How to Grow Your Online Store by implementing Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing (also called cross-channel marketing) is focused on delivering the same, consistent, and personalized customers with a consistent experience across different channels, which includes the in-store experience for those with bricks and mortar stores.

With an omnichannel marketing strategy, your business will be able to place ads before people who are interested in items that match the interests of their customers and past purchases as well as shorten business to business sales procedures. Connecting prospective customers to the right products and offers will increase the chances of conversion and improves the effectiveness of your advertising spend.

What distinguishes omnichannel advertising in comparison to multichannel marketing?

You're probably already using multiple channels as part of your strategy to market. If you're still relying on single channel campaigns, your first task will be to implement additional channels.

Multichannel marketing is different from an omnichannel approach in the manner that the channels work together to deliver the same seamless and consistent experience, no matter where someone is in the journey of a customer.

In multichannel marketing, every channel could be operating independently of the others. It is possible to have a separate marketing division that is dedicated to each channel. You can analyze the ROIs for each one individually. Campaigns may be more disconnected campaigns each with their individual customer journeys. A customer could engage with all of these channels and feel as though it was the first time that they've ever interacted with your company.

However Omnichannel marketing is the integration and blending of marketing strategies on multiple channels that results in an improved customer experience.

With a successful omnichannel strategy the customer that begins the buying process with the use of a PPC advertisement, but fails to buy anything after visiting your store online, will be engaged via other channels, based upon their initial interaction and will have a consistent experience.

It could be that they see advertising on display or social media targeted to first-time buyer, push notifications whenever they come back to your website, customized videos, or even in-store specials relevant to the buyer.

We've all seen examples of omnichannel marketing in one way or another.

If you decide to click on a social media ad and then you sign up to receive a coupon from the store's website via a pop-up. If you don't buy the product, you could receive an email from the abandoned cart that includes a coupon or discount, or see display ads for products on other online channels.

If you choose to buy something and make a purchase, you'll likely receive an email with suggestions for related products and get an announcement about sales in the near future. There may be catalogs or postcards in the mail inviting customers to shop in store for a purchase, if the shop has brick and mortar locations.

This is an experience that's omnichannel. It can involve a blend of offline and online marketing and involves numerous touchpoints.

Sound difficult? But the good news is that you don't have to invest a lot of budget or hire a large team to create a lean but efficient, omnichannel marketing strategy to promote your shop.

The benefits of omnichannel marketing are to both clients and companies

An omnichannel strategy for marketing offers several advantages over multichannel marketingto your business as well as for your clients. These are the most important:

It's cost-effective.

For the business, Omnichannel marketing is cost-effective because it's more efficient. Instead of creating individual campaigns for social media, direct mail, and PPC, you could make a single campaign and apply it for all of your digital and offline channels.

But more than just another marketing campaign, you'll use automated marketing that responds based on how existing and prospective customers respond to your advertising.

Instead of constantly developing new marketing campaigns, an omnichannel approach looks to create an array of options based on the situation.

Imagine two potential buyers who are both exposed to the same ad. One buys your marketing automation then sends the buyer a special first-time purchase deal, with the intention of turning them into a repeat buyer.

Another person isn't buying, but their behavior indicates that they have a lot of interest. You will receive messages from marketing that try to convince them to come back and make purchase.

There is no need to develop the omnichannel marketing tools once, and then your automated system will utilize them depending on where someone is on their journey to becoming a customer. This process isn't easy and once you've got it running, an omnichannel strategy is a huge time saver.

It leads to better customer service

If your customer is comfortable and is not an unknown person the tools you use to automate marketing can identify where they are at in their customer's journey. A seamless experience is better and more efficient, and it aligns with the expectations of customers.

This helps the client save time, enables them to take faster decisions, and helps reduce confusion.

This helps you to provide more efficient customer service.

When customers need help by phone, omnichannel solutions allow your customer support team to know more about the person they are dealing with so that they do not have to speak to them like everyone else. They can get up to speed more quickly, and not spend the time of starting from scratch, and have a more relevant and intelligent conversation.

What is the best way to develop your own omnichannel marketing strategy

The following is a step-by-step procedure for developing an omnichannel marketing plan that doesn't exceed your budget.

Connect one channel at the time

It's impossible to begin taking on everything in one go but thankfully there's no need to. Omnichannel marketing is about reaching your customers through a consistent messaging in multiple places.

Beginning with the dominant channel, and then identify your first channel that you would like to connect with. If you decide to add additional channels, you should acquire the necessary marketing automation tools you need that will help you and your customer relationship management (CRM) software communicate with all your offline and online channels which includes a brick and mortar shop.

