Looking in the rearview mirror cannot predict the future, but it sure can help navigate the journey ahead more smoothly and successfully.
Just a short few years ago, I remember that all the cool Marketers were Multichannel gurus. The more channels that carried the brand message the better. The goal was to address consumers in as many different ways as possible while keeping your fingers crossed that each channel carried the most recent message/logo updates with the hope of reaching those revenue growth goals.
We have traveled much further down that road and now Omnichannel strategy is all the rage and, in my opinion, vital to any brand’s success and evolution.
Omnichannel shifts strategy from building brand equity to focusing on customer equity over a customer’s lifetime. When the customer becomes the center of a brand’s universe instead of products, charting a course for growth closely tracks the customer’s evolution.
While multichannel marketing involves multiple silos with each carrying its own message, Omnichannel is an actual ecosystem that follows the customer through each phase of the engagement and purchasing process.
Said another way: Multichannel is “omnipresent.” Omnichannel is “omnipotent.”
The top five trends I have seen in Omnichannel marketing are:
𝟏. 𝟗𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝟑 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤 (Google Research)
𝟐. 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝟗𝟎% 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐯𝐬. 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 (Omnisend)
𝟑. 𝟗𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬 (SDL)
𝟒. 𝐎𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝟑𝟎% 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 (Think with Google)
𝟓. 𝟕𝟕% 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬 (Aberdeen Group)
Omnichannel marketing extends the customer journey significantly and makes it stickier.
This new “omnipotent” customer journey begins earlier in the process with insights and data and does not end with a purchase. Instead, it attempts to connect with prospects and collects consumer behavior at each step of the first purchase journey.
The journey is now and experience focusing on customer metrics dovetailed with financial metrics to guide decisions focused on building customer equity to support and promote growth.
What trends have you seen in your own organization as you grow? Is your model transforming from a focus on revenue growth to building customer equity?