Why you should engage in an omnichannel marketing strategy

Working online is a
no-brainer.  It is the most powerful
route to the biggest market.  However,
you should not discard your graphic printing services. 
Reaching out to your audience with an omnichannel marketing strategy
will be your most powerful approach. 
Here we explore how to make the most of an omnichannel marketing
strategy for your business.

Omnichannel versus multichannel

Although both omnichannel and multichannel marketing requires you to use many different
approaches to reach potential customers. 
However, there are some subtle differences in methods.  Multichannel refers to communicating with the
customer through various platforms, whether it is your store, a printed ad, a
promotional event or more.

Omnichannel takes
this idea of many platforms to the next level. 
If you are an omnichannel marketer, you are using many platforms to
create an integrated experience.  The
client approaching you on a mobile device should have a similar view in your
store and recognise the approach in your printed marketing. Communication with
the organisation will feel seamless.

Customer-centred

Engaging your
clients in an omnichannel marketing strategy positions your customer at the
core of all you do.  As you want these
people to have a single view of your business, you need to think about what standard
details will move across your organisation. Multichannel approaches will
instead put the channel at the centre of marketing strategies.  For instance, your approach to social media
will be dictated by the site you use – and the design of your store will be
focused on the product you are delivering. 
Omnichannel approaches require a subtle shift to always considering the
customer first – and making your strategy coherent across the channels.

Consistency rules

You may be drawn to
those moments of ostentatious design on a television ad or a poster.  However, if your marketing choice steps
outside those expected, you are not following an omnichannel approach.  You should be diligent in maintaining the same
messaging across your marketing.  You are
working with the heightened sense of familiarity – you are hoping that the
recognition of your brand approach will be instantaneous because the customer
sees it wherever they go.

An effortless experience

Having lots of
platforms for your customers feels like you are making it simple to contact
you.  However, if the client needs to
adapt from one channel to another, you are feeding in a level of effort that is
not desirable.  Instead, you want the
similarity between channels to create a shorthand that reduces the effort in
the customer experience.  The more energy
required from an individual must apply, the more likely they will fall out of
your sales funnel.

Connect your analytics

You want your
customer to have a single view of your organisation.  However, you also want the opportunity to
have a single view of your customer too.  There
are tech solutions available that help you to track a customer through
different channels with your company.  If
you send an email to a customer and they click on a link, this action can be
recorded.  The customers' interaction
with your website can also be tracked, as well as any conversations with your
customer service team.

This all might
sound a little creepy.  However, the data
provided is an illustration of customer actions – not the individual
customer.  This helps you to design an
experience that reacts to the level of interest in your client.  For instance, if your customer spends a
minute or more on an item in your online store, you can automate the delivery
of an email that reminds them they were interested in this item.  Such technology automation is a reason to create
a loyalty system.  You can track exactly
what customers are interested in buying and tailor your offers to the
individual. 

The power of
omnichannel strategies is most powerfully demonstrated here.  As the customer engages across your channels,
you can continue to offer them a bespoke experience.  Data from all your silos, from your sales
through to your customer database to your click-through information can all be
collated to provide analytics and automation that could powerful improve your
marketing and sales approaches – as well as your product development.

Summary

Although the success
of omnichannel approaches is accessed through consistency of experience, the power
is in its ability to individualise your work with clients.  The more effortless you can make movement
between channels, the more data you can collect to form a single view of your
customer.  You can then communicate with
your audience in a more individualised fashion while maintaining the
consistency of your message, font, design, user-journey.