Every now and then you hear buzzwords floating around in the world of Marketing and Finance that will catch your attention. One such phrase that came into my sphere of perception recently is “Omnichannel” Marketing. Even though presently I am studying in a business school, this word wasn’t ever a part of the college curriculum.
So now that I got your attention let us see what it is exactly.
Omnichannel marketing refers to creating your brand’s presence across multiple online and offline channels while ensuring a positive and seamless experience throughout the customer journey.
Here the key words are ‘positive’ and ‘seamless’ because often for consumers the reason why they may move out from a brand to another is because of negative customer experiences. This means today every brand has to take their omnichannel marketing strategies very seriously and mold it in such a way that it gives the consumer a net positive experience.
Why is it Important Today?
Omnichannel Marketing is essential primarily because it helps a brand guide a customer’s experience at every stage of their lifecycle, reduce churn, and drive and build an overall positive reputation.
A good example of this is Disney, it starts with your initial experience on the entertainment giant’s beautiful, mobile-responsive website. Once you’ve booked a trip to Disneyland, you can use the My Disney Experience tool to plan your entire trip, from where you’ll dine to securing your Fast Pass. In the park, you can use your mobile app to locate the attractions you want to see, as well as view the estimated wait time for each of them. They also have what is known as MagicBand program, this tool acts as a hotel room key, photo storage device for any pictures taken of you with Disney characters, and a food ordering tool.
Therefore Disney makes sure that the consumer can go home with the memories of a significant experience which increases the probability of them returning in the future.
Steps to build the Perfect Omnichannel Marketing Campaign
- Plan the experience of the consumer beforehand.
- Start with the basics: Your website and social media channels.
- Use data as a base while strategizing– With the help of CRM data, social listening data, and customer’s online search behavior, you will know how your customer behaves and can accordingly create a solution to address their challenges.
- Segment the users and personalize the journey.
- Seek to solve for the customer every step of the way.
- Make sure the context is right as bad messaging to the wrong audience at the wrong time turns away future users
- Use the same messaging across channels, but beware of using boilerplate content. Don’t just copy and paste everything left and right.
- Give customers a device- and platform-appropriate CTA (Call to Action)
- Make your organization customer-centric.
Omni-Channel Experience- A Key to Future Success
Our world is becoming increasingly virtual day by day, and I don’t have to explicitly say this for you to get it. Let us be honest here, every one of us looks at our phone the first thing in the morning and the last thing before bed. For the Marketer of the Future this means they could fine tune your consumer experience in such a significant way that you do not forget it. This is much more than a random corporate trying to sell you their new boring printer, as now it’s all about providing you value in the smallest of time intervals so that you Consumer is now the Royalty.