficult as it seems, however.

What
follows are some basic tips on how to get started.

Emphasize Content

Without valuable content, your
omnichannel marketing strategy is nothing. With customers connecting over
various devices in many different situations, a marketer needs to offer
information and value to keep their attention.

For this,
you need to understand what kind of content your customers consume and when. Is
your content giving them what they need? Is it optimized for the device they’re
using? Are you offering suggestions based on buying or browsing history? Are
you optimizing for their location?

On top of
that, are you upselling and cross-selling to your customers? Are you sending abandoned cart emails?
Are those emails optimized for different devices?

These are
just a few of the questions that need to be answered about your ideal buyer,
which is why you need in-depth information about them.

Develop an In-Depth Understanding of the Customer

If you
want to provide a truly omnichannel experience, you must have intimate knowledge of your customer.
You need to understand who they are and what’s important to them, what challenges
or problems they face and how you can solve them.

To get this information, welcome customer feedback, employ social listening tools and leverage lead capture landing pages to find out more about their needs. Even more than that, find out which channels they use most to access your content. 

Here are the channels most important for omnichannel success, in order of value:

Digital

• Brand websites
• Mobile
• Social media platforms
• Email
• Digital video
• Partner websites

Local

• Local engagement in store
• Live events
• Local retail partners

Traditional

• Television advertising
• Traditional advertising
• Direct mail
• Radio advertising
• Outdoor advertising
• Sponsorships
• Coupons

This list
is general, and keep in mind that the channels may vary based on your specific
audience.

Develop Agile Departments

One of
the biggest challenges to omnichannel marketing implementation is siloed organizational structure.
Sales, marketing, PR, product development and customer service tend to operate
independently of one another, which is an obstacle to creating a seamless
experience.

Fortunately,
a little restructuring of traditional roles can create shared responsibility
across departments, letting each team know where they fit into the bigger
picture and how they relate to the work of the other departments. This not only
sets clear expectations for each team, but also streamlines the communication
between them.

When
communication is clear and transparent, the departments operate fluidly and
create agile marketing strategies that focus on the customer experience. 

Create an Integrated Marketing Stack

The
marketing technology landscape is more complex than ever, leading business
owners and marketers to identify the tools most valuable to them to focus their
efforts. Together, these are known as the “marketing stack.” 

For many
businesses, the most valuable tools in the marketing stack are:

• Customer relationship management software
• Video and web conferencing tools
• Email service provider
• Marketing automation platform
• Print advertising solutions
• Analytics and data visualization tools
• Content management platform

Of these,
the most valuable is the customer relationship management tool, which allows
you to record each buyer’s journey and identify trends within them.

Beyond
that, analytics tools are necessary to make
informed decisions about the overall strategy and user behavior.

Once you
have these, build the rest of the marketing stack around those and fill it with
tools that help you provide relevance and value to your customers.

Optimize Your Website

When
customers access your site across different channels and devices, your site
needs to provide them with a user-friendly experience
that’s highly responsive to succeed. All of your web pages should be designed
to provide maximum usability to visitors and to allow them to access your
content or to complete a sale with minimal hassle.

Is Omnichannel Marketing Worth it?

The steps
involved in developing a successful omnichannel marketing strategy may seem
overwhelming, so you may find yourself wondering if it’s worth it.

According
to a study of 46,000 shoppers,
users who shop across channels have spent:

• 4 percent more on each shopping experience in-store, on average
• 10 percent more online than those using one channel
• 13 percent more when researching before buying

The study
also concluded that the more channels a customer uses, the more valuable they
become.

Final Thoughts

In
today’s channel-rich environment, omnichannel marketing drives the engagement
of customers and compels them to buy. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store
or are purely online, synchronizing every touchpoint of the buyer’s journey for
a seamless omnichannel experience elevates you above the competition.