The proverb “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is one that many of us are familiar with, but with the evolution of digital media and the power it can bring to your business, it may be difficult to heed this advice. Because almost everyone is spending an increasing amount of time on their smartphone or tablet, it is smart to promote your brand’s message for close to 24 hours a day using digital marketing, which is very simple and inexpensive.

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the growth of digital marketing has corresponded with a drop in television, newspaper print, radio, and the advertising medium that has been around the longest. Despite that, this format continues to exist, evidence of its continued use in the modern digital world. The question is, how exactly can you take advantage of this situation? By unifying online and offline marketing efforts.

Thankfully, a growing number of marketers are starting to grasp this concept. Even customers who shop online often move fluidly between the virtual and real worlds as they go through the purchasing process. Because of this, online-to-offline marketing, also known as O2O marketing, assists businesses in efficiently reaching out to their consumers across various touchpoints to increase their level of brand engagement and, ultimately, sales.

Harvard Business Review

Along with a reputed US retail corporation, Harvard Business Review conducted extensive 14-month research with 46,000 individuals to better understand consumer purchasing habits. After the reviewing the results, it was discovered that:

• 7% of individuals preferred online shopping.
• 20% of them were devoted to shopping at the store.
• 73% utilized various channels in their buying process.

Additionally, the research indicated that the value of the clients to the merchants increased in proportion to the number of different sales channels that they used. For instance, the study showed that consumers who used more than four or more channels spent 9% or more money on the brand than those who only used one kind of channel.

The writing is clear: businesses must re-imagine their customer journeys, develop smart strategies to gain new customers, keep existing customers engaged, and increase customer retention by providing great experiences across various touchpoints. In simple words, it is time for retailers to change their attention from conventional marketing tactics to omnichannel marketing strategies in light of the proliferation of new marketing platforms.

So, what is Omnichannel Marketing Anyway?

Omnichannel is a marketing approach aiming to provide customers with a seamless purchasing experience across all channels they use to interact with your brand, from the first point of contact to the last. For example, offline (think newspaper ads and broadcast, direct mail, collateral, coupon programs, etc.) or online (consider online display advertising, pay-per-click, and social media).

This might seem unclear since there are many different ways it may be put into practice. The important thing is that every time a customer interacts with your brand, also known as a touchpoint, the experience should seem like a continuation of the one that came before it.

Now you may wonder, “Wait, so I need a lot of channels? Is this not an example of multichannel marketing?” The short answer is not really.

Multichannel Vs. Omnichannel Marketing

Customer placement in relation to your marketing plan is the primary distinction between multichannel and omnichannel marketing. When you engage in multichannel, you should ensure that your message is consistent across all platforms. Having said that, it’s unlikely that this message would be pertinent to every customer. You won’t get the same amount of minute personalization as with omnichannel marketing, but it could be useful for most people.

Personalization is the one area where no other marketing technique has surpassed omnichannel. This is because it puts the consumer’s needs at the forefront of the whole marketing strategy. At every point of interaction, the messaging associated with your brand will be tailored to precisely what your customers want and the communication channel they choose.

When you put the customer at the heart of your marketing plan, every message will be suitable for the channel it is delivered on, but it will also be pertinent to the specific point in the customer journey at which the customer is now located. And it makes perfect sense that the more positive their experiences are while dealing with your brand, the more interactions they will want.

Because of this, you now have access to an increasing amount of data. When those data are included in an effective omnichannel marketing tool, it will lead to improved levels of personalization, which will, in turn, lead to increased levels of sales and brand affinity.

How to Build an Omni-Channel Marketing Campaign

Having consistent positioning statements across all channels, platforms, and devices is an essential component of an omnichannel marketing strategy. It creates a seamless and consistent experience for customers by ensuring that your brand is displayed in the same manner from platform to platform.

Keep in mind that omnichannel strategies have a favorable influence on product sales and customer service. Demonstrating to customers that your business is present across all channels and platforms creates an awareness that they can expect a consistent purchasing and customer service experience. However, you do not need to be at every place simultaneously; get there when you need to.

First, you should concentrate on getting your website and social media channels in order before going to other platforms. You must maintain a regular publishing schedule and interact with individuals who contact you via various channels.

Note that if you often interact on Instagram but don’t respond to messages on Facebook, your brand will appear unprofessional and inconsistent. So never choose to focus on just one of these aspects while ignoring the others.

Are you convinced you need to start using omnichannel marketing strategies in your online retail store? Create your own omnichannel campaign by following these ten steps.

