Do you know that 86% of consumers frequently switch between two channels? Yes, they shop across many channels in addition to bouncing from one store to another. They occasionally wind up using their cell phones as shopping assistants in stores or making online purchases while in line at actual stores. Because of this, 87 % of retailers consider an omnichannel marketing strategy essential for their company. Businesses understand that to excel they must provide customers with a consistent experience across all their touchpoints. It's time for you, as a retailer, to comprehend the value of omnichannel marketing for your company and to use it to give your customers an exceptional experience and increase your return on investment. To assist you with creating an effective omnichannel marketing campaign, we have put together a thorough handbook with advice and omnichannel marketing techniques. Let's get going.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

The practice of developing your brand's presence across numerous online (webpage, application, media platforms, emails, SMS, WhatsApp) and offline (retail store, events, contact center) channels while ensuring a positive and seamless customer experience is referred to as "omnichannel marketing. "It is essential to note the words "positive" and "seamless," as 67 percent of customers cite poor customer service as a cause of churn. To provide your clients with a great experience throughout their journey, you must strengthen your omnichannel marketing strategy and take it seriously if you want to win and keep their business.

Why is Omnichannel Marketing crucial?  

Since it lowers churn, promotes brand loyalty, and helps you create an excellent experience for the customer at every step of their lifecycle, omnichannel marketing is crucial. Take this as a case study. Consider that after a long day at work, you want to have a quick cup of coffee before returning home. In the evening, when you know it will be busy, you don't have the stamina to stand in line at your favorite coffee shop. Wouldn't it be convenient to visit the coffee shop, pick up your order, and leave if you could preorder coffee via an app? Starbucks did that. It has simplified for the customer the ordering and payment processes. 29% of their transactions are made via mobile payments. Through omnichannel technology, Starbucks was able to increase revenue in addition to improving the customer experience.

How to create a perfect omnichannel experience?  

Starting with a thorough understanding of your customer can help you develop the ideal omnichannel experience (probably more than their best friend). For instance, Starbucks leveraged the customer's reluctance to wait in line even when they are enticed to grab a cup of coffee to understand their pain point and develop a successful omnichannel experience. Deeply comprehending your customer would entail paying close attention to the platforms they regularly shop on, their buying habits, their difficulties when shopping, how they connect with the business at each touchpoint, and the gadgets they use. With this information, you can pinpoint the key touchpoints and concentrate on tying them together to give your clients a seamless and customized experience. Additionally, it will enable you to recognize typical client problems and develop workable solutions.  

How to Develop the Ideal Omnichannel Marketing Plan?  

You need the ideal omnichannel marketing plan to provide that kind of omnichannel experience. What you can do is:

• Create a plan for the customer's experience- Understanding their channels and behaviors will help you develop a clear plan for how you want the experience to flow across all touchpoints.

• Use data as a foundation for your strategy - With CRM data, social listening data, and customer internet search behavior, you will be able to understand how your customers behave and develop solutions to meet their needs. By utilizing the data correctly, you may even lower turnover.

• Segment the users and tailor the experience – After data analysis, it is simple to divide consumers into several groups according to similar behavior patterns. You can construct tailored customer journeys using this to your advantage.

• Get the context correct - The context is the most critical component of an omnichannel marketing plan. Your users will stop interacting with you if you send the wrong message to the wrong group at the wrong time. Make sure the context of your message is appropriate for the person, then deliver it to them on the channel and at the time when they are most active.

• Choose the appropriate marketing automation tools - From the moment your strategy is conceived until it is put into practice, use the proper marketing tools. Before choosing the best one, conduct a thorough analysis.

• Make your business customer-focused – This is a crucial stage. No plan or marketing technique will be effective unless your staff members are taught to provide clients with a consistent experience.

Omnichannel vs Multichannel and Cross-Channel Marketing:

Marketers frequently confuse words like omnichannel, multichannel, and cross-channel. They appear to employ many channels to attract, engage, and keep your customers. Although the three are fundamentally the same, a fine line separates them. In multichannel marketing, each communication channel operates independently with no link, whereas in cross-channel marketing, just a small number of channels are interconnected. Since all the channels operate together and in unison, omnichannel marketing is significantly more developed. But how can you choose the one that is ideal for you? To gain a comprehensive view, let's examine the benefits and drawbacks.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Omnichannel Marketing:  

Multichannel marketing has the benefit of expanding your reach by utilizing a variety of channels. But because of this lack of cohesion, there is no transparency between the media, and instead of cooperating, they conflict with one another. Inconsistent consumer experiences result from this. By connecting all the touch points and maintaining transparency between them, omnichannel marketing, on the other hand, ensures that the customer experience remains constant across all channels.

Omnichannel systems are deep and vast and have many points to cover. This guide will remain incomplete if we don’t discuss topics like - how you can boost your ROI with omnichannel marketing, some use cases, how you can fix certain common mistakes in omnichannel marketing, etc. This is why we are coming up with a ‘Part 2’ of this guide! Till then stay tuned to Survey2Connect. Survey2Connect provides a one-stop solution for all your experience management needs. With S2C you find the right answers to take timely actions. Get in touch with us for a demo.