This can be from desktop, to mobile to physical stores, the customer has a seamless journey with a company. Here are some simple steps to achieve perfect omni-channel marketing.
Test, Test, Test
It is important when first introducing an omni-channel experience into the brand that the potential online interactions with your brand are tested time and time again to ensure that the experience is as easy and unified as expected: you can do this by putting yourself in the position of a customer. Thoroughly testing via trial purchasing, customer service availability and the way the channels connect with each other will help you identify any road blocks in the system that may be slowing the process and need rectifying. Once internal tests have been conducted and everyone is happy with the results, hire a secret shopper to test it out, this will give a non-biased perspective of the customer experience and give genuine feedback.
Implement Call Tracking
Call tracking allows a brand to join the dots when it comes to omni-channel marketing, connecting offline and online experiences. If a person a visited a brand’s social media account, moved to the website and then called the company as a result, call tracking can trace this customer journey, allowing marketers to attribute conversions to certain activity and platforms. This can help distribute budgets accordingly.
Call tracking, provided by companies such as Mediahawk, can give an insight into the customer’s journey on a new level. For example, it can tell you which marketing campaign can be attributed to the call, what keyword, Google Click ID for paid search campaigns and the landing page the call originated from. Access to this data gives more depth to the customer experience and even more consumer knowledge for your marketing team.
Gentle Nudging
Sometimes people begin the purchasing process and abandon their cart, this may be because they changed their mind, became busy, or were simply distracted. Omni-channel marketing should offer the option for the buyer’s cart to appear with the same items on desktop, apps and mobile, for example, if you add something to your basket on a desktop computer and abandon, your cart should update in real-time and the items should appear in your cart on the app. Allowing you to complete your purchase anytime, anywhere.
This approach is one that many companies are now making standard as part of their online shopping experience; however, some companies take this to the next step and integrate the user’s cart with their social experience using social media re-marketing, which consists of cleverly placed ads featuring the items from the cart, usually accompanied by a message such as ‘Don’t forget about us’.
This can often give the buyer the nudge they need to complete their transaction, getting their attention at a time where they are not pre-occupied, when they are on social for instance and allows them to re-focus on their shopping experience without distraction.
Be consistent
Omni-channel marketing only works if there is consistency in the messages you are putting out across all platforms. If you have sent a newsletter with an offer, make sure people in store have been told about the offer, actively encourage customer to sign up and the same on social platforms and on push notifications on the app. If you send out an exclusive newsletter offer, and then have a different one on social and another in store, you are not incentivising any newsletter sign ups which will adversely affect the data you can collect.
Bear in mind though that bombarding customers with too many offers is likely to have a negative impact where one consistent message across all platforms will help create an integrated omni-channel marketing strategy.
Examples of companies doing it right
Disney
Disney has mastered the omni-channel customer experience, from their impressive website to visiting their parks, everything Disney is integrated to give the ultimate, stress-free experience.
Disney introduced their Magicbands which are wristbands that allow access to your Disney resort hotel room, acts as your fast pass, enables you to save photos from rides and even acts as a mobile payment device. This Magicband system effectively keeps you interacting with Disney the whole time you are in their theme park and when you leave they follow up by emailing your ride photos and upcoming events.
This, with their online ‘My Disney Experience’ tool, integrates mobile, web and physical visits like no company has before.
Boots
Boots introduced their advantage card in 1997 simply as a ‘spend to collect points’ loyalty card. Although the premise for the card is still the same, they have expanded the idea as digital has grown.
Boots now award points for both online and offline purchases, the system being in sync and updating in real time. You can also pay by points both online and offline in store and, not only that, you can enter your card into machines in physical stores to print vouchers for daily/weekly offers.
The Boots newsletter also informs advantage card holders of double/triple point award days and discounts based upon the customer’s purchase history, persuading them to make immediate purchases.
By Natalia Selby, Marketing coordinator at Mediahawk