Send your marketing message to the right audience

Affecting your advertisements to the audience segments that are likely to purchase your goods is a crucial aspect of creating a successful multichannel marketing strategy.

Make sure you are focusing on marketing at every stage of the customer journey

The journey for customers begins when someone first discovers the business, and culminates in lifelong loyalty. Below are the five stages of the customer lifecycle and various methods of reaching consumers at each stage with multichannel marketing strategies.

1. Reach

Here, a shopper is searching for a particular product or an answer for a specific issue. This is the perfect opportunity for you to make this shopper conscious of your brand. The customer might be looking at comparisons of items, going through reviews or just looking for more details about whether the suitable product would be a good fit for them.

2. Acquisition

It happens when a customer is on your website, sign up for your newsletter, chats through your chatbots, reach at your business via telephone or email, or visits a brick and mortar store. There isn't a single purchase however, they're checking your business out and gathering further details.

In the process of acquisition during the acquisition phase, you are able to collect customer information using it for offering an omnichannel user experience to every segment of your customers.

3. Conversion

When someone buys while shopping online, or make purchases in stores They've "converted" to becoming your client. The omnichannel experience for customers will make them feel valued and known. It could involve email as well as push notifications. You may also offer more in-store opportunities when you own a physical store.

4. Retention

In addition to delivering a better ROI, but fostering loyal customers who return repeatedly builds brand loyalty -- and those who are loyal customers are your most loyal supporters through their testimonials and telling their friends and family about your services.

As you move through the customer journey, you should use your growing customer data to improve the customer experience during conversion. Your marketing efforts could target your clients via email follow-up messages with other product recommendations or discounts that are relevant to their past purchases, send them a request for an evaluation or feedback survey, offer an incentive program for loyalty, or give excellent customer service.

5. Loyalty

Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty. You can't simply put it away and forget it.

Choose which marketing platforms are right for your omnichannel approach

If you're operating on a small budget then you might want to be selective about which marketing channels to concentrate on when you create an omnichannel strategy for marketing. Start with low-cost marketing methods, then expand into more expensive advertising options as your budget grows.

It is the goal to create multiple touchpoints across different channels to provide the same experience to customers.

 Marketing methods that are low-cost are:

Organic search

Then, use the customer data you acquire from Google Analytics and other marketing tools to improve your omnichannel marketing efforts.

Google Shopping

Email marketing

Utilizing services such as MailPoet it is possible to send a welcome email series to new subscribers, suggestions for products based on previous purchase, emails about abandoned carts to customers who have left items in their cart, announcements about sales, and many other multichannel marketing strategies.

Rewards programs

The customers will then be able to be notified of an omnichannel campaign tailored to them, even across other channels and multiple devices. Imagine a rewards member seeing a display ad that tells the user how many points they've got and offers suggestions on how to utilize their points. This is an example of an omnichannel experience.

Customer service

Each interaction with customers represents an opportunity for marketing. Instead of viewing customer service as merely a way to handle questions and complaints consider it the chance to develop an army of loyal customers.

With an omnichannel marketing approach the customer service department can see a customer's history of engagement and purchase, as well as past interactions with your staff. If you utilize the full advantage of this it will allow you to provide a seamless experience regardless of the customer service channel they use for customer service, including SMS, chatbots, phone or email, or in-store at a brick and mortar location.

Using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool like Jetpack CRM will help to ensure that customer service is smooth and effortless. Create a support portal, track the status of tickets and more, right within your store. You don't need to sign into a third-party CRM site to manage your customers -You can manage it by accessing your WordPress administration area.

Organic social media

It can be difficult to gain organic interest on social media, especially with the many voices that compete However, there are some good alternatives for low-cost marketing that could be quite efficient. You can:

• Create a Facebook group to promote your company
• Engage and post often on your social media channels
• Do an AMA on Reddit with the Ask Me Anything subreddit

 Methods for marketing that cost more are:

Paid search

If you want to show up above the organic results of search or gain instant traffic as you work to improve your SEO, paid search ads are the option. You should also ensure that your landing page is responsive to mobile devices, loads fast and accurately reflects the contents of your advertisement.

Remarketing tools and paid search is an important source of data about your customers data that can be used to develop your omnichannel advertising approach.

Paid Google Shopping

Display ads

Social media ads

Advertising to users on social media is a great method to attract new customers because they can easily share your advertisements with their circle of friends. It is possible to market by demographic data, perceived interest, preferences of customers as well as by submitting an email address list of customers for a lookalike group that has similar profiles to your existing client base. You can also implement an omnichannel approach to marketing on social media when you have integrated the channels you use with your CRM.

