Using Omnichannel Marketing to Fuel Engagement
2 minute read
If you’ve ever received an email opening with “Dear [first name]” that got your name wrong, or even worse, didn’t include your name at all, then you know how frustrating it is.
If a company can’t even get your name right, how can they possibly deliver anything that is remotely relevant to you? The truth is, they can’t, unless they deliver a true omnichannel experience that takes who you are, what you want, and how you want to interact into account (and get their database cleaned up, too).
The past several months have emphasized the need to be more personal and authentic with consumers. For marketers who lack an omnichannel strategy, it has hampered their ability to engage the right audiences. But those who have the knowledge to tailor their message to individuals or segments have been significantly more successful during the COVID crisis in developing an ongoing conversation with their customers, a practice that existed before COVID and will continue long after.
Adopting an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Today, most marketers are executing a multichannel strategy versus a single channel experience; however, even when you are engaging the consumer through multiple channels (sometimes even their preferred channels), it doesn’t ensure the messaging and content will be consistent, nor will it provide a cohesive experience. Omnichannel considers who the customer is, where they are in the buyer journey, and their existing relationship with you, building on the multichannel strategy by morphing messaging, content, and timing into contextually relevant marketing, to best connect with the person receiving it. That heightened level of relevance translates into significantly greater engagement.
An omnichannel communication strategy is more complex to choreograph than traditional multichannel marketing, but the returns are worth the additional effort.
- It means setting up a system that can process information that we continually learn about a target person or group.
- It means writing and developing content that can be adapted for multiple audiences at different stages of the buying cycle.
- It means creating a feedback loop that captures behavior and key metrics to optimize future deployments for increased efficiency and response.
The result: more engagement, greater response, and (surprisingly) less cost in the long run.
While this year has presented many challenges, it also has given us the opportunity to help our clients reevaluate their marketing and make changes to improve it. Now may be the perfect time to look at your own marketing strategy and determine how you can transition from multichannel deployment to a true omnichannel experience.
If you feel you could speak to your customers with greater relevance, schedule a call with FARM’s omnichannel marketing experts to see how it may work for you.
