Steps you’re missing in your omni-channel marketing

Omni-channel marketing involves several platforms such as mobile, social, email and offline working together to give an integrated, cohesive consumer experience. The seamlessness between these channels means the customer has a unified experience with a brand.

There are many brands out there who think they’ve already implemented omni-channel marketing, but they’re missing out some vital links. Here are some steps you may have been forgetting in your Omni-channel marketing strategy.

Tracking calls

Call tracking allows companies that are implementing omni-channel marketing to successfully to pin- point where conversions are coming from, connecting their offline and online experiences.

An example of this is if a person a visits one of the brand’s social media accounts, then progressed to the website and then finished their activity with a call as a result.  Call tracking can track this customer’s journey, allowing marketers to attribute the conversion and the phone call to a certain activity and platform. This can help marketers and brands distribute their budgets accordingly, allocating more into successful channels and perhaps retiring those that are not converting.

Mediahawk’s call tracking software helps brands to understand the consumer’s journey in a new in-depth way. For example, call tracking can inform marketers which marketing campaign can be attributed to a call they have received. Also, the specific keyword or search phrase keyword used to find the site, the landing page and the Google Click ID for the paid search campaigns the call originated from can be identified. Having access to this data can greatly benefit companies with their omni-channel marketing efforts and providing more consumer knowledge for marketing teams ahead of future campaigns:  it also gives more depth to the customer experience.

Here is an example of this in action: a person may be searching for eco holiday lodges on their desktop but leave the search; later they see a sponsored post in their Facebook feed about an eco-lodge company that they saw in their search results earlier. From here they click on the ad and are taken to the website. They then want to ask if the lodges are pet-friendly so call the company from their mobile. With their question answered they then return at a later time to the website’s booking page and book the holiday. Call tracking will be able to trace the conversion back to the initial search, through to the paid ad, on to the phone call and finally to the website where the conversion occurred. The company will then know that their paid social ads are working, as well as being able to praise the team member who dealt with the specific phone call that led to the conversion. The ability to track this journey shows that the marketing efforts are working at each step and all are pivotal in the lead up to the conversion.

Not involving your physical presence

It is easy, in a digitally dominated world to actually forget the bricks and mortar establishments that are still attracting foot traffic. These physical locations should not be forgotten about or ignored when it comes to your omni-channel strategy and should in fact be an integral part of the plan.

It is quite common for someone to miss a paid for ad, or even skip over an email, but a face to face interaction is harder to ignore. Shop assistants and those that are based in physical locations are brand ambassadors ready and waiting to spread marketing messages and using them to integrate your offline and online marketing efforts is sure to produce results. An example of this in action would be for a shop that currently has a newsletter exclusive offer to encourage their staff to push newsletter sign ups with customers in store in order for them to receive the discount while they are shopping. Not only does this add more subscribers to the company’s newsletter but it will also push consumers to complete their purchases due to the added incentive of a discount at the time of purchase.

Another example of involving physical stores in an omni-channel marketing strategy can be seen in New Look. New Look have recently started asking consumers whether they would like a digital receipt instead of, or as well as, a paper receipt. The benefit of this for the consumer is that if they lose their paper receipt they still have a backup in the event that a return has to be made. In the company’s eyes they are collecting data from their customers that they can later use for marketing campaigns.

Not using mobile technology

Nowadays having a mobile-friendly website no longer puts you ahead of the game when it comes to marketing, this is now seen as standard among those serious about having a digital presence. In order to truly benefit from your omni-channel efforts a brand must go beyond just having a mobile-friendly website and look at expanding their mobile offering.

For example an app. Apps used to be tools used only by the big companies with the bigger budgets, but now they are relatively inexpensive to have created and can be just as effective as the higher end offerings. Apps offer a unique tool called ‘push notifications’ which  have the ability to take messages from the app and push them directly in front of consumers on their mobile screens: some apps even manage to find a way around disabled push notifications by landing straight in your text message inbox. Here’s an example from ASOS, advertising their double points campaign via text message:

The benefit of this is that you capture consumers when they are simply going about their daily lives, i.e. at home, at work, at the gym or out shopping, potentially having the ability to change their behaviour. For example, if you are out shopping and a text or push notification is received from a brand, giving a percentage discount instore or online with a certain code, the recipient may go out of their way to visit a physical store and potentially make a purchase.

You can also ensure that shopping on mobiles is made easy by having easier ways to pay such as a PayPal button which, if you are signed in, leads to automatic payment once clicked without having to fill in card details. Amazon have a ‘1-click’ purchase button on their website and their mobile site which allows quick purchasing without the tedious effort of having to go through five  pages of confirmations and filling in information. Mobile ‘1-click’ purchasing needs to be turned on manually by the user, but once it is turned on, it allows for an easier mobile shopping experience.

Intertwining cross channel

Although omni-channel marketing is, already, the integration of several different channels, the trick to ensure the consumer experiences this integration seamlessly is by further intertwining these channels.

What is meant by this is crossing device barriers to intertwine your channels, for example, Pop Sugar add their ‘Add us on Snapchat’ button to the end of their articles. Snapchat is a mobile exclusive app, and although someone may be reading their article on their desktop it doesn’t stop them from pushing this channel, this is because it is an app that is dramatically rising in popularity amongst their target audience.

Another great example is shown by Starbucks:  the coffee giants have now made it possible for their customers to pay for their coffees via their apps, this truly intertwines their mobile channel and offline channel to create a seamless experience for their consumers when visiting and purchasing from them.