Omnichannel marketing is a strategy that involves creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels and devices. Notice we said “all,” not many. That’s intentional because omnichannel marketing is meant to reach customers through social media, email, in-store visits, mobile apps, television, radio, and other avenues with one consistent, cohesive message and experience.
The Power of an Omnichannel Campaign
The goal of omnichannel marketing is to make it easy for customers to engage with a brand and provide a seamless experience regardless of where the interaction takes place. By doing so, brands can build stronger relationships with customers, increase brand loyalty, and drive sales.
For example, let’s say you’re a clothing brand trying to advertise to customers and increase conversions from online shoppers. You serve an ad for your new collection on Instagram, which leads to customers browsing the latest products and loading up their carts. However, maybe those customers don’t purchase immediately. You follow up later that day or the next day with an email reminding them of the items in their cart and offering a discount code, which leads the customers back to the website to finish their purchase.
With an omnichannel strategy, this whole experience would be seamless and consistent. The Instagram ad would look similar to how the website looks and feels; the email would be personalized and relevant with a catchy subject line; and the checkout process would be easy and integrated across platforms.
The Process of Building an Effective Omnichannel Advertising Campaign
Omnichannel marketing is all about creating a unified brand experience across all touchpoints and channels to provide the best possible experience. The focus is on the customers and their overall journey, so mistakes in omnichannel marketing usually involve hiccups in the whole process rather than just a poorly performing ad on one of the several platforms a brand uses in its marketing strategy.
In theory, omnichannel marketing might sound like common sense, but a lot of effort goes into balancing a campaign and making sure it translates across platforms. Brands can successfully execute an omnichannel campaign by taking the following actions:
Study your audience: Start by gathering data on your customers and their behavior across different channels. This will help you identify which channels are most effective and how they connect so you know where you should focus your resources.
Prioritize your channels: Based on the insights you collect, prioritize the channels that are most effective in reaching your audience. Consider reach, engagement rates, and conversion rates. If your brand isn’t successful on Instagram, you may want to focus more on other social media channels, for example. Allocate a larger portion of your budget to the channels that have the greatest impact and connect the dots from there.
Focus on the customer and their behavior: If you understand which customers are interacting with your brand and how you can tailor your campaign accordingly. Ask yourself where your customers are coming from, what draws them in the most, and what leads them to ultimately purchase your product or service. This will help you create high-quality, relevant content at the right times for the right people.
Measure and adjust: Identify clear KPIs and regularly measure your performance across different channels. Use this data to alter your strategy if necessary and optimize your budget allocation over time.
Expand gradually: Think of your omnichannel campaign like a spider’s web. It starts with a strong core, but then it gradually spreads out to cover more and more surface area. Carefully weave the components of your campaign together and the web will remain strong while netting more customers, even as it grows larger. Don’t be afraid to use automation tools to streamline your efforts as they become more complicated. This can free up time to brainstorm more effective strategies for the future while your current campaigns work their magic.
Optimizing Your Omnichannel Ad Campaign
Businesses will want to look out for noncoherent and inconsistent messaging in their campaigns. For example, sale prices should remain consistent and creative choices should match or be similar across all platforms. Anything that makes the customer experience disjointed could be the difference between brand loyalty and abandonment. Consistency can’t be achieved without understanding the full customer journey, so lean into the data you collect to inform your choices now and in the future. Finally, businesses should consider how their messaging and creative looks on multiple platforms. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world anymore, which makes it imperative to verify how everything looks on TV, desktop, mobile, email, various social platforms, and more.
Compulse can help optimize your budget for omnichannel marketing campaigns and track the stats that are important to you.
Schedule a demo to learn how you can take your marketing strategy to the next level by reaching customers wherever they are and maintaining their loyalty across all platforms.