Omnichannel marketing is a fully integrated approach that delivers a unified, personalized experience to customers across multiple touchpoints. This may include brick-and-mortar stores, Instagram, Facebook, email, text messages, and any other marketing or sales channels.
But create no mistake, personalized omnichannel marketing is not like multichannel marketing. Instead, it’s highly personalized, consistent, and regularly updated marketing, based on the needs of the shopper, not the needs of the channel. It is customer-centric, providing them with a seamless experience across all sales channels they use, with the right information at the right time.
Deniz Ibrahim, vice president of product marketing at Bluecore, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered retail marketing platform, said: “Having a personalized omnichannel marketing strategy ensures that you are communicating with consumers anytime, anywhere, at the point where they are most likely to buy. At the exact moment, with curated content, offers, and recommendations based on their preferences.”
“This strategy keeps brands in sync with shoppers at every stage of the buying process.”
Unlike segmented marketing, which involves advertising directly to customers based on others who are similar to them, personalized omnichannel marketing provides customers with communications and experiences designed specifically for them. Essentially, omnichannel marketing is a completely unique shopping journey tailored to a specific customer.
The advantage of Using a Personalized Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Omnichannel marketing has been proven to drive sales, increase revenue, and increase engagement. Today’s retailers have the best marketing tools ever. The rise of omnichannel marketing helps e-commerce merchants and retailers reach consumers anytime, anywhere.
The result is increased engagement (some studies have shown that omnichannel campaigns have nearly 19% engagement compared to 5.4% for single-channel campaigns) and sales.
For example, a 2017 study by Harvard Business Review found that omnichannel shoppers spent 4% more in brick-and-mortar stores and 10% more online. The more channels consumers use, the higher the sales. Research shows that consumers who use more than 4 channels spend, on average, 9% more than those who use only 1 channel.
Omni-channel marketing meets the real needs of customers
Why is personalized omnichannel marketing so effective? This is because consumers want personalization. Gavin Flood, senior director of marketing platform AdRoll, said: “Customers are eager to engage. We increasingly want and expect the brands we support to know about us.” “People do not think back to brands that do not appeal to them. With an omnichannel strategy, you are where [the customer] is, resulting in increased engagement and a good reputation for your brand.”
According to Epsilon’s survey of 18- to 64-year-old online shoppers, 80% said they were more likely to do business with a company if it offered a personalized experience, while 90% said they felt personalized Very attractive. People are looking for products and services to improve their own lives, not the lives of people like them. That’s why receiving segment-based ads sometimes misses targets. (Don’t believe us? Ask any single woman in her 30s to 40s if she likes seeing ads targeted at dating apps based solely on her marital status, age, and gender, and you’re likely to get some pretty divisive answers! )
Google’s 2019 global retail study of more than 14,000 global shoppers also confirms that people are looking for personalized ideas: 49% of respondents said they would like brands to send them promotions or campaigns specific to their shopping history.
Yes, while shoppers may be wary of companies collecting data on their preferences and habits, they also appreciate the time it saves them. Google research found that 32% of shoppers want retailers to remember historical sizes and items they’ve purchased, while 33% are keen to get recommendations based on their purchase history. Omnichannel marketing enables you to create consistent messaging across channels while increasing brand awareness and loyalty “Omnichannel marketing can help e-commerce merchants build loyalty,” says Flood, noting that retaining customers is five times less expensive than acquiring new ones.
Ibrahim agrees. He points out that this is one of the biggest advantages of omnichannel marketing, and says that it usually takes just two days to convert shoppers through a well-curated website experience. But he said the real value was the second purchase in this case. According to Ibrahim, second-time buyers are worth 130 percent more than first-time buyers.
“It shows a big opportunity for brands to improve the likelihood that shoppers will continue to buy,” he said. “Along with an omnichannel personalization strategy, brands can leverage shopper preferences and predictions to get shoppers to make 2nd, 3rd, and 4th put money on any channel they prefer. Converting shopper offers discounts because that’s the channel she engages with the most, or texts recommendations based on how much different shopper likes certain styles because it’s his preferred channel.”
