With customers expecting more from b2b eCommerce brands, omnichannel marketing is making it easy to deliver the ultimate omnichannel customer experience. Wholesale distribution companies and eCommerce businesses can create the perfect eCommerce marketing strategy to improve the B2B sales process and customer retention.
Customers are at the center of all omnichannel approach. Today, customers need a smooth omnichannel experience, round-the-clock customer support, and personalized communications.
For instance, a business might provide service via Facebook Messenger, live chat, email, and phone in addition to its desktop website. Modern consumers have more options than ever and need real-time information thanks to online outlets.
Through omnichannel marketing, customers can interact with brands on their own terms, improving the overall customer experience management. So, how do you create the perfect omnichannel strategy for your brand? Let’s find out!
What is an Omnichannel Strategy?
An omnichannel approach focuses on tying together all of a company's touchpoints, including physical stores, social media, a website, email, and mobile. Customers can navigate between various channels without running across any difficulties thanks to this.
This integrated approach differs from multi-channel strategies, where the numerous touchpoints function independently of one another. In other words, an omnichannel strategy eliminates barriers and centers the consumer experience.
At each stage of the customer journey, including discovery, research, purchase, support, eCommerce customer service and returns, and developing a long-term relationship, businesses must pay close attention. In a nutshell, omnichannel means being there for customers wherever they are and exceeding their expectations at all touchpoints, including:
- Brick-and-mortar stores
- Using the phone
- Personalized webpages
- Online wholesale marketplaces and stores like Shopify and Amazon
- Mobile applications
- Push notifications, conversations, and mobile messaging
- Digital catalogs sent via email and other mail-order options
How to Create an Omnichannel Strategy in 5 Steps
Consistent messaging, images, and positioning statements are used across all channels, platforms, and devices in an omni-channel marketing campaign. Omnichannel marketing gives a cohesive user experience from the customer's perspective, which enhances the customer journey.
By ensuring that your brand is presented consistently across all platforms, it gives customers a seamless brand experience. Here are some pointers for developing an effective omnichannel strategy.
Here are some pointers for developing an effective omnichannel strategy.
- Know your Target Customers
The benefits of omnichannel to customers are among the most important features of a cross-channel strategy, but businesses must be aware of customer's needs. Businesses can then decide what components of an omnichannel approach will best serve those demands and how, where, and how.
If you don't know your target market well, you can't develop an integrated marketing campaign. Customer personas must come first before you consider the channels and execution tactics for an omnichannel approach.
You must think about potential clients in addition to closely monitoring your current ones. In order to improve the effectiveness of your omnichannel marketing strategy, you must first identify the potential customers before launching a general outreach campaign.
Asking customers about their preferences for shopping is one approach to achieving this. To encourage your customers to take the survey, you may offer a discount.
Customers may be asked how they learn about new products and menu items (through social media, in-person shopping, or word of mouth) or what kinds of things they are more likely to purchase in-person as opposed to online.
Here, data is everything. To learn how your customers engage with your business, you can monitor a wide range of business data. On a digital platform, this can be:
- Which of your website's pages are most popular
- Reactions to modifications to your product lineup
- Interaction with promotional emails
- Device sales (mobile versus desktop)
- Metrics for social media conversion
- Determine the Strengths of Each Sales Channel
The first step in developing a strong omnichannel strategy is figuring out the platforms, channels, and devices that your current customers utilize on a daily basis. You will also need to learn about their interactions with them, preferences, experiences, and pain spots.
It's not necessary to use every channel at your disposal if you want to develop an omnichannel marketing plan. As an alternative, it means going where your clients are, thus you should only invest in the channels they use.
In accordance with what the customer wants to do, each touchpoint offers advantages and disadvantages. For instance, utilizing an app to make a short transaction may be more convenient, but certain apps lack customer care options. It is more convenient to receive detailed answers in person or over the phone.
- Segment your Audience
It's critical to segment clients as soon as possible using behavior-based data and triggers when you undertake lead generation for your online store. This step is especially helpful if you provide a wide range of goods and services and need to identify who is purchasing what.
