How to Grow Your Online Shop with Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing (also referred to as cross-channel marketing) is focused on delivering a consistent, branded, and personalized customers with a consistent experience across different channels, including the in-store experience for those with brick and mortar locations.
By using an omnichannel marketing method, your company can put ads before people who are interested in items that match the interests of their customers and past purchases as well as shorten business to business selling processes. Connecting prospective customers to appropriate products and deals makes conversions more likely and increases the efficiency of advertising expenditure.
How is omnichannel marketing different from multichannel marketing?
You're probably already using multiple channels to promote your business. If you're still using single channel campaigns the first thing to do is to start using additional channels.
Multichannel marketing differs from an omnichannel strategy in the manner that your channels integrate and cooperate to create an unmatched and seamless experience, no matter which stage of the buyer's journey.
Multichannel marketing means that each channel might be working independently of each other. It is possible to have a separate marketing department for each channel and analyze the ROIs for each channel separately. Some campaigns may be less connected campaigns, each having their own unique customer experience. A customer could engage with all of these channels and be treated as if it was the first time that they've interacted with you.
However Omnichannel marketing is the blending and integration of your marketing strategy across multiple channels that results in a better customer experience.
With a successful omnichannel strategy one can expect that a client who starts their journey as a buyer through an PPC advertisement, but fails to buy anything after visiting your online store is likely to be contacted via other channels, based on their initial level of interaction, and they will experience an experience that is consistent.
It could be that they see display or social media ads which are pertinent to a first-time purchaser, notifications when they return to your site, targeted advertisements in video, or store offers that appeal to customers.
Most of us have experienced examples of omnichannel marketing in some way.
Suppose you click on the social media advertisement, then sign up for a coupon via the website of the retailer via the pop-up. If you do not buy the item, you may receive an abandoned cart message with a discount offer or you might continue to look at ads that advertise products on other online channels.
If you make a purchase and make a purchase, you'll likely receive an email that offers suggestions on similar products, as well as an announcement about sales in the near future. You may even get a postcard or catalog that invites you to make an in-store purchase if they have brick and mortar locations.
That is an omnichannel experience. It may involve a combination of both offline and online marketing, as well as numerous interactions.
Do you think it's too difficult? But the good news is that there's no need to shell out a large sum of money or dedicate a whole team to create a lean but effective Omnichannel Marketing Strategy to promote your shop.
The benefits of omnichannel marketing are to both clients and companies
Omnichannel strategies for marketing has many advantages over multichannel marketing- for your business and for customers. The most significant advantages are:
It's more cost efficient
For the business, Omnichannel marketing can save money since it's more effective. Instead of creating separate campaigns for email, social media, direct mail, and PPC, you'll be able to design a single one that you can use it on all your online and offline channels.
More than just another campaign, you'll be employing automated marketing that responds in response to the way that current and potential customers interact with your marketing.
Instead of having to keep creating new campaigns the omnichannel model seeks for a range of possible offers depending on the specific situation.
Imagine two potential buyers who are both exposed to the same ad. One of them buys, and your marketing automation sends the buyer a special first-time purchase offer, in hopes of becoming a regular client.
The other person doesn't buy however their behaviour suggests that they have a lot of interest. They receive marketing messages that try to convince them to come back and make purchase.
There is no need to develop these sorts of tools for omnichannel marketing once after which your automated system will utilize them depending on where someone is at in their buyer journey. It's a bit of work to set up however once the system is in operation, an omnichannel strategy is an enormous time saver.
It results in better customer experience
If your customer is comfortable as someone who is not familiar, your marketing automation tools will be able to identify the place they are at in their customer's journey. A seamless experience is better and more efficient and aligns with expectations of the customer.
It saves customers time, helps them make faster decisions, and reduces confusion.
It helps you provide more efficient customer service
If customers require assistance, an omnichannel approach enables your customer support team to learn more about each person so they won't need to talk to them the same way as everyone else. They can get up to speed quicker, without wasting so much time starting with a blank slate, and engage in a an intelligent and relevant dialogue.
What is the best way to develop your omnichannel marketing strategy
The following is a step-by-step guide for creating an omnichannel strategy for marketing that doesn't exceed your budget.
Integrate one channel at a moment
There's no way to start taking on everything in one go, and thankfully there's no need to. Omnichannel marketing aims to reach your customer base through a consistent messaging in multiple places.
Beginning with the dominant channel and identify the primary channel you wish it to integrate with. As you add more channels, acquire the software for automation of marketing that will help you and your customer relationship management (CRM) software communicate to all of your online and offline channels, such as a brick-and-mortar retail store.
Send your marketing message to the right audience
The ability to target your advertising at the segments who are the most likely to purchase your product is essential to designing a sound omnichannel marketing strategy.
