What Is Omnichannel?

WHAT IS OMNICHANNEL?

Let’s talk about omnichannel. It’s a term you’ve probably heard, especially if you’re in the market to upgrade your current marketing campaigns. According to HubSpot, omnichannel is a lead nurturing and user engagement approach in which a company gives access to their products, offers and support services to customers or prospects on all channels, platforms, and devices.

Omnichannel is important because it allows customers to be at the center of everything and allows them more support through multiple platforms, such as Twitter, live chat, and even email. There are a number of reasons why companies should be gravitating towards omnichannel, and the most important one being we’re in a world that revolves around technology. It’s not enough anymore to be a company that just offers a desktop experience, you need to be able to offer reliable experiences through every device that your customer touches. This means a cell phone, tablet, laptop, even watches need to be consistent.

WHAT IS AN OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCE?

According to Qualtrics, an omnichannel experience is an approach to user experience that focuses on the overall quality of interaction between customer and brand, not just a specific exchange on a single channel. One of the benefits of omnichannel is it allows you to meet your customers where they are, which in return allows your business to focus on consistency between channels. By delivering your message on multiple channels, you will promote brand credibility, increase customer retention, and raise brand awareness.

You might often see omnichannel and multichannel used interchangeably, but it’s important to note that they’re different concepts. The difference between omnichannel and multichannel is omnichannel is working to cover every type of customer interaction and provide them with control of their interactions, and multichannel is looking to cover interaction on specific channels. You’ll notice with multichannel there’s often never any crossover between channels.

Omnichannel: customer experience, customer centric, quality of customer support

Multichannel: customer engagement, channel centric, quantity of channels

You’ll find a lot of businesses implementing the multichannel experience today. They have websites, blogs and Facebook. And while the business is active on all of them, they’re still lacking a seamless experience across the channels.

The omnichannel experience syncs every platform that a customer may use and creates a seamless experience between them. Allowing customers an omnichannel experience has plenty of benefits.

OMNICHANNEL BENEFITS

HIGHER PROFIT:

Something a lot of businesses want to see is an increased ROI. Omnichannel makes this possible. After months of researching and finding the best product, the customer has decided on your product. They’re more likely to purchase a product if they can find your product on multiple platforms. Take the work out of purchasing for your customers by giving them multiple ways to come across your products.

INCREASE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Omnichannel doesn’t just involve buying products, it also involves customers being able to get in contact with your team if they encounter an issue or just have a question, so make sure you're making it easy for customers get in contact with the right people when they encounter issues. The less your customer has to work to find answers, the happier they are. According to Audience Prime companies with powerful omnichannel experience retain 89% of their customer.

GREATER REACH:

Omnichannel increases your reach. How? You’re everywhere your customers and potential customers are. Their mailbox, their social media platforms, their online searches, and even their email inboxes. The days of customers searching to find you are over, you are just a simple click away.

If you're ready to dive deeper into omnichannel, check out Aradius Groups Omnichannel Quickstart Guide to learn which channels you should be using how to manage your data to drive your next advertising and personalized campaigns.

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU DIVE INTO OMNICHANNEL

Omnichannel is a great move for most businesses, but there are a few things you may need to know and discuss within your company before you make the jump.

YOUR ENTIRE TEAM MUST BE ON BOARD:

This isn’t just your marketing team. It’s your marketing team, plus your sales team and even your customer service team. It’s the only way you’ll achieve the goal of being customer centric. Everyone must work together, because placing your customers at the center means eventually, everyone in your company will play a role in their experience.

KEEP UP WITH YOUR CUSTOMER DATA:

Customer data opens up opportunities for you and your brand. It allows you to tailor the shopping experience directly to each customer individually, based on their purchase history. Knowing what they usually buy, how often, and what channels they use to engage and make the purchases will allow you to show them other products you offer that they might be interested in.