Based on the profiles you develop, the majority of wholesale CRM and omnichannel marketing automation platforms can do rule-based customer segmentation. Businesses typically segment their customers based on factors such as gender, geography, past purchases or hobbies, customer loyalty, prior levels of participation, etc.
The established identities can even be modified and strengthened by adding new elements. You can create event- or behavior-based triggers using segmentation and automation.
- Map your Customer Journey
By now, you've done the legwork necessary to guide your customers toward the most appropriate funnel in light of their choices. There should only be green lights; ensure that there are no dead ends. Put yourself in the customer's position as they move across the many touchpoints while developing an omnichannel strategy.
Are all channels set up to place the consumer at the center of the experience? To pinpoint the crucial touchpoints and figure out how to optimize and streamline them, you must follow the multi-channel journey both online and offline.
No matter what channel a customer chooses to engage through, it is crucial that all five stages of the customer journey – discovery, research, purchase, support, and ongoing relationship — are taken into mind.
- Integrate Each Channel Seamlessly
As you need to connect all of the online and offline touchpoints, this stage is by far the most difficult of implementing an omnichannel strategy. The omnichannel strategy's foundation is the flawless integration of the multiple channels, and failing to do so will cause everything to fall apart with disastrous results.
You must rally your forces at this point and keep going despite the difficulties. Naturally, you'll need to use the appropriate technology to make this procedure easier. Bringing together all channels entails tracking your customer's shopping journey across all touchpoints and integrating it with others.
You must make sure that the user experience is consistent throughout, whether a customer is reading about your store online, visiting the actual location, or making a purchase using your mobile app.
Top Omnichannel Marketing Channels
So, what are the top omnichannel marketing channels you can use for your marketing campaign? Businesses usually include the following in their omnichannel marketing efforts:
- Text Messages
Reminders, promotional messages, updates on shipping and deliveries, updates on customer complaints, etc. are all commonly sent via text message. Despite appearing obsolete, it is still relevant in a number of industries.
Companies send emails to customers to provide updates, engage audiences through newsletters, tell them of sales and promotions, share shipment and delivery updates, and save records of customer service chats, among other things. They have consistently demonstrated their suitability and effectiveness for sustaining B2B and B2C omnichannel communications.
- Push Notifications
Web and mobile push notifications are positioned to be a key turning point for a company's success. Push notifications can be used to raise engagement levels, perform behavior-triggered actions, boost sales, and lower churn all at once. Businesses in a variety of industries can use push notifications in a number of different ways.
- In-App Messaging
When employed, in-app messaging can be used to share information about an app's capabilities, assist users in signing up or making purchases, announce sales, provide coupons, share updates, etc. It gets around push notifications' one flaw, which is that a user cannot turn them off.
- Social Media
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter enable businesses to interact with their target markets. Businesses can leverage social media to run advertisements, host competitions, respond to client inquiries, gather feedback, and more.
- Live Chat
Live chat closes the feedback loop and provides immediate customer support, both of which can enhance services. Modern chat sessions are handled by AI or ML-driven chatbots, which are very good at answering questions, upselling and cross-selling products, and more. You can implement live chat on your website or use it with instant messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Create an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Here are some questions and answers on how to create an omnichannel marketing strategy.
What is Multichannel vs Omnichannel?
The center of your marketing plan is where omnichannel and multichannel differ most. Multichannel refers to using more than one channel and is focused on the product or service, whereas omnichannel entails using all accessible media channels and is oriented on the customer.
What Do You Mean By Omnichannel?
The term "omnichannel" refers to a business strategy used in e-commerce and retail that strives to offer a seamless purchasing experience across all channels, including in-store, mobile, and online.
Is Amazon an Omnichannel?
Yes. The omnichannel approach of Amazon entails integrating many marketing channels. These include platforms like social networking, newsletters, mobile apps, mobile push advertisements, laptop purchases, and chatbots. This connectivity and ease of access improve the overall shopping experience for customers.