Companies that prioritize customer experience have realized that what people are looking for is not just a product, but an experience! For this experience to be successful, we must interact effectively with our customers. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible by using only one main communication channel.
Adopting an omnichannel strategy has indeed become a must if you want to optimize your customer experience and be at the top of your performance.
Here are 7 tips to optimize your omnichannel marketing strategy:
- Maintain a 360 view of customers
- Have the right tools at hand
- Master the customer journey
- Perform a human analysis of your data
- Keep a unified strategy
- Prioritize the right channels
- Maintain the offline experience
What is omnichannel communication?
This strategy refers to offering a consistent experience across multiple channels, while remaining relevant to your customers’ progress through their buying journey. It is the ideal strategy to put your customers at the heart of your marketing actions!
An omnichannel strategy uses all touch points in synergy to deliver a seamless experience, transferring information from all touch points, which then enriches the given experience.
Each channel chosen should serve to strengthen the relationship you have with your customers, in their own way. Whether it is through promotions, lead nurturing or one-off campaigns, you must guide the people who are in contact with your brand through their buying journey. It’s all about using different touch points to create a solid relationship and ultimately build brand loyalty.
How to optimize your omnichannel customer experience?
This is the best way to use your creativity to reinvent yourself and adapt to your customers.
1. Maintain a 360 view of customers
This is probably the most important element of all if you want your strategy to be as effective as possible. A Single Customer View (SCV) tool like Dialog Insight’s is what allows you to make this possible. With this tool, you can collect data about your customers regardless of the channel (online or offline) they use to interact with your brand. This data collection is also done across the entire customer journey and the data is collected and assigned to a unique identifier.
This allows you to have a deep understanding of your customer base and use it to provide a solid foundation for your omnichannel strategy.
2. Have the right tools at hand
Your marketing efforts must be accompanied by the right tools in order to achieve your goal. Whether it’s a UCR, as mentioned above, a CRM, a CDP, an email tool or an automated marketing platform, they all need to complement each other. Even though these tools each have a unique role in the execution of your marketing strategy, their interplay will allow for communication between all the data. In fact, Dialog Insight allows for better synergy between your data and your channels by offering to bring all the tools together in one platform.
Other important tools for optimal omnichannel communication include
- Dynamic content;
- Content display conditions;
- Abandoned cart;
- Contact segmentation;
- And much more!
By fine-tuning these tools to better meet the requirements of omnichannel, you reinforce the desired feeling of proximity and your customers will be all the more satisfied. It’s a win-win situation!
3. Master the customer journey
In addition to knowing your customer well, it is also important to have a good knowledge of the customer journey. These include, among others, the following elements: the average length of the customer journey, the frequency of purchase of your typical customer or the different entry or abandonment points in the customer journey.
By having a good knowledge of these paths for different types of customers, you will be able to optimize the contact points to prioritize. Depending on which ones are used most often, for example. To better understand these paths, try it yourself! Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and walk through all the possible paths to a purchase, or any other end that resonates with your organization. This will help you identify what needs to be improved and what is performing well.
4. Perform a human analysis of your data
There is nothing very human about a set of data. However, if you look at your data with a less analytical and more empathetic approach, it will show in your customer interactions. In other words, you improve the relationship with your customers by analyzing data as human behavior. Here are some examples of what you can learn from this data: who they are, what their goals and challenges are, what their lifestyle habits are, what their interests are, etc.
Moreover, when you have good customer knowledge, it enriches the communications you make and your customer experience is improved!
5. Keep a unified strategy
In an omnichannel strategy, the secret lies in unifying your touch points. All your channels put together should form a whole and serve the same purpose. Of course, each channel is different, which brings adaptations to the messages transmitted.
In fact, each channel has its advantages and it is these that must be exploited to complement what the other channels cannot accomplish perfectly individually. It’s like a puzzle where each piece represents a channel that is individually important, but when they all fit together, you see the final picture and that’s when everything makes sense and the customer experience is optimal.
6. Prioritize the right channels
Don’t waste your time adding every imaginable channel to your marketing strategy. Focus on the channels that your customers prefer and that add value to them and your organization.
By doing some prior analysis, such as customer journey analysis, you will be able to select the most relevant channels.
7. Maintain the offline experience
Although digital is definitely taking a bigger role in many companies’ strategy, what is offline also plays a role on consumers. That’s why a marriage between the two is a great option. For example, many companies like Metro or Familiprix offer to order online and pick up their order on site. Also, a solution offered by Dialog Insight for businesses is the online appointment booking to plan a visit in store. This allows for an efficient visit as it is possible to request the assistance of a clerk in advance to guide your customer through the shopping process. Loto-Québec is one of the companies that use our solution.
Why should you adopt an omnichannel strategy?
The power of your marketing strategy lies in its relevance, and that’s what makes it possible to meet the growing expectations of your customers. The more relevant you are, the more satisfied your customers will be. In fact, companies that prioritize the customer experience generate 60% more profit than their competitors.
Being more and more connected on different devices, your customers have much more control over their buying journey and want more than ever to be able to interact with a brand. As a result, businesses need to become as accessible as possible. Whether you want to acquire new customers, retain them, or reactivate them, omnichannel marketing will allow you to build a long-term, qualitative relationship with each of your customers.
No matter what challenges adopting an omnichannel strategy puts in your way, in the end, the effort is worth it. Prioritize working horizontally in synergy between all your teams. Everyone should play a role in the customer experience. Agile marketing that puts the customer at the center is what creates flawless results. Now you’re ready to create your next omnichannel marketing campaign.
