Learn how to Run an Omnichannel Ecommerce Advertising Marketing campaign
Think back to the last time you made a big purchase online. If you're like most consumers, there's a good chance you've interacted with the brand multiple times on different channels with different devices before paying.
The customer journey is no longer easy (if ever). It's a tortuous path for customers to visit brands on different platforms before converting. In order to successfully address and convert customers across all channels and platforms, you need a uniform marketing strategy. This is the core of an omnichannel e-commerce marketing campaign.
In this article, you will learn exactly what omnichannel ecommerce is like, why it is vital for ecommerce brands, and how to create your own omnichannel ecommerce marketing campaign.
What is omnichannel e-commerce?
Omnichannel e-commerce is a marketing approach that creates a uniform customer experience on multiple platforms. In particular, omnichannel retailers offer the same experience across all channels, creating a seamless experience that goes beyond individual platforms.
This is different from multichannel ecommerce, where brands sell through different channels but offer different experiences. While consumers may be able to shop on social media, a website, and a brick and mortar store, they cannot move seamlessly between them.
There is another form of commerce: single-channel e-commerce. This is the case when brands are only selling through one channel. This can be a traditional store, an online shop or a marketplace like Amazon. This approach limits brands to only one platform, which can be devastating if that platform makes changes.
In omnichannel e-commerce, customers jump from device to device or platform to platform during the conversion process. As a brand, you have to keep up.
Why is an omnichannel ecommerce strategy important?
An omnichannel e-commerce experience sounds better than a multi-channel or single-channel experience, doesn't it?
Reason enough to take an omnichannel approach, but not the only reason why you should. Omnichannel e-commerce offers a better customer experience and enables your brand to use new platforms, increase customer retention rates and increase sales.
Omnichannel e-commerce strategies Offer a better customer experience
Google reports that 85 percent of online shoppers start shopping on one device and finish on another. Why does that matter?
Convenience rules when it comes to e-commerce; Just ask Amazon. However, it is not enough to offer a wide choice, competitive pricing, and next day delivery. Brands need to be where their customers are and have a seamless experience when they switch devices or channels.
Take off your marketer's cap for a second and remember that most consumers don't consider their shopping experience to be separate. It's all a journey to them, and this is exactly how an omnichannel e-commerce experience approaches.
As you can see in Invesp's infographic below, customers can enjoy an omnichannel experience in a number of different ways. You can:
- Check the availability of the products
- Reserve or buy items and collect them in store
- have constant access to their profile information
- Enjoy a personalized shopping experience regardless of the platform
Omnichannel is the future of e-commerce
Would you like to future-proof your brand? Omnichannel is the way to go. According to Statista, e-commerce accounted for 14 percent of omnichannel sales in 2019, but a whopping 63 percent of omnichannel growth – meaning that omnichannel is growing rapidly.
According to BigCommerce's Omnichannel Retail report, consumers shop fairly evenly between different online stores, although the majority of spending is on marketplaces like Amazon and large retailers.
Increase customer retention rates and sales
An omnichannel marketing strategy isn't just good for customers. it can be incredibly profitable.
Customers keep coming back to stores that offer an omnichannel approach. A survey by Aspect Software found that companies using an omnichannel strategy had 91 percent better customer retention rates year over year than companies that did not. If you are serious about generating repeatable online sales, omnichannel marketing is the way to go.
Omnichannel customers are also better customers in the long term. IDC finds that these consumers have 30 percent higher lifetime value than single-channel buyers.
Research also shows that 47 percent of shoppers who engage with brands on 10 or more channels shop at their favorite brands at least once a week. This compares to 21 percent of buyers who engage through one to four channels.
8 Tips for Building a Successful Omnichannel Ecommerce Marketing Campaign
Omnichannel e-commerce marketing is essential for brick-and-mortar or digitally native brands that want to drive more e-commerce traffic and increase e-commerce sales in the years to come.
Here is what you need to run a successful campaign.
Identify the opportunities of each channel
Each channel is important to an omnichannel e-commerce strategy, but they play different roles. Start by figuring out where your customers spend most of their time, how they interact with these channels, and what types of products they typically buy there.
Some channels are more suitable for promoting certain products, while others are more suitable for customer service. For example, an enterprise software company is unlikely to get many direct conversions from Twitter, but it can get prospects there.
