The word omnichannel continues to be a buzzword for marketers. While the majority of marketers are operating with either a cross-channel or multichannel strategy, the goal is to be omnichannel and it’s proven to be profitable for companies.
Businesses that adopt an omnichannel strategy achieve 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates.
So as a marketer, what can you do to achieve your omnichannel marketing goals? Consider these three tips that I shared at the Ricoh Marketing Innovators Symposium.
It’s important to understand the difference between multi-channel and omnichannel marketing.
To fully understand what omnichannel means and where folks are on their journey, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and evaluate your organization to understand how you can connect with each and every customer. And, you need to provide the best customer experience and make it a seamless experience..
Remember, omnichannel is not a technology itself nor can you buy it off the shelf. It’s a strategy and a journey with a life of its own. It’s not a destination.
As you're planning your omnichannel strategy, think of the customer journey and all of the stages within the various lifecycles—customer, purchase and seasonal lifecycles. Determine how you can best communicate to your customers throughout each phase of their lifecycle and the channel they’re interacting in.
For example, if you think print will trigger an emotion and influence an in-store visit or an online purchase, then add print to your customer lifecycle strategy.
I know, you’ve heard it time and time again ... Technology is a fundamental component in enabling our omnichannel goals. The key is deciding on the best or most effective technology stack for your program.
As a marketer, ideally we’d prefer to have one technology solution that hosts all our omnichannel needs. But the reality is, brands leverage multiple technology products to achieve their goals, which comes as no surprise as there’s more than 7,000 solutions within our marketing technology landscape.
So how can you best decide what solution is the right choice for your company? Consider these key questions during your evaluation:
Create a data capture strategy that’s realistic, and fits in with your overall marketing goals. Here’s a few suggestions:
The proliferation of access to first-party data (thanks to multiple channels like website, email, mobile, social, etc.) allows marketers to better know today’s customer. When the data created from all of these touchpoints is augmented with third-party data assets, like TotalSource Plus, it enables a true, 360-degree customer view.
This third-party data includes things like consumers' interests (sports teams, preferred travel locations, etc.), and basic demographics that can then be segmented, profiled and analyzed with first-party data to enhance the customer view.
To enable the data you’d like capture, draw out and prioritize your customer journeys. And, plot the data that’s required for the different phases of the journey. This helps to identify systems that currently store information, and it reveals the gaps where data capture and activation are needed. Planning around the customer journey helps you stay focused and not lose sight of your omnichannel journey.
Remember, omnichannel is a journey in which we’ve all embraced. We are all on the journey to successful omnichannel practices, but make sure to align to the pace of your omnichannel maturity – crawl, walk, run. Either way, your new omnichannel approach will improve your customer experience and shopping experience across all channels.
If you’re questioning as to whether or not it’s worth the investment, yes, it is. Omnichannel customers spend 4% more in-store and 10% more on online channels than single-channel customers. And, for every additional channel they use, customers spend more money. Customers expect that you know who they are and what they’re trying to do from the first to last touchpoint.