Omnichannel marketing is a strategy that uses multiple different channels to reach potential customers, all working in unison to create a consistent experience. These could be tv ads, emails, social media, telemarketing, print or any other mix, not restricted to digital or traditional methods. To ensure your marketing message is as effective as possible, you need to reach out to potential customers on whichever channels they’re using. Though to be truly effective, you need all these experiences to be unified and consistent across the various mediums.
But how many marketers actually do this?
A ZoomInfo blog post reveals a number of interesting statistics. For example, 73% of marketers use multiple channels in their marketing strategy. That sounds pretty good, right? The catch is that only 52% of marketers are using three to four marketing channels, and fewer still are completely in sync across these channels. Though really, it’s unsurprising that so few marketers fully commit to omnichannel marketing when only 30% of them rate their confidence as high.
The Advantages of Omnichannel Marketing
Ominchannel marketing stands to offer a number of benefits to your marketing strategy as Tech Funnel highlights with these four advantages:
- • Channel preference – A multi-channel strategy allows you to connect with customers on their preferred channels. By researching which channels your customers use, you can improve the effectiveness of your omnichannel messaging and reach more prospects in the process.
- • Channel medium – Is your message suited to the channel? A promotional article might work on Email, but it’s definitely not going to work on Instagram. Similarly, an image-heavy campaign is likely to have less of a splash on a blog than it would on Instagram or Pinterest. It's important to understand the content that works best across each channel, and then use this knowledge when planning out your omnichannel strategy.
- • Omnichannel variety – The more channels you have your content on, the more likely people are to see it. This is particularly important in today’s media-saturated environment, where people filter things out almost subconsciously. By spreading your message over multiple channels, you’re more likely to be picked up on at least one and have an effect. Repetition across channels can reinforce your brand awareness as well.
- • Omnichannel synergy – It’s difficult to pull off, but omnichannel synergy can deliver a great innovative experience to your customers. When each channel supports the others, your messages complement one another for a cohesive campaign. And campaigns like this typically perform better than using a standalone channel. Starbucks is one example of a company that understands omnichannel synergy with its Red Cup campaign.
During this campaign, Starbucks sold red cups for a limited time and encouraged people to create art on them. First, this campaign relied on traditional and digital marketing channels to get people excited about the campaign. Then the cup itself also helped market the campaign. Finally, Twitter and Instagram also gave the campaign a boost when people shared their artwork with it.
Here are some surprising benefits of omnichannel marketing:
- • Campaigns integrating 4 or more digital channels will outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300%. (Gartner Research)
- • Over 90% of marketers struggle to seamlessly connect more than three channels on the buyer journey. (Gartner Research)
- • Businesses that successfully employ a consistent cross-channel marketing strategy enjoy a 14.6% year-over-year increase in annual revenue and a 13% annual rise (Omer Minkara: Customer Engagement: From Interactions to Relationships)
These reasons above should make one thing clear: if you aren’t making use of omnichannel marketing, you need to get started today.
The one thing to remember:
The customer is at the heart of your omnichannel approach.
You should work out your content and which channels to use around what your customers want and where they are. Your messaging then adapts based on how each prospect interacts. This interaction prompts an update, which might trigger another channel, further engaging the prospect with a cohesive message across another medium.
For example, a prospect may visit a certain product or service on your website, but not purchase or enquire at this stage. Social media ads such as on LinkedIn or Facebook, could then be used to retarget these individuals with the product benefits, and an email may be triggered to offer a discount or meeting. In this instance all channels are working together to offer the lead content relevant to their interests and needs.
Add the best-kept secret in B2B marketing to your marketing mix
At GCL, we know that an effective B2B marketing strategy cannot rely on digital channels alone. That's the element that Telemarketing can bring to your strategy. Telemarketing breaks through the noise that digital channels can create, offering a uniquely tailored outreach that digital channels may struggle to replicate.
This is why we offer a cost-effective B2B telemarketing strategy that delivers results for large organisations including Hayley Group and Pitney Bowes. If you’d like to find out more about GCL’s telemarketing and lead generation services, be sure to check out our ebook, The Best Kept Secrets in B2B Marketing, or contact us today.