Make sure you are focusing on marketing at every stage of the customer journey
The journey of a customer begins when someone first discovers your company and concludes with lifetime loyalty. Here are the five phases of the life cycle of a customer and various methods of reaching consumers at each stage with the omnichannel approach to marketing.
1. Reach
In this instance, the customer is seeking a specific item or solution to a issue. This is an opportune time for you to make that shopper aware of your brand. Customers may be trying to compare items, going through reviews or just looking for more details on whether a particular product is the right fit to the person they are shopping for.
2. Acquisition
The acquisition happens when a person visits your website, signs up to your newsletter, chats through your chatbots, reach out to your company by telephone or email, or visits an offline store. There isn't a single purchase however, they're checking the business's website and collecting more details.
During the acquisition phase during the acquisition phase, you are able to collect customer information using it for delivering an omnichannel experience for the various segments of your customers.
3. Conversion
If someone purchases something online or makes purchases in stores They've "converted" to being your client. The omnichannel experience for customers will make them feel valued and recognized. This could include emails, push notifications, or additional opportunities in stores in the case of an actual store.
4. Retention
Not only does retention deliver more ROI, but fostering loyal customers who return repeatedly builds the brand's reputation and your loyal customers will be your biggest advocates through their reviews and sharing their experiences with acquaintances and relatives about your services.
In this stage of the customer's journey it is important to use the data you collect from customers to improve the conversion experience. Your marketing efforts could target your clients via email follow-up messages that include other recommendations for products or promotions that relate to their shopping history, send them a request for reviews or a feedback survey, provide loyalty programs, and give excellent customer service.
5. Loyalty
Satisfaction with the customer is what builds loyalty. However, you shouldn't put it away and forget it.
Choose which marketing platforms best suit your omnichannel strategy
If you're working with limited funds it is possible to be selective about which marketing channels to concentrate on as you build your multichannel marketing strategy. Choose low-cost methods for advertising first, then expand into more costly advertising platforms in the event that your budget expands.
The aim is to provide multiple touchpoints across multiple channels that deliver the same experience to customers.
Low-cost marketing methods comprise:
Organic search
Use the information you collect from Google Analytics and other marketing tools to enhance the effectiveness of your multichannel marketing strategies.
Google Shopping
Email marketing
Utilizing services such as MailPoet, you can send a welcome email series for new customers, suggestions for products based on previous purchase, emails about abandoned carts to people who left items in their cart, sales announcements and more Omnichannel marketing techniques.
Rewards program
These customers can then get an omnichannel advertising campaign tailored to them, even across other channels and multiple devices. Imagine that a member of rewards seeing ads that show them how many points they've got and offers suggestions on how to utilize them. This is an example of an omnichannel experience.
Customer service
Every touchpoint with customers is an opportunity to market. Instead of looking at customer service as merely a way to handle problems and questions, think of it as the chance to develop an army of loyal customers.
Through an omnichannel approach to marketing, your customer service team can see a customer's history of engagement and purchase, as well as past interactions with your team. If you utilize the full advantage of this it will allow you to provide an unmatched experience, regardless of the channels of customer service they utilize for customer service, including text messages, chatbots or phone or email, or within bricks and mortar locations.
Using a customer relationship management (CRM) software like Jetpack CRM helps ensure that customer service is smooth and easy. Set up an online support portal, monitor and handle tickets, and more, right within your store. You don't need to sign into a third-party CRM site for managing your customersYou can manage it all from within the WordPress administrator area.
Organic social media
It can be difficult to get organic attention on social media, especially with the many voices that compete There are however some good alternatives for free marketing that can be quite successful. You can:
- Make a Facebook page for your business
- Be active and engage regularly on all your social media platforms
- Make an AMA post on Reddit with reddit's "Ask Me Anything" subreddit
Higher-cost marketing methods are:
Paid-for search
If you're trying to rank your website above natural search results, or get immediate traffic, while improving your SEO, paid advertisements for search are the best way to go. It is also important to ensure that the landing page for your business is responsive to mobile devices, loads fast and is consistent with the message of your advertisement.
Remarketing tools and paid search could become an important source of data about your customers data that can be used to develop your omnichannel advertising approach.
Paid Google Shopping
Display ads
Social media ads
Engaging with people who are on social media is an excellent opportunity to gain new customers since they are able to easily share your advertisements with their friends. Market to them through demographic information, perceptions of desires, interests, or by uploading an email address list of customers to create a lookalike audience of people with similar profiles to your current client base. Additionally, you could implement an omnichannel strategy for marketing using social media once you integrate the channels you use with your CRM.
