Why Your Brand’s Best Bet for Marketing & Communication Success is a Streamlined Omni-Channel Approach
Before going on a journey, it’s wise to map out the destinations you want to visit and sights you want to see, making sure all your plans are in order and timed just right so you don’t miss a thing. Likewise, when marketing a brand, it’s important to map out your customers’ journey to know where and how to reach them while giving them a consistent, seamless experience along the way.
Creating a convenient, pleasant and clear path for the customer often leads to more interest, communication and, ultimately, sales. To do so, brands must incorporate what the marketing and communications world calls an omni-channel strategy.
All for One & One for All
Social media. Mailers. Billboards. TV commercials. Websites. Storefronts. These are just some of the many diverse communications channels available to brands today. If you’re selling a product or service, you’re likely using not one but many channels to reach your target audience. For best results, those channels need to be strategically aligned with each other.
Unlike multichannel marketing which utilizes multiple channels separately, an omni-channel strategy is a more comprehensive, synergistic approach, enabling all marketing and communications channels to work in tandem with each other, not in silos. While the word “omni” means “all” or “everywhere,” it doesn’t mean you have to offer every channel there is, but that all the ones you are using are working together as one.
Striving to connect all the physical and virtual points of contact between a person and the brand — aka the touchpoints, this strategy presents a unified, cohesive message and offers more means of connection throughout the customer journey, from the digital landscape to the storefront.
It doesn’t diminish or elevate one channel over the other; it creates an environment in which channels support and reinforce each other. And, instead of basing which touchpoints to offer on what a brand prefers, an omni-channel strategy optimizes the shopping experience based on what customers prefer.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
No matter how specific you may think your audience is, you likely have different types of customers with varying demographics, characteristics and preferences that make them behave and respond differently throughout the buying process — whether it’s how they prefer receiving the initial pitch, where they choose to make the purchase, or how they like to communicate with your brand before and after the sale.
For instance, according to a recent survey by The Northridge Group, when asked which communication channels they prefer using to resolve customer service issues, 42% of respondents said phone, 38% said digital channels and 20% said emails.
If your brand is missing or neglecting certain touchpoints along the customer journey, you may miss them when it counts most, which could mean losing current or potential customers. The more diverse and far-reaching your omni-channel map is, the more opportunities you’ll have to grab their attention and create relationships. In fact, omni-channel is all about optimizing opportunities.
Omni-Channel is Omni-Beneficial
This fully integrated, consumer-first approach does more than optimize your customers’ journey; it’s your path to “all” your brand has been looking for from your marketing and communications efforts. Here are just some of the great benefits of going omni-channel:
Greater engagement:
Omni-channel marketing solutions generated a 250% higher engagement rate than single-channel marketing, according to recent research from Omnisend. The streamlined experience and multiple channels of connection it offers help keep customers engaged or lets them re-engage at any touchpoint. Digital channels, especially, offer quick, if not instant, interaction and feedback opportunities that other channels simply can’t match.
Stronger identity & awareness:
Tearing down the walls between your marketing channels makes for a more unified, consistent brand story, voice and identity while reinforcing your foundational unique value proposition (what makes it 1.O.A.K.) at every touchpoint. This breeds greater familiarity, attention and trust from customers.
Increased loyalty:
Combining that trust with a convenient and engaging user experience that offers different ways to buy and connect with your brand goes a long way in securing customers’ continued patronage and loyalty. Omni-channel produced a 90% higher customer retention rate over single-channel, according to the Omnisend report.
Further Reach:
The better customer experience you offer and the better your engagement and awareness are, the more that people will hear about and interact with your brand. Whether through post shares, targeted ads or face-to-face conversations, the good word will spread, expanding your reach and providing opportunities to attract new market segments.
Superior Data:
Data and research drive omni-channel success. Diving deep into audience research helps you map out a better customer journey and develop channel-specific content that addresses their needs. From there, an omnichannel strategy lets you better track interactions and gather tons of data and feedback through website analytics, SEO tools, paid search, customer-service, in-store transactions and more. This allows you to not only better monitor ROI but also obtain valuable customer insight into their overall experience so you can hone future strategies to more effectively move them through the sales funnel.
Better personalization:
Furthermore, this data allows for highly personalized and tailored messaging via emails, ads, texts, calls, and other channels that help to form lasting relationships with customers. In a 2021 Segment survey, 60% of consumers said that they would likely become repeat customers after a personalized shopping experience with a company.
Higher earning potential:
Add all the above benefits together and it leads to the ultimate goal of most marketing and communication efforts: increased revenue. An analysis of over 135,000 campaigns executed in 2021 found that marketers using three or more channels in a campaign experienced an incredible 494% higher order rate than those using one channel.
Let’s say you have a brick-and-mortar store and rely solely on mailers and broadcast commercials or an e-commerce company with few means of contact besides a website and Facebook page. You’re absolutely missing out on a chance to expand your audience and increase revenue, and your brand is at a competitive disadvantage by not giving your customers other channels to interact with you.
In 2022, retail e-commerce revenue in the U.S. was estimated at roughly $905 billion. Statista forecasts that by 2027, online shopping revenue is expected to more than double and exceed $1.7 trillion. With virtual shopping becoming the norm, most brands without a strong digital omni-channel strategy will soon be left in the competitive dust.
Interested in Optimizing Your Customers’ Experience? Partner with Omni-Channel Experts
At M:7 Agency, we don’t believe marketing and communications channels should be in silos; we believe they should all be working synergistically to strengthen and support each other.
Our fully integrated marketing and communications team does the research, data gathering and analysis so essential to omni-channel success. We can also help you decide which traditional and digital channels make the most sense, then work with you to create a strategy that brings them all together for the optimal customer experience.
For more details on how an omni-channel strategy can elevate your brand and how M:7 Agency can support your omni-channel vision, start a conversation with us today!