Omnichannel marketing — we briefly discussed it in our Five Digital Marketing Challenges that are Prevalent in 2021 blog. Here’s a little excerpt of what we said:
“The digital landscape is more vast now than it’s ever been and it continues to grow rapidly. With so many new apps, social platforms, and devices, it can be difficult to stay on top of things and deploy truly effective marketing tactics across absolutely everything. But the good news is, you don’t necessarily have to be everywhere! Do some research and find out some of the most common and popular places that your customers hangout online, and cater to those platforms. There’s no sense in funnelling time and resources into a marketing strategy for a platform that isn’t popular amongst your current or target audience.”
And this certainly remains true in that it’s a challenge. What we failed to mention, though, was just how important an omnichannel strategy is in 2021. Back in 2019, data showed that almost all consumers visited more than one website before making a purchase decision. This means that consumers are doing their research before they become a customer to your brand. So how can you persuade them to come back and complete that purchase? Well, you can spread yourself out across multiple channels so that you’re more visible to them.
As marketer Bernard May said in a recent Forbes article:
“Expanding your marketing (and attribution) strategy from single channels to omnichannel is akin to leaving a trail of “branded bread crumbs” to attract, nurture and ultimately convert customers.”
And knowing that customers visit multiple websites before ultimately making a decision, we can see why it’s so important. So now that we know this, let’s take a look at a few things we can do to strengthen our omnichannel approach.
- Determine which channels your customers/audience use
As we’ve mentioned previously, a strong approach doesn’t mean spreading yourself too thin across platforms that don’t host your current or target audiences. But, using more than one is still necessary. So determine which few channels are most popular with your audience, and get yourself on them!
- Be mobile-friendly
This one is huge and only becoming more and more important. Last week, we pointed out that more than 80% of the world’s population owns a smartphone. That’s akin to about 6.4 billion people. With those metrics, we can see why it’s so important to be mobile friendly — even Google started ranking mobile-friendly stuff higher!
- Segment your audience
Segmenting your audience will help you create messaging that’s more meaningful to a specific demographic. Without segmenting, content can often become flat and uninteresting because you’re trying to appeal to a variety of demographics all at once — this rarely produces meaningful results.
So, it’s time to step your omnichannel game up! It can be a daunting task, but we’re always here to help if you find yourself needing an extra hand.