• Develop a mobile and user-friendly website.
• Determine which channels are used frequently.
• Carefully map your customer’s journey.
• Match content with other marketing platforms.
• Study and segment your audience.
• Take advantage of shoppable posts.
• Provide cross-channel customer support.
• Put money in your marketing stack.
• Keep your customer’s data sacred.
• Make a monthly testing habit.

Brands That Have Mastered Omni-Channel Marketing

Before we go into some specific examples of omnichannel marketing, it is crucial to understand why this kind of marketing is important in this age of digital technology. Remember that omnichannel marketing is a strategy that combines the many advantages offered by each of your communication channels into one cohesive whole. The question is, why is it vital to use an omnichannel strategy?

According to Aspect Software, companies that use an omnichannel strategy have a year-over-year customer retention rate of 91% points higher than those that do not implement such a strategy. According to yet another research, businesses with omnichannel consumer engagement can keep an average of 89% of their customers, whereas just 33% of customers are retained by companies with either poor or no omnichannel customer interaction.

Still not convinced? Here are some more worth mentioning statistics:

• Customers who shop through omnichannelhave a lifetime value of over 30% more than the value of customers who shop via a single channel. – Google
• 71% of customers claimed that using their smartphone while shopping in-store is an important component of their product research and influences buying choices. – Google
• 50% of customers wish to purchase something from the brand’s website and then pick it up at a local shop at their convenience. – Forrester

The statistics speak for themselves; nevertheless, if you aren’t quite convinced, the following are some excellent instances of omnichannel marketing in action that you may look at.

Disney

Everything about the omnichannel experience at Disney, down to the tiniest nuances, is perfect. It begins with your first impression when you visit the aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly website. Even the website that helps you plan your trips works nicely on all mobile devices, which is something that doesn’t happen very frequently.

Once you have successfully booked your reservation, you can utilize the My Disney Experience planning tool to organize every aspect of your vacation, from deciding where to eat to get your Fast Passes. While in the park, you may use the mobile app to choose the attractions you’re most interested in visiting and check the present wait times.

On the other hand, the entertainment company goes one step further with the launch of its Magic Band program. This gadget serves as the key to your hotel room, a photo storage device for any images taken of you with Disney characters, and an ordering device for meals. In addition to that, it also integrates Fast Pass to keep your vacation moving.

Bank of America

The Bank of America takes omnichannel marketing very seriously. It is one of the most well-known trademarks in the financial sector, and as a result, it is establishing the benchmark for a dynamic experience. As of right now, it is possible for the mobile and desktop applications that the company offers to manage everything from depositing checks to scheduling appointments.

There’s no denying that Bank of America has a long way to go. Users still cannot apply for loan applications or attend to other more involved banking errands from mobile. But when it comes to different actions, such as paying monthly bills or depositing a check, the company’s dedication to providing an omnichannel experience guarantees that it doesn’t bother customers in this regard.

Timberland

Using near-field communication technologies in its traditional stores, Timberland provides customers with an engaging and connected shopping experience. Examples of such software include Apple Pay and Android Pay. Users can transmit information between their mobile devices using this technology by tapping their mobile device against a specific chip.

Timberland does not use this technology for online commerce; instead, it is used in-store to provide customers with tablets that offer more information on the item or display when touched against merchandise or signs located around the store. When the tablet is brought close to the chip, specific details about the item being purchased or the deal being offered are shown on the tablet.

Customers may see the deals provided for each product without seeking out shop clerks. This eliminates the need for customers to approach store employees for input. The customization software on the tablet starts making product recommendations to the user as they continue to search for various products. These recommendations are based on the user’s previous purchasing behavior.

Smart Ways to Unify Online and Offline Marketing Strategy

A study by IBM sheds light on how customers expect an innovative buying experience in shops – one that is comparable to that available online. Despite this, over 90 percent of brands are lacking, dissatisfying customers with the level of care and experience they get at traditional stores.

However, there are a lot of different methods to improve the customer experience by using digital technology on location. This may make shopping a more delightful experience for customers, creating marketing campaigns more successful for businesses. Let’s take a look at seven ways in which companies may improve the effectiveness of their physical and online marketing activities:

Use Online CTA on Your Offline Promotion

Leveraging your online presence to boost local physical sales is one of the most underutilized potential in business today. Utilizing online marketing to spread the word about an upcoming offline event is an excellent way to reach more people. In a similar vein, you may employ traditional promotional methods to increase the exposure of your website on the internet.

For instance, you may use print advertising to invite people to a live event presented on your social media account or website. In addition to this, you should come up with convincing reasons for your audience to visit a different landing page (rather than your homepage) so that you may gather contact information for subsequent follow-ups on future campaigns.

