Nowadays, people use multiple channels when they want to interact with brands. Omnichannel has become one of the most important marketing strategies, as it seeks to offer a consistent and fluid user experience between all its channels. In this article, we explain what omnichannel marketing is and why it is so important for the success of your company.
What is omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is a marketing strategy that allows companies to offer a coherent and unified customer shopping experience through multiple sales channels and communication devices, both digital and physical. These channels are social networks, email, instant messaging, telephone, physical and online stores, mobile applications, among others. That is, it focuses on integrating all the company’s sales and communication channels to offer a personalized and satisfactory shopping experience for the consumer.
What is sought is that the customer can interact with the company through any channel of their choice and that their purchasing experience is always the same, regardless of the channel they are using. For example, if a customer purchases a product through the brand’s website, he should be able to return it to a physical store without any major inconvenience. Also, it could be the case that a customer begins a search online, then wants to continue the purchase in a mobile app, and finally ends up visiting the physical store to complete their purchase. The idea is that each of these touchpoints integrate coherently to provide a seamless experience.
In conclusion, omnichannel is a specific marketing approach to promoting and selling products through multiple sales and communication channels.
Why is omnichannel marketing important?
Omnichannel is important because today’s consumers expect a rewarding shopping experience, regardless of which channel they want to use. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that omnichannel customers are 30% more likely to spend more on a purchase than customers who only shop on one channel.
In addition, omnichannel marketing allows companies to have a more complete view of the consumer, since they can collect data from all the sales and communication channels that the brand uses . This allows them to better understand customer needs and preferences and offer them a more personalized and satisfying shopping experience. Next, we will show you some success stories of companies that use this marketing strategy:
- Disney: This is a company that knows how to use omnichannel marketing strategically. They are characterized by offering a consistent and personalized experience to their customers across all channels. They use artificial intelligence technology to collect data about customers and then use it to personalize the customer experience. For example, if a customer makes a reservation at a Disney hotel, they can receive personalized recommendations for activities and experiences based on their interests and preferences. This is a clear example that knowing how to use the information provided by customers properly can benefit you, improve the customer experience, and generate greater sales for the brand.
- Sephora: The cosmetics sales brand has used omnichannel marketing to improve its customers’ shopping experience. They have a mobile app that allows customers to scan products in the store and receive personalized recommendations and beauty tips. Additionally, customers can save their favorite products online and access them from any device. This allows customers to obtain information and thus facilitate their purchase, since, having a wide variety of products, many times the consumer does not know which product to choose and ends up giving up on purchasing when feeling overwhelmed. The above seeks to facilitate the customer’s purchase and be able to achieve sales.
Benefits of omnichannel marketing
Some of the benefits that we can highlight from omnichannel marketing are the following:
- Improving customer experience: Helps improve customer satisfaction in their purchasing experience and encourage customer loyalty with the brand.
- Increase in sales: Increases the probability that the customer makes the purchase due to the rewarding experience they have with the brand, and that in turn generates the customer having us as a purchasing option again.
- Greater marketing effectiveness: Allows companies to collect and analyze data from multiple channels, helping them better understand their customers and adapt their marketing strategies.
- Improving customer retention: By providing a good experience, customer retention and loyalty can be increased, strengthening the relationship between the brand and consumers.
A brand that knows how to take advantage of omnichannel marketing is Starbucks, which is precisely characterized by selling experience. Your customers have a wide variety of options when they want to place their order, they can do so through the Starbucks mobile application, online, in physical stores and in stores with drive-thru service. In addition, it has a Starbucks card and integrates its loyalty program with its mobile application, allowing customers to earn and redeem rewards across all its channels. In this way they are using all their channels together and in harmony, with the purpose of generating a pleasant shopping experience.
How to implement an omnichannel marketing strategy?
Implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy is essential to improve the customer experience and increase the profitability of your business. Here are some steps you can follow to implement an effective omnichannel marketing strategy:
- Know your target audience:The first thing you should do is know your target audience and their needs. Conduct market research and analyze your customers’ data to identify their preferences, purchasing habits and behavioral patterns.
- Integrate your sales channels:Then you must integrate all your sales channels. This includes brick-and-mortar stores, online stores, social media, email, mobile apps, and any other channel you use to reach your customers.
- Offer a consistent experience across all channels:Make sure the shopping experience is consistent across all your sales channels. Increasingly, customers take on greater importance to the experience they can have with your brand and it is crucial to not lose a consumer or have them end up preferring another brand. Having to repeat information or having a negative experience on a certain channel can cause you to lose a sale.
- Implement a personalized marketing strategy: Use the data collected about your customers to offer a personalized and relevant shopping experience across all channels. For example, having the audience segmented correctly will be beneficial to send personalized emails or offer online discounts based on the customer’s purchasing preferences, as part of the email marketing strategy.
- Provide excellent customer service: Customer service is key to providing a positive shopping experience. By having direct contact with the customer, they are representing the brand, which is why you must ensure that customer service is optimal and efficient in all your channels. It is important that they know how to provide a solution, have a willingness and access to customer information to be able to provide personalized attention.
- Measure results:Track the results of your omnichannel marketing campaigns to measure their effectiveness. Use analytics tools and metrics to evaluate the success of your campaigns and adjust your strategy as necessary.