Facebook allows you to connect your store's catalogue of products and Instagram. Facebook and Instagram so you can ensure an unison experience for customers. You can also purchase ads directly through your dashboard.

Video advertisements

The advent of internet-based platforms such as YouTube and more affordable tools for editing and video production software, video ads don't need to be out of the reach of small-sized businesses.

If you plan to incorporate video as part of your multichannel marketing plan, be sure you create videos that you can use across a variety of channels. Use clips to create blog, social media or product pages to make the most of these marketing tools.

The most well-known media platform to advertise on is YouTube Other options are:

• Social video platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat
• Live streaming of video services like Twitch and Vimeo
• Video streaming on-demand services such as Amazon Prime and Hulu

Print advertisements

Based on your target audience and your products printing ads could provide a fantastic method to enhance your online marketing strategies as well as blend offline and online strategies for marketing. Consider taking out an ad in a newspaper sending out a catalog printed, sending postcards with special offers, or using front-door advertising techniques such as door hangers and product samples.

Like the digital market, it is possible to track the impact of your offline and in-store initiatives. Again -- omnichannel marketing relies on continuous supply of exact data about your customers, which is customized for every customer.

Here are the top marketing tools that can be used offline for collecting data and an omnichannel in-store experience:

• QR codes containing tracking hyperlinks. You can create unique tracking-compatible links that work with your QR codes. Put these codes in your printed marketing materials, and when a customer visits your shop, you'll be able to determine exactly which printed piece influenced this customer to go on a visit.
• Links to special landing pages. As a QR alternative to QR codes, make custom landing pages using distinct links. Include the URL on the printed advertisements. Be sure to don't make them too long as the users must type them in.

Design and create ad copy that is suitable for use across several platforms

Omnichannel marketing is about consistency and efficiency. Not only does crafting your video, photos, and ad copy using multiple purposes to think about saving you cash on the creation of creative materials, it also helps provide an unifying, consistent customer experience to shoppers on all devices.

Be sure to film photographs and videos designed to be used on multiple marketing platforms. Different platforms employ different aspect ratios. So you'll need to film and edit your videos and images taking this into consideration. Common aspect ratios include:

• Horizontal 16:9
• Square 1:1
• Vertical 4:5 and 2:3
• Full Portrait 9:16

Make your videos and photos in the highest quality possible and export in smaller resolution versions.

Utilize and analyze your customers' information

Regularly reviewing the results of your omnichannel marketing campaigns across all channels is essential. If an advertisement is underperforming, you may need to alter it before spending money on it. Analyzing your data will help you understand which ads are working as well and which aren't.

Google Analytics is probably the most complete tool to track activity on your website. It allows you to look up your sources of traffic to find out what websites visitors come from, gain an idea of the efficiency of your display and search advertising campaigns, and collect information on the demographics of your website users.

In integrating the data into your CRM, all of your marketing channels can make use of it to provide the same experience to your customers.

Let your marketing team be empowered

By implementing omnichannel marketing, your team will be able to improve their performance by adjusting strategies based on the behavior of customers.

And if you employ sales personnel will be better at engaging every customer in a unique way when they can see the data showing the previous purchase interaction, emails as well as clicks, shares reviews and any other details that result from the multichannel customer experience.

Update your ad strategy according to your key performance indicators (KPIs)

If you've reviewed the effectiveness of your multichannel marketing campaigns You can make changes to your plan. Most companies will find that ad campaigns with small CPAs and high ROIs must be allocated additional spending on ads while campaigns with large CPAs and lower ROIs ought to be eliminated. But you may have other key performance indicators for your business.

If your ads aren't generating direct sales, however they frequently correlate with higher organic traffic to search engines or lead generation this could mean that your ad is very effective at reaching out to shoppers at the earlier stage of their customer journey.

Try turning some of the less-performing ads on and off for periods of time to determine if they have any impact on other metrics.

For customer retention and loyalty campaigns, if you notice that few customers are taking advantage of their rewards points or haven't redeemed certain coupons, you might look at tweaking your promotion or adjusting the number of points that are required to redeem. The fact that one approach within your omnichannel marketing campaign not performing, doesn't mean it can't be upgraded to produce more revenue for your company.

Let your business expand

When you make a smart choice when choosing your marketing tools and platforms, utilizing automation tools, creating evergreen and repurposable creative assets, as well as constantly reviewing and tweaking your multichannel marketing plan according to the results, you'll be able to see revenue increase.

As with all things worth doing, it will need time to perfect. Start with one or two channels of marketing, and growing from there based upon the information you've gathered from previous efforts, you'll be able to develop effective long-term strategies for omnichannel marketing which generate revenue to your business.