Omnichannel advertising is a newer, more efficient way to connect with your customers. It works by using a variety of platforms to reach out to your customers, which creates a consistent and coherent brand experience. Check out this cohesive article if you want to dive into more details of what Omnichannel advertising is and the benefits it can bring your company. If you want to get started with developing and launching your brand’s omnichannel advertising strategy today, enjoy the comprehensive guide below.
Starting From Scratch
If you are a small business starting your strategy from scratch, it is best to begin with a single-channel campaign that focuses on a specific customer need. Omnichannel advertising requires cross-channel marketing strategies working together. To start, you should address:
Content
Context is arguably the most important part of content marketing. The context of your content should be based on what your customers are looking for and how they are accessing it. Knowing when and how the customer is seeing your content, also known as the customer journey, allows you to place content in optimal places for engagement. Since digital media is right at our fingertips at all times, on-demand content increases customer support, engagement, and loyalty.
Who You Are Selling To
Accurate customer data is going to be a key factor in having a successful omnichannel strategy. Data allows you to understand who your target audience is and what they want. This type of data also helps you identify pain points that might be hindering your users from converting into customers. You should seek to understand how consumers are accessing your content to help understand who they are.
Department Coordination
In order to put customers at the center of your approach, as omnichannel advertising aims to, you might need to restructure the roles and responsibilities of departments within your company. Each department should be able to understand how they fit into the omnichannel puzzle. This helps set expectations and streamlines communication within your team. Making the customer a central part of your team as a whole creates a more positive customer experience.
Utilizing Marketing Technology
Now more than ever, there are endless possibilities where technology can increase your success. It is important to have groups of tools that work together to improve your marketing efforts. Tools being used together towards a common goal are referred to as a marketing technology stack.
The most important part of a marketing technology stack is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. This allows you to take note of each buyer’s journey as they go from visitor to customer. The next integral part of your stack is an analytics tool that lets you make informed decisions for your strategy as a whole. Start with these two tools, and then build the rest of your technology stack around them to effectively reach customers.
Responsive Web Pages
With omnichannel advertising, your customer will be accessing your content on multiple channels and devices. No matter the screen size or type of medium, your content should be visually pleasing, and responsive when the user wants to complete an action on it.
Barriers to Entry With Omnichannel Advertising
Although many companies are turning to an omnichannel strategy due to its success, many are unsure if they are doing it correctly. What barriers are keeping companies from implementing this strategy well, or even implementing it at all? In simple terms, it boils down to lack of knowledge and resources such as:
- Lack of analytical resources to vet and gather data
- Issues integrating data that is found
- Subpar communication between the marketers and the sellers
- The organization is isolated within and from others, creating a lack of unity between areas of business.
Tools to Integrate an Omnichannel Strategy
Now that you know how to get started with your initial thought process of beginning an omnichannel strategy, let’s take a look at some tools that will help you integrate your ideas.
Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM)
Keeping track of your customer at every point in their customer journey is not as easy as you might think. Aspects such as when were they last contacted, what contant method do they prefer, and what is the next step for you or them to take are all important data points to know. Entirely too often, this data ends up in a random spreadsheet where it is logged and lost.
With a CRM, every interaction between customers and the business is tracked, and you are able to maintain communication throughout their buyer’s journey. This information can be shared across entire marketing and sales departments, allowing everyone within the organization to understand it. Some popular CRM tools are:
Video Conferencing
Working remotely is more popular than ever, making the need for effective communication more prevalent. A good way to create an environment where all employees feel connected, as well as are connected to your customers is by using video conferencing. This allows for “face-to-face” meetings that are more personal than just sending and receiving emails or phone calls. Video also increases collaboration among your team, and creates a more positive customer experience. Video conferencing tools include:
Email Marketing
The channel that produces the highest ROI is email. Email marketing software helps you nurture leads to conversion by segmenting your leads and sending highly personalized/relevant messages to them. Many email marketing tools also include options to add on SMS messaging as well. Popular tools for email marketing include:
Marketing Automation Software
Personalized marketing can be a large task to complete on a large scale. If your marketing strategy is doing its job, you will have to keep up with a continually growing customer base. Marketing automation software can help businesses take a more hands-off approach. Tools for this let you track visitor behavior, guide them towards making a purchase, and send automated personalized messages through SMS, email, and direct mail. Tools that help automate marketing tasks while maintaining a personal touch are:
Print Material
Offline marketing materials such as brochures, pamphlets, and direct mail are still relevant today. It is important that businesses take their digital content and turn it into print-friendly formats. There are tools available to help to turn a digital design into something that can be used in offline mediums.
Analytics
The ability to measure how your marketing efforts are performing is key to understanding if you are producing a positive ROI. Data analytics tools can tell you who is visiting your website, how they are interacting with it, and what is catching prospective customer’s attention. Some all-in-one analytics tools are:
Content Management
Content management software lets you publish content to the web quickly and easily. You no longer need to know how to code if you want to develop a website. Some of the most helpful content management software are:
Landing Page and Website Optimization
If you want to get the most out of your conversion rates, you need to make sure your website and its landing pages are optimized. Certain software can help you see which pages are performing the best, so you can alter the rest to perform better. Others offer ways to individually test, analyze, and optimize landing pages.
Visual Design Tools
Visual media is at the forefront of today’s marketing strategies. Visual editing and design tools can immensely help you create a cohesive brand image and reach a wider audience. Tools that can be used for this are:
Ad Services
Banner and display ads do work when done well. There are solutions that will help serve ads to web users, and help monetize impressions. Using this technology alongside other tools that retarget is extremely helpful.
Project Management
In the business world, there are many projects all in motion at the same time. Due to this, it can be difficult to organize it all and ensure it is all done on time. Project management technology can help organize custom workflows and communication all in one place.
Now that you know what omnichannel advertising is, where to start, and what tools will help you achieve it, you might be wondering if it is worth all this time and effort. The short answer is yes. The more marketing and advertising channels you use, the more valuable they become. It can be a headache to get off the ground, however, the benefits outweigh the costs in the long run if you are successful. Educating yourself leaves you the opportunity to now learn the tools and start your omnichannel journey today.