How to Develop an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Leverage customer data to personalize in-store and online experiences. Big beauty store Sephora has a long history of building up by offering incentives for every purchase online or in-store, as well as gifts for members on their birthdays (you’ll see many Sephora shoppers heading to the store to pick up gifts on their birthdays). customer loyalty.
Take Sephora’s beauty studios, in-store makeovers, and product testing. Its online membership program replicates the personalized customer service you get as a regular customer, which gives the brand a huge return on investment, as its 10 million members spend on its website often from those who don’t nurture relationships 15 times. Sephora is also a pioneer in digital gift cards, with Bridget Dolan, vice president of innovation labs saying in 2015: “51% of our digital gift cards are redeemed within a month, compared to our plastic gift cards that are only 33% is redeemed.”
Build a marketing team that embodies the power of omnichannel personalization
According to Ibrahim, one of the biggest mistakes e-commerce merchants make is organizing their marketing teams or budgets around channels rather than audiences. This can lead to a disconnect in customer experience and competing channel performance goals, he said.
“mostly, the brand group is looking at the stores, and e-commerce has been more of an assist function,” he said. “The big shift to digital acquire a new step of a partnership between brand leaders and e-commerce, and for a few firms, this has even specified rise to new roles such as ‘Chief Customer Officers’. These people will be data-driven leadership, which will inform store and e-commerce strategy, and work better with brand leaders on marketing and creative.”
Confirm your messaging is continuous across platforms
One of the benefits of omnichannel marketing is that it ensures that your marketing is not disconnected across different platforms, which can also benefit your store in the long run. Flood points to a study by Yes Lifecycle Marketing that found that two-thirds of brands find it challenging to coordinate campaigns across different channels due to limited time and resources, and the proliferation of new channels has only compounded the problem.
“By shifting the focus from the channel to the customer experience, knowing the buyer personas, and segmenting buyers, you will know to deliver the right message to the right user through the right channel,” Flood said.
Connect with customers in the in-store shopping experience
A more advanced tool for omnichannel marketing is mobile location data combined with first- and third-party audience data. With technology, specific consumers can be locked in at a “moment of truth,” as if they had just stepped into your brick-and-mortar store.
But be cautious and strategic when using geofencing marketing or mobile GPS. You need to make sure the shopper has agreed so they pass the whole awkward phase of the experience and jump right to the part where they are happy with the discounts on the baby blankets stacked high on the display case in front of them. Typically, you can get consent when providing store WiFi or when a user downloads an app. Then, in the mind of the customer, it makes sense for you to offer an offer or suggestion because they are active participants.
Reach customers through social media and text messages
You have to reach customers where they are, which is on social media. According to Gladly’s 2019 Customer Expectations Report, live chat and social messaging with retailers have grown substantially since 2017, up 14% and 6%, respectively, while email has dropped 18%. Customers want real-time responses. The Harvard study mentioned above found that “careful pre-searching leads customers to buy more in-store.” Nordstrom’s social media integration has been praised for the simplicity of the way they link shoppers to Instagram or Pinterest The posted photo leads to a product page on Nordstrom’s website, which then lets them know if the product is available at a store near them.
Text messaging is increasingly proving to be a powerful component of an omnichannel marketing strategy. There’s a common misconception that SMS marketing can eat into your email marketing channel performance, says Allison Kelly, Director of Attending Partnerships, who specializes in SMS personalization campaigns.
“The 2 marketing channels shouldn’t be viewed as either one or the other,” she said.
“Both channels have their own aspect and naturally complement each other. While email is more suitable for long-form content that is not time-sensitive, the fact that text messages are often opened faster than email makes it an excellent choice for concise messages designed to drive immediate action. Ideal.”
Make sure: Omnichannel marketing is about personalization, not segmentation
“There is still more confusion between personalization and segmentation,” says Ibrahim. “Segmentation is typically a list-based informed, approach by demographics and previous behavior, that can provide a perspective on what has worked in the past but can’t know the future. Personalization acquire to be based on content, product or recommendation, and prioritization of communication and timing to create a new experience for individual customers.”
Choosing the Right Technology Stack for Omnichannel Marketing
Data collection, including traffic, on-site interactions, personal data, purchases, and searches, is critical to driving e-commerce personalization. This goes for identifying your success with the proper metrics.