The online video streaming behemoth—Netflix—is a pioneer in incorporating call-to-action (CTA) elements into traditional forms of advertising. Netflix, which began in 1997 as an online movie rental service, has been modified and reworked on several occasions since the company’s founding.

Banners with captivating and startling ambient ads are deliberately hung in public locations to attract new and current customers. This requires an enormous marketing budget to carry out these promotional activities.

To do this, Netflix employs the strategy known as omnichannel. The purpose of installing billboards in high-traffic areas such as Times Square is to broaden the audience’s identification of a brand’s identity and promote specific content that may be streamed online.

Ensure Brand Consistency on All Platforms

As a marketer, you’re well aware that the success of your company is directly related to its brand, and that consistency is one of the qualities considered to be among the most significant. The fact of the matter is that a lot of businesses don’t fail after a certain amount of time because they are unable to create a brand; rather, they fail because their owners don’t understand how important it is to keep their brand’s image the same both online and offline.

Even while maintaining coherence in the brand’s message is not a novel idea, a few things may be improved upon, especially in the community of startup companies. While it is less likely that startup firms will have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on market research and intensive A/B testing to analyze messaging, every aspect of the brand must be consistent and on-message.

The global sportswear giant Nike is an excellent illustration of maintaining brand consistency. Even if a person does not regularly purchase Nike products, they can still repeat its catchy slogan without thinking about it. Unlike Reebok, which, since 1987, has revised its slogan a total of 14 times, Nike has used the “Just Do It” slogan for more than 15 years, demonstrating its attention to preserving brand consistency across all of its products.

Start A “To Be Continued” Campaign

How about writing the first part of your narrative as a book and then completing it online? When using this omnichannel marketing strategy, you will have the option of directing the customer to either a landing page or one of your social media channels, where they will be able to find further information and a specific call-to-action (CTA).

For example, if you are writing a print article in any magazine or newspaper, you might add a call-to-action such as “to find out more, go to www.yoursite.com/landingpage.”Alternatively, you could say something along the lines of “to win an exciting gift hamper, follow us on social media, and share our post using the hashtag #CampaignTitle.” Believe it or not, this strategy works like magic.

Prioritize Mobile-First

It is common knowledge that smartphones are here to stay. In addition, they are rapidly becoming the dominating force as more and more customers choose to use their mobile devices rather than desktop computers. According to the statistics, the average American spends upwards of 4.5 hours a day on their smartphone, and 80% of millennials sleep with their phones near them.

It may come as a surprise that the current fixation on mobile technology does not signal the demise of traditional forms of marketing. According to Forrester, yearly sales of mobile phones have surpassed $60 billion globally; nevertheless, this figure is rather low compared to the $1 trillion in offline sales directly driven by mobile phone usage.

While the environment is in flux, companies can monitor the changes and adapt in tandem with them. This makes it feasible for brands to engage with consumers at various online and offline touchpoints.For example, TripAdvisor has made its app accessible offline. This enables users to take advantage of the company’s services even when they do not have access to the internet.

The use of technology in retail establishments, which sends messages to customers’ mobile devices as they navigate the shop, is another way for companies to capitalize on consumers’ love of mobile technology. (Reference: Timberland)

Other Smart Ways

Customers often have their first experience with a company through the marketing effort, whether it be through ads on social media or traditional billboards. This shows that reaching the target audience both online and offline is essential to the success of a brand in today’s market. Smart ways to unify your online and offline marketing strategies don’t end here. Here are some more ways to make the most out of the omnichannel marketing approach.

• Devise a cross-promotion strategy.
• Create a singular focus for all platforms.
• Send offline consumers to online channels.
• Collect email addresses offline via surveys.
• Use a consistent design across all platforms.
• Leverage incentives to entice specific audiences.
• Connect campaigns with custom tracking URLs.

The Final Cut

For several years, there has been an ongoing discussion regarding which type of marketing strategy is more effective: offline (think newspaper ads and broadcast,  direct mail, collateral, coupon programs, etc.) or online (consider online display advertising, pay-per-click, and social media). The good news is that you don’t have to decide between the two.

Your marketing plan could incorporate the usage of both online and offline marketing strategies based on the people you want to reach and the goals you want to achieve.

In a nutshell, an integrated marketing strategy constitutes an effective marketing plan. Instead of considering these channels to be competitors for your marketing budget, think of them as potent tools that, combined, can help boost your brand, leads, and bottom line.

Finally, we unpacked smart ways to unify online and offline marketing efforts. This brings us to the end of this extensive guide. Now it’s time to hear from you. Any questions? Or maybe there’s something we missed? Either way, feel free to leave a comment below. If you enjoyed reading this article, share it with your friends, colleagues, or someone planning to start an online business.