Marketers are always asked to prove their strategy is delivering results. It’s one of the reasons you should consider moving to an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Omnichannel marketing is backed by numbers. With it, you can engage your customers, keep them, and get them to spend more.
The question isn’t should you move to omnichannel. It’s how to make the move successfully. These six tips take the guesswork out of omnichannel marketing. Keep reading to learn more.
Contents
1Consistency Is Key
What is an omnichannel strategy anyway? How is it different from what you’re already doing? You’re on many channels, so isn’t that the same?
Omnichannel is different from multichannel in a very important way. Multichannel strategies provide different experiences across channels. Omnichannel strategies provide a single, seamless experience across all channels.
As you might guess, consistency is one of the keys to providing a seamless experience. Do you highlight different information on Twitter and Instagram? That’s multichannel.
Product information management, or PIM, can help you get more consistency across channels. You’ll also want to think about brand images, voice, and messaging. You may even want to consider the consistency of service across channels.
2Focus on the Customer
As you’re developing an omnichannel strategy, it’s important to put the focus where it belongs. The customer should always be at the center of the omnichannel strategy.
Why are customers so central to this kind of marketing? You need to focus on delivering what your customers expect across all channels.
If you want to deliver a seamless experience across all channels, then you need to know your customers inside out. You need to know exactly what they need and want from you. Your strategy must reflect that, so you can deliver the experience your customers demand.
3Integrate Your Systems
Next, you’ll want to take a look at the technology you’re using. It’s hard to develop a seamless experience if you’re using three or four systems siloed from each other.
When your systems are separate, inconsistency is the result. Some information may be entered incorrectly. Some of it may not make it from one system to another at all.
Whenever possible, integrate your systems. This creates better consistency, and it can also save you work. Integrated systems can pull data from each other.
In turn, you only need to enter the data the right way once. The systems draw on the same information to deliver a consistent experience across platforms. You have more time to develop better marketing copy or interact with your customers.
4Plan Content for Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Content is still king when you switch to omnichannel marketing. The difference is that you’ll need to streamline content for the channels you’re using.
Before, you may have developed different types of content for certain channels. A video could be uploaded to Instagram, while an infographic made it to your Facebook page. A blog post went live on your LinkedIn.
There’s no reason you shouldn’t still be using different types of content. You won’t develop them for separate channels. Instead, that video will appear on your website, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Content must also become more precise for this reason. YouTube and Facebook use different algorithms, and different users are on each platform. They expect different things.
Your videos will need to strike at the similarities in audiences. This isn’t a problem when you know your audience inside out. By focusing on what your customers need at every step of their journey, you’ll be able to deliver the content they’re looking for.
The need to focus on the customer becomes more apparent here. Think about the questions your customers are asking and the demographics they belong to. Think less about optimizing for a channel and more about optimizing for people.
5Choose Your Channels Wisely
Another part of knowing your customers inside out is knowing where they like to hang out. Facebook tends to attract an older demographic. Instagram skews female.
If you’re trying to reach older men, then Instagram may not be the right channel for your business.
It’s important to remember here that omnichannel doesn’t mean you need to be on every channel. It means you provide a seamless experience across the channels you are on.
Being selective about the channels you use is still important. First, it helps you connect with your audience where they are. It also helps your team focus their efforts on the channels where they’re likely to have the biggest impact.
Many business leaders are working with small marketing teams. Choosing your channels wisely will help you avoid stretching the team too thin.
6Measure Omnichannel Marketing Success
Finally, make sure you set up some way to measure the performance of your omnichannel marketing. You want to know what’s working and what’s not.
Metrics like customer engagement and average order value are instructive. Both of these metrics see a boost when omnichannel marketing is done correctly.
You shouldn’t focus on quantitative measures alone though. Instead, think about measures like customer satisfaction. A survey is a great way to get qualitative feedback from customers.
Why do you need qualitative feedback? It can help you identify what is working and what isn’t. Sometimes, asking your customers what you’re doing well and what they wish you could improve is the easiest way to find out.
With this information, you can make adjustments to your strategy. In this way, you’ll be making constant improvements to your omnichannel marketing.
A Strategic Move for Small Business
An omnichannel marketing strategy has many benefits for your business. A focus on consistency and the customer are key components and can help you realize those benefits in short order.
Looking for more tips on marketing, finance, or almost anything else for your small business? You’re in the right spot! Check out our extensive library for all the latest tricks to keep your business growing.
