Omnichannel marketing: What it is and how it works

Omnichannel marketing focuses on user experience at every engagement point your customer has with a product or service. This all-encompassing marketing method provides a personalization that is adaptable to the customer’s needs and communicates a brand’s message at each consumer touchpoint. Here we look at what omnichannel marketing is and how it differs from multichannel marketing.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing connects the access points for products or services across all advertising channels. It promotes a product or service on multiple devices including desktop, mobile and offline locations like in-store. This all-inclusive strategy is rooted in having a detailed understanding of customers and adapting your brand message to meet a specific customer need at each point of a buyer’s journey. It also understands that making sure a customer can interact with your product in multiple ways should not lead to disruption on their purchasing journey.

Omnichannel also connects the dots between digital and real-life advertising campaigns like promotions on billboards, apps, links and everything in between. It has a focus on brand integration within existing channels your business uses to communicate with a customer and provides them with the information they need. Optimize your marketing message through the enhanced understanding of a customer’s interest to create an effective brand message. Omnichannel marketing also brings multiple departments together to work in tandem.

5 omnichannel marketing departments:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Product
• Tech
• Customer support

Omnichannel versus multichannel

Multichannel marketing includes social media, email and television. They function independently from one another and each individual campaign looks to reach as wide an audience as possible. For example, your social channels like Twitter and Instagram are used to run competitions, while your YouTube channel may have a more learned function for your product. The tone of voice you use and the emotive values of your brand message often change via a multichannel approach.

Omnichannel focuses on a more seamless and integrated message that has multiple access points for customers and meets them at every potential point of purchase. It remains focused on a coherent and aligned experience whereas multi-channels often work independently from one another and have differing functions. Where the multichannel focus is on customer engagement, Omnichannel is centered around customer experience.

How a consumer engages with your brand matters. Omnichannel experiences put the consumer at the center of a marketer’s strategy that has an approach rooted in brand consistency and customer experience. It allows a customer to work across a multitude of channels seamlessly, perhaps reading a review in one location and then moving directly to a customer service operative if they have a query. With omnichannel marketing, customers can make a buyer move without getting lost or having a sense of disruption.

Omnichannel marketing brings consistency to your brand and provides a fuller customer experience that feels personal. This can lead to advocacy and turn casual browsers into loyal purchasers of your product or service.