Online marketing seems to become more diverse and comprehensive with each passing year. Classic channels are email, SMS, push notifications. Trends such as social media marketing, podcasts and story content are on the rise. The number of media alone shows just how many options you have these days to reach potential customers.
A comprehensive omnichannel marketing strategy enables your company to offer the best possible customer experience on all available channels and create a consistent experience. In the best case scenario, you create coherent communication and an optimized sales funnel across all platforms. This is relevant for future-oriented online marketing, as users often switch platforms but still expect consistent communication from you.
We have broken down what constitutes a modern omnichannel strategy and how you can optimize your marketing on all channels in this guide.
Omnichannel marketing - the choice for customers, the performance for you
When we talk about the future of online marketing, it is important to first clearly define what distinguishes omnichannel marketing compared to cross-channel and multichannel.
Both predecessors share some similarities with the omnichannel approach. Cross-channel means, for example, that customers can switch communication channels free during a transaction. From clicking on search engine advertising to ordering on the website and using the store function on Meta to click and collect in the store. Customers can switch between channels and do not have to restart the customer journey every time they switch channels. The drop-off rate would certainly increase immeasurably with such frustrating barriers.
Multichannel, on the other hand, uses several channels in parallel to map the same customer journey and reach customers again and again. The idea here is to always bring potential customers back into contact with the brand or to position your own product as a solution to their problem.
These two marketing approaches already use various communication platforms and employ different content. So what makes omnichannel marketing so different and why does the omnichannel approach represent the future of online marketing?
What makes omnichannel marketing so much better
An omnichannel strategy doesn't just mean that all channels are used in parallel and customers receive the same content over and over again. Instead, the data is aligned with the customer across transactions, resulting in much better integration. From the customer's perspective, this results in a seamless experience, as communication with your company works equally well at all times and at every point in the sales funnel.
In recent years, customers have come to expect a personalized user experience, particularly through the leverage of social media - and quite rightly so. The omnichannel approach is perfect for this because the underlying data sets allow for very specific targeting and customized experiences, whether in the app, in the web store or in the weekly newsletter.
An omnichannel strategy means that you manage to successfully interweave all channels and put the customer at the center - from communication to sales.
This form of data-based personalization allows companies to optimize campaigns on all available channels and select the right content and ideal offers for individual users.
The advantages of omnichannel marketing
Your company benefits directly and indirectly from a functioning omnichannel strategy. In most cases, you can see the leap towards better omnichannel communication with your customers directly in an increasing conversion rate. But above all, customer-centric online marketing on all platforms will benefit your company in the long term.
A better user experience and growing loyalty
The user experience that prospective customers have when interacting with your brand has a direct impact on your ROI. Do customers have easier access to content and find their way to the shopping cart more quickly? Whether they are reading emails or looking at your stories on Instagram? Then you can increase your sales almost effortlessly.
The loyalty to your company also grows because the user experience becomes so much more personal.
Increased recognition value
If you are present on all platforms and your brand is remembered through good corporate design, your value as a brand also grows. What may seem immaterial at first, nevertheless binds customers much better to your brand.
A better understanding of your customers
Omnichannel marketing means above all that you can draw meaningful conclusions about the behavior of your customers from the data generated. The advantage of data-based optimization is obvious here: a multichannel campaign, for example, can provide you with data for each individual channel. However, as these run in parallel, it is not possible to draw conclusions about individual customers.
You know what moves your customers and your users benefit from personalized communication.
Cross-channel marketing does have intersections, but they are limited in terms of time and space. A functional omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, brings data sets from all channels together and uses them to create a much more precise alias of your customers.
Bundling and merging - online marketing from a single source
First of all, it is important that your company maintains an overview of the variety of content and communication channels. Only if your analyses are appropriately integrated into your online marketing can you correctly evaluate the different data sets from all channels. But accurate data isn't everything - after all, it's your job to interpret and evaluate this data.
In concrete figures, 89 percent of companies with omnichannel marketing retain their customers, compared to just 33 percent without it.
Customers expect companies to be able to easily switch platforms, devices and channels and still be recognized.
The ultimate goal in online marketing should be to design even the most complex customer journey as if customers were walking into the store they trust and getting individual advice there. Omnichannel marketing allows you to do just that: a shopping experience without hurdles where customers know that they are the focus of attention.
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