“While marketers measure the overall effectiveness of campaigns, they don’t measure KPIs at each stage of the buyer’s journey, which prevents them from gaining meaningful insights,” Flood said.
But figuring out what data to use and how to track it only gets more complicated. The experts we interviewed for this article predict that in the future, we will see accelerated growth in video marketing content, as well as more digital and cashless payment options. As Chrome is phasing out third-party cookies, first-party data collection will become increasingly important to merchants.
“Many brands trust that centralizing all customer data is the key point to personalizing digital communications, but that does not solve the data accessibility and activation issues, that is the real bottleneck to personalization at the speed of the shopper,” said Ibrahim. “Without centralization and activation in one point, systems can not talk to each other, and opportunities at various touchpoints are missed.”Given the complex metrics involved, it’s no surprise to know that AI solutions, like those offered by Bluecore, are leading the way in doing some of the heavy liftings and helping to scale automation.
For example, some brands, including Shopify Plus merchant Pura Vida bracelet, are now seeing up to 60% digital revenue growth through AI-driven personalization powered by Bluecore, combining Shopify catalog data with shopper data. Event production time has also been reduced by 85% thanks to the ability to create and execute personalized campaigns in minutes.
Omnichannel Marketing Example
Focused on consistent messaging, omnichannel personalization offers merchants the opportunity to build and reinforce their brand identity and value. One such example is Shopify Plus merchant Lounge Underwear, a UK-based home apparel merchant.
Kiran Bains, head of paid media at Lounge Underwear, wrote: “A year ago, we were just starting to gain a foothold in the US market. As a young UK startup, especially as an e-commerce brand, it was difficult to break into the US market. To be successful, we need message coherence across every element of our marketing campaign.”
“From the time someone discovers us on social, to when they sign up for an email and receive a targeted ad, we have to determine: How do we keep talking to a customer throughout their journey?”
Lounge Underwear found the answer by using the services of the marketing platform AdRoll. With the help of AdRoll, Lounge Underwear’s 2.3 million Instagram followers and 230,000 Facebook followers can now see high-quality photos and click through to the brand’s store. There, they get resources on style and fit, as well as purchase incentives and the opportunity to opt-in to the company’s email list.
They then target through social channels, website pages, and devices. This is a key element in creating a connected experience and a focus on strengthening the value of the Lounge brand. Contacts established through email collection can also be combined with data from AdRoll to identify lookalike audiences to expand future customer bases and drive brand engagement.
What is the result? Income has grown exponentially. Lounge Underwear increased revenue on social platforms by 388% while successfully reducing new user acquisition costs by 78%.
Big Blanket Co
Shopify Plus merchant Big Blanket Co, which sells “the biggest and best blankets in the world,” wants to use a mobile-first marketing strategy to deliver customer service at every touchpoint. Providing a personalized and timely response is also important to the brand.
The brand support Attentive to launch it as a piece of an omnichannel marketing campaign. In addition to rollout triggers to send SMS to subscribers In addition to campaigns to personalize the experience, Big Blanket Co. uses historical customer purchase data stored in Shopify to create additional SMS segments, such as abandoned purchases, and subscribers who visited a website or purchased a specific product or category.
What is the result? Text messages sent through Attention accounted for 18% of Big Blanket Co’s total revenue in just four months of launching its SMS marketing program. Want more examples of omnichannel marketing? Read our article on 10 omnichannel branding examples and what you can learn from them.
Closing Words on Omnichannel Personalization Strategies
Key Information? The customer is at the cornerstone of omnichannel marketing.” A true omnichannel marketing and personalization strategy requires transforming processes, technology, and people to put the customer at the center,” says Ibrahim. “This means putting customer data and audiences at the centre of your marketing strategy, giving importance to the technologies optimized for the fast and flexible activation and execution of data including multiple channels, and executing in a way that access leaders and groups to run on technology and channels Responsible approach group Flood agrees. “
Omnichannel marketing and personalization strategies put the customer at the cornerstone of everything you do. It’s a journey, not a destination, as customer tastes, preferences and priorities change all the time. “He said. “Take every opportunity to communicate with customers. The lines between online and offline are blurring, so consistently connecting with consumers through key channels is key to staying on track. “