Note that your omnichannel strategy shouldn't encompass every single marketing platform. If none of your customers are using TikTok, there is no point in building a presence there. Omnichannel should focus on the channels your customers are using.
Understand your customers' needs
An omnichannel approach should focus on your customers. Every company likes to think they know their customers, but how much do you really know about them? Now is the time to find out.
Think about the channels your customers are on. What content do you like to see on these channels? When are they most likely to convert? These are the questions you need to answer.
You can use data to understand how customers are interacting with your brands across each channel. However, don't be afraid to speak to them directly through polls and polls. This can help you uncover things you didn't know about the buyer's journey.
Personalize ads and messages
Customers expect more than an omnichannel experience. You expect personalization at every touch point on every channel. They want to land on your website and see the products that they buy frequently. They expect the emails in their inbox to contain offers and marketing messages that are relevant to them.
The problem is, 67 percent of marketers don't deliver contextual, personalized messages to their customers.
However, you don't have to customize your messages for each individual customer. Instead, segment your audience into smaller groups with the same characteristics. These properties can include:
- Demographics
- Shopping samples
- Favorite station
- Favorite products
- Expenditure amounts
Personalization strategies can even be implemented in stores. It may be a little more complicated to recommend related products online, but setting up kiosks or equipping shopping assistants with mobile devices can help bring the online experience to the store.
Keep your brand voice consistent
Apple, Nike, Wendy; There are some companies with instantly recognizable brand voices. Why? Because they are relentlessly committed to maintaining consistency across all channels.
It doesn't matter if you see an Apple ad on TV or in print, read the copy on their website, or even watch one of their product launches. The language and the tone of voice are exactly the same. This is the secret to building a great omnichannel ecommerce marketing strategy. The more consistent your messages and tone of voice are, the less likely consumers are to get confused and fall out of your marketing funnel.
At the same time, they'll find your message much more engaging. It's one thing to get hit with a promotional message in an email. Seeing the same message on social media, on your website, and in store is a different thing.
Your advertising strategies should also be consistent. Running separate in-store and online promotions and not allowing a buyer to take advantage of the other channels' promotions is not an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Make every channel and touchpoint purchasable
With an omnichannel experience, customers should be able to shop wherever they interact with your brand. Your online and brick-and-mortar stores are a matter of course. However, can they shop through social media channels or your app?
This wasn't possible a few years ago. Thanks to some pretty important updates on major social media platforms, it's now possible to increase sales through Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
But don't stop there. If necessary, consider expanding your reach to marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy. As we saw in the Omnichannel Ecommerce Spend Breakdown above, marketplaces have the second largest percentage of buyers and generate the most revenue.
Sure, in an ideal world, it is better for customers to buy your products on your own website. However, when you buy customers from Amazon, you can get in touch with them and get them to your website.
Keep testing and collecting data
Your omnichannel ecommerce marketing campaign needs to evolve over time. Consumer habits are changing, new channels are emerging and existing platforms are becoming less important. This is why it's so important to collect data and keep testing and refining your campaign.
With more data, you can better optimize your campaign and ultimately be more successful. Test your campaign as a whole and run live A / B tests on your personalized messages to each customer segment. Optimizing headlines, copies of text, and images can greatly improve engagement and conversion rates.
Save it in the back office
There's no point building a killer omnichannel marketing campaign if your backend operations can't keep your promise.
In particular, inventory visibility and management should be high on the list. Use an inventory management system that centralizes inventory across warehouses and physical store fronts so that no customer orders an out-of-stock product.
Shipping, fulfillment, and returns are also important. Customers should be able to purchase their products in a variety of ways, whether the purchases are delivered to their doorstep or picked up at the nearest store. The same applies to returns. In-store and online returns are essential components of a true omnichannel approach.
Conclusion
Omnichannel marketing for e-commerce stores is becoming the norm. Customers expect a seamless experience when switching devices and channels, and it is your responsibility to provide it.
Omnichannel marketing significantly improves the customer experience, but it also drives engagement, creates better customers and leads to more sales. This means that some of the greatest success factors for e-commerce are on the agenda.
If you want to be successful with e-commerce, omnichannel marketing is not a strategy. it's a requirement.
Do you need help setting up your marketing campaigns to fit your omnichannel ecommerce strategy? Let us know and our agency can help you.
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