FOCUS ON PERSONALIZATION:

In today’s world, personalization will take you far. Customers love feeling like something was hand crafted for them. Knowing who your customer is and how you can best reach them will take your business far. Focusing on personalization will also boost your ROI, because customers are more likely to respond to messages and images that were crafted specifically with their shopping habits and lifestyle in mind. With Aradius Group, you have the power to implement custom personalization for your entire direct marketing program! If you’re ready to improve engagement with a relevant offer, we'd be happy to help you make a great brand impact.

BUILD SPECIFIC TO YOUR COMPANY:

It’s been proven that omnichannel works, but what works for one business may not work for another. You must find a strategy that’s fit to your company, and more importantly your customers. Make it easy on yourself to start, use what you already know about your business and customers. As you go on using omnichannel, you’ll collect more data and be able to consistently analyze details, which will allow you to keep actively improving your business. Even after you’ve been using omnichannel for a while, you’ll want to make sure you’re consistently testing. Try different subject lines, content and even offers.

OMNICHANNEL IS THE FUTURE OF PRINT ADVERTISING

We no longer live in a world that revolves around just print advertising or just digital advertising. To stay ahead of the curve, you must be doing both - simultaneously. The future of print advertising revolves around combining print and digital for a greater reach, which in return brings more business and revenue.

Print drives traffic and is the best way to build a relationship with your audience and engage them on their terms, it also cuts through what some may consider “digital fatigue”. This term was coined back in 2020 and is described as a form of mental exhaustion which occurs after an intense amount of screen time. According to Deloitte Insights companies that can simplify device and subscription management may earn favor with tech-weary consumers.

Adding digital can enhance print advertising by broadening your marketing reach and reinforcing your message. As a company, you should be using both to create engaging marketing materials.

OMNICHANNEL PLATFORMS

If your company is currently considering an omnichannel platform, it’s important to consider a platform to use. Whether it be a marketing, ecommerce, or personalization platform, it’s smart to choose something that allows you to work in once place and simplify your omnichannel strategy by making sure everything is flowing smoothly and seamlessly.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF OMNICHANNEL PLATFORMS? 

There are different types of omnichannel platforms, what one you might choose will be dependent on what your company is looking for. There are ecommerce platforms, personalization platforms and marketing platforms, which is what we’ll be breaking down. 

OMNICHANNEL MARKETING PLATFORM

An omnichannel marketing platform works to help companies manage their marketing campaigns and improve their omnichannel marketing strategy in one place, across whatever channels they may be using. This may include email, social media and blog content. 

OMNICHANNEL ECOMMERCE PLATFORM

According to Business News Daily, ecommerce is the process of selling goods and services across multiple channels over the internet. Amazon is one of the top online stores to use this type of platform for their website.

OMNICHANNEL PERSONALIZATION PLATFORM

An omnichannel personalization platform is a data-driven marketing effort that creates customer experiences from real-time data on channels they're interacting with. This allows companies to build relationships with customers everywhere they interact with that particular brand, that might include website content, digital ads, email, and social media.

Aradius Group ENHANCE is a great resource when it comes to focusing on personalization for your customers. It allows you to track everything from start to finish, just by combining print and digital into one campaign. 

After you've decided on the perfect platform for your business, get ready to step up your customer experiencing by connecting with audiences on multiple channels and building a lasting impression.

THE TAKEAWAY

The way each company uses omnichannel will be unique, and you’ll need to make sure you’re working with multiple departments in your company to make it strong. Everyone involved in the switchover to omnichannel must understand the goal and what needs to be done. Don’t be afraid to experiment when it comes to figuring out what works best for you and your company!

Here at Aradius Group, we believe in the power of omnichannel marketing. We believe it’s the future of where advertisement is going. Omnichannel will allow you to create a positive customer experience by meeting your audience on the channels they prefer. 

We’ve created a solution that uses targeted social ads to display in front of the same recipients that are scheduled to receive your print piece in the mail. All of your ads, tracking, follow ups, and mail pieces are all tracked live in an online portal and better yet… it works! Want to increase your direct mail response rate by 23% or more? Check out Aradius ENHANCE to learn how to include it your marketing mix. Also, check out how omnichannel has positively impacted different industries through case studies.