Square BrandVoice: 6 Tips for Omnichannel Marketing Success

Shopping habits are rapidly evolving as the penetration of digital technology increasingly blurs the line between virtual and real-world experiences. In fact, today’s consumers peruse up to 10 sources of information before making a decision. And 42% of in-store shoppers search for information online at the same time as browsing in-store.

As consumers bounce across your marketing channels, perhaps starting on your Instagram page before heading to your website and then maybe to your brick-and-mortar store, there’s a huge opportunity for you to create a rich, personalized experience that results in seamless transitions. This is omnichannel marketing.

READ MORE: Omnichannel Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Retailers

What is omnichannel marketing?

Have you ever received an SMS message about a company promotion while you’re in the company’s store? Or chatted with a company’s customer representative on Facebook to get product recommendations and then made a purchase on their website? These are examples of omnichannel marketing, where the customer enjoys a seamless brand experience, no matter what buying method they’re using.

How is it different from multi-channel marketing?

Unlike omnichannel marketing, multi-channel marketing views each touchpoint and channel as separate and independent. You might be using multiple channels to promote your brand and engage with your customers, but you aren’t necessarily knitting these together. This means each channel might have its own strategy, goals, and metrics that are not connected to the others.

On the other hand, omnichannel marketing uses multiple marketing channels to deliver a frictionless customer experience. For example, a coffee company can run its awards program through its mobile order app, but consumers can also access this information and add money to their account via multiple channels, such as the company’s website and in-store locations.

What are the benefits of omnichannel marketing?

The data suggests that omnichannel marketing works. Brands with an omnichannel strategy typically experience greater customer engagement and retention, as well as an increase in purchase frequency and average order value. Omnichannel shoppers spend somewhere between 50 and 300% more than traditional shoppers, according to Worldpay research. The purchase rate of omnichannel campaigns is 287% higher than single-channel campaigns. And businesses that use omnichannel strategies achieve 91% greater year-on-year customer retention.

6 tips for omnichannel success

Know your customers intimately

To have a successful omnichannel strategy, take the time to understand your customers. You need to know who they are, where they’re from, their goals and challenges, the devices they use most, the content they love, and on which channels they spend most of their time. Use social media listening to acquire this data, as well as customer feedback and analytics tools, and get insights from store employees who interact with customers. Understand your repeat customers’ buying habits, which can help you determine which channels are most impactful. 

Upgrade your tech

Upgrading your tech can actually help you understand your customers better. Consider integrating your systems and software on the back end, so you can manage your channels through one point of sale system (POS), such as Square. This will give you a more holistic view of your business and provide you with the insights you need, all in one place. For example, you can easily manage inventory across platforms, allowing customers to find the same items whether they are in store or online. You’ll also be able to track customers across different touchpoints and provide them with conveniences like remembering their passwords, storing payment information, and suggesting relevant products to create a frictionless experience.

READ MORE: Tips to Help Your Team Provide a Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Optimize your content

Curate engaging and personalized content that supports customers at each stage of their buying journey, from identifying and understanding a need to researching solutions, comparing products, and making a decision. Create a range of content that fulfills each of these needs; for example, a fun video showcasing your product on Tik Tok, case studies and product comparison guides, and reviews and how-to guides for your company’s products and services.

You also need to ensure your content is optimized for the channel and device it’s being consumed on, whether that’s Facebook or Instagram, desktop, or mobile devices.

Engage with your customers

Customer relationship management software, such as Square Customer Engagement, centralizes your data from every customer interaction for multiple teams to access and use. This allows you to send relevant email marketing campaigns, respond to feedback from customers, and run your own customized loyalty program. Your business can maintain consistent, personalized messaging with customers on whatever channel they reach you on. 

You can also automate marketing and email campaigns to share specific content with people when certain triggers are activated. For example, welcome emails that are triggered after someone joins your subscriber list, special offer emails that are automatically sent to customers on their birthday, or abandoned cart emails that remind customers their items are waiting for them. 

READ MORE: 5 Marketing Emails That Drive Sales

Choose your channels

If you’re new to omnichannel marketing, start small. Select up to three channels and focus on a specific campaign over a defined time period. Focus your efforts on the channels and touchpoints where your customers and prospects spend the most time. For example, if your customers use Facebook much more than Twitter and opt for mobile shopping rather than desktop shopping, build a robust omnichannel strategy for those outlets before expanding to other channels.

Another great way to start delighting your customers is by providing support across your channels, for example, email support coupled with an online chat widget, in-app chat, and social media messaging.

Measure your results

You can’t improve and evolve your strategy without tracking its performance. Test, iterate, measure your results, ask your customers for feedback, and then use your learnings to scale and grow your strategy. Choose your metrics and methods of measuring before you begin. Your metrics might include customer retention, average order value, conversion rate, social media engagement, email opens, and churn rate. Bring various business functions together, including product, sales, and customer service, to make sure they communicate with each other. Set key performance indicators with milestones, and establish team roles and expectations so you’re all working toward the same goal. Regularly monitoring—and communicating about—your efforts will allow you to know where you’re succeeding and where you need to evolve.

Square has the tools to run your business — even when it’s not business as usual. To help businesses make the shifts they need, we partnered with Forbes to assemble a team of expert advisors. By sharing firsthand experience, our advisors are helping businesses build skills and plan for what’s next. See how Square works, and learn more about the Small Business Advisory Team.