Person working on marketing strategy
The data shows that omnichannel marketing strategies have power. When implemented successfully, they increase ad-driven store visits by 80%. With consumers relying more on their mobile devices and expecting tailored, seamless experiences from brands, failing to embrace omnichannel marketing seems like a wrong turn. Omnichannel strategies can boost sales, personalize the customer experience and increase retention rates.
Another positive is that using multiple channels to deliver individualized messages lets you reach audience members wherever they are. Whether they’re using their smartphone in your store, opening their inbox or browsing social media, your messages get seen. And ultimately, they bring your audience closer to making a purchase. But omnichannel marketing involves more than simply blasting your content onto every available platform. Here’s how to do it with thought and effectively increase your reach.
Amplify Your Content
Amplifying your content doesn’t mean simply making more of it. That strategy could backfire if you’re not talking about what’s relevant to your audience. Sometimes less is more when you can use what you already have in different ways.
Repurposing your content is something Casted, an amplified marketing platform, recommends for reaching customers more effectively. Think about the channels your ideal buyer uses and modify your content to fit each channel’s mold. Amplifying your content library can also include returning to topics you’ve talked about before. If something resonates strongly with your audience, they’re probably hungry for more. You just have to dig deeper, expand and adapt.
Say you have a high-performing blog post. It brings people to your website and pads your lead-gen results. But search engines aren’t the only place your audience hangs out. You can take the same post and turn it into a video on TikTok, a social snippet on Instagram or an infographic on LinkedIn. If there’s potential, you might turn the topic into a series by involving more than one subject matter expert.
The key is to extend your efforts beyond a single format or channel. That said, you’ll need to be strategic about it. Look at where your audience is, what formats they respond to best and what topics draw them in.
Walk In Your Target Consumer’s Shoes
Before someone buys something, they’ve likely seen multiple ads and pieces of content about it. They’ve also probably interacted with your brand in person and online through different channels. Marketing touchpoints are no longer limited to one or two. Today’s consumers are bombarded with online posts, emails and mobile app notifications on top of traditional ads.
The mobile channel alone drove 41.8% of retail e-commerce sales in 2022. While this figure is impressive, you’ve got to determine how channels like mobile apply to your audience members. Pretend you’re one of them, searching for information on the problem your product or service solves. What channels does your audience interact with, what touchpoints do they see and how effective are they?
Walking through your ideal shopper’s journey is one way to identify what touchpoints are missing from your strategy. Say you’re an online bank, such as SoFi, that offers loans, savings accounts and investment products. Perhaps your website analytics show visitors are spending more time exploring content about high-yield savings and investments. It may be the time to target these consumers with personalized touchpoints like emails.
Collecting visitors’ data through short surveys and email signup forms allows you to customize your messages, better matching their interests and behaviors. For instance, you could offer a higher interest rate if they open a savings account through your app. You could also extend a bonus for opening investment accounts with a minimum balance. Either way, you’re leveraging data to appeal to your audience’s preferences through their favorite channels.
Analyze Feedback to Optimize Performance
You won’t know what parts of your omnichannel marketing strategy are working if you don’t analyze the data. More importantly, you won’t know what you should tweak so they can work. Stats you’ll want to look at include conversion and retention rates. But customer satisfaction, general brand sentiment and customer lifetime value are additional data points to consider.
For example, a video with low conversion rates may present several opportunities. Maybe the format or length isn’t appropriate for your goal. Perhaps you want to educate your audience to convince them your brand offers the best solution. You might test the same content as a webinar and a how-to series. You can optimize your strategy to increase conversion rates by seeing which format performs better.
Likewise, you can look at your overall approach’s impact on customer lifetime value. What role do different touchpoints play in incremental sales if you’re a mass-market retailer like Target? Maybe app notifications about sales and gift card incentives are more effective than direct mail. They’re immediate, using past browsing and purchase history to deliver individualized savings. However, customer sentiments from surveys reveal that too many notifications turn shoppers off.
Combining your data sources, you might find two app notifications a week is the sweet spot. With this frequency, you can positively impact customer lifetime value and brand sentiment. You’ll be reaching your audience how—and how often—they prefer.
Achieving Omnichannel Marketing Reach
Omnichannel marketing strategies often have the same effect that multiple product displays in a store do. No matter where consumers turn, you’re constantly reminding them of your brand’s existence and the value it can offer. With well-thought-out and refined approaches, omnichannel marketing can help extend your reach to those ready, willing and able to buy.