Facebook allows you to connect your store's catalogue of products to Facebook and Instagram to ensure the same customer experience. It is also possible to purchase advertisements via your dashboard.
Video advertisements
Thanks to the rise of online platforms such as YouTube and more affordable tools for editing and video production software, video ads don't have to be out of the reach of small-sized businesses.
If you plan to incorporate video in your omnichannel marketing strategy, make sure that you make videos that can be used across a variety of channels. Repurpose clips for your social media marketing, blog, and product pages to make the most of these marketing tools.
While the most popular advertisement platform for video is YouTube, other options include:
- Social video platforms such as TikTok as well as Snapchat
- Live streaming of video services such as Twitch and Vimeo
- On-demand video streaming services like Amazon Prime and Hulu
Print advertisements
Based on your audience as well as the items you sell Print advertising could be a great option to supplement your marketing initiatives online to blend both your offline and online strategies for marketing. You could consider putting up an advertisement in a publication or mailing out a catalog or sending out postcards that include special deals, or using door-to-door marketing strategies such as door hangings as well as product samples.
Just like with marketing via digital channels, you are able to monitor the results of both your in-store and offline efforts. Again -- omnichannel marketing relies on an ongoing flow of precise information about customers that is tailored for each client.
Here are the top online marketing tools to help with offline data collection and the omnichannel experience in stores:
- QR codes containing tracker hyperlinks. You can create unique tracking-compatible links that work with your QR codes. Put these codes in your marketing collateral printed on paper, and when a customer uses it to visit your business, you'll know exactly which printed piece influenced that customer to make a visit.
- Special landing page links. As a QR code alternative, you can create custom landing pages with distinct links. Include the URL on the printed advertisements. Just be sure you don't make them too long as customers have to enter them into their browsers.
Create ad copy and artwork which can be utilized on different platforms
Omnichannel marketing is all about being consistent and efficient. It's not just that creating video, photos and advertising copy that have multiple applications to think about saving you money on creative assets, it also helps provide a unified, branded customer experience across different devices.
It is important to shoot photographs and videos designed to be used on different marketing platforms. Different platforms employ different aspect ratios. Therefore, you'll have to shoot and edit videos and photos keeping this in mind. Common aspect ratios include:
- Horizontal 16:9
- Square 1:1
- Vertical 4:5 and 2:3
- Full Portrait 9:16
Create your video and images in the highest quality possible before exporting as lower resolutions.
Utilize and analyze your customers' data
Regularly reviewing the results of your omnichannel marketing campaigns across all your channels is crucial. If an advertisement isn't performing, you could be able to tweak it prior to continuing to spend money on the campaign. Reviewing your statistics can help you determine what ads are performing as well and which aren't.
Google Analytics is probably the most comprehensive tool for tracking the activity of your site. It is possible to examine your sources of traffic to find out which sites your visitors come from, gain an understanding of the performance of display and search ad campaigns, and get information on the demographics of your website customers.
When you integrate this information with your CRM, all of your marketing channels will be able to make use of it to provide an experience that is consistent for your clients.
Give your marketing team the tools to succeed
With omnichannel marketing, your team can improve their performance by adjusting strategies based on the behavior of customers.
In the event that you use sales staff and sales teams, they'll be more successful in engaging with customers individually when they can see the data showing previous purchases interaction, emails as well as clicks, shares reviews, as well as other details that result from the multichannel customer experience.
Refresh your advertising strategy in line with your key performance indicators (KPIs)
After reviewing the performance of your omnichannel marketing campaigns, you can update your strategy. In the majority of companies, campaigns with small CPAs and high ROIs must be allocated additional spending on ads as campaigns with high CPAs as well as low ROIs must be retired. However, you might have additional performance indicators that are important to your company.
If your ads aren't generating direct sales but that regularly coincide with greater organic search results or leads, it may mean that advertising is extremely effective in connecting with customers in the beginning stages of the customer journey.
Experiment with turning certain underperforming advertisements off and on for a period of time in order to see if they have any effect on other metrics.
In relation to loyalty and customer retention campaigns, if you notice that fewer customers are taking benefits of rewards points or aren't redeeming specific coupons, you may want to think about tweaking the offer or altering the amount of points needed to redeem. If one method within your omnichannel marketing campaign not performing, doesn't mean it can't be upgraded to generate more sales for your business.
Watch your business grow
If you are strategic when selecting the right marketing platform and automation tools, creating sustainable and repurposable creative assets, continuously evaluating and revising your multichannel marketing plan according to performance, you will be able to see revenue increase.
As with all things worth doing, it will need time to perfect. By starting out with just one or two channels of marketing, as you progress based on the data from your past efforts, you'll develop solid long-term omnichannel marketing strategies that work to build revenue for your business.