HOW TO BUILD AN OMNICHANNEL MARKETING STRATEGY

Summary

Synopsis:

The fundamentals of omnichannel marketing
How to build a high-performance omnichannel strategy in four parts
Best practices to follow to get the most out of your marketing channels

Building an omnichannel marketing strategy is key to keeping up with the evolving and challenging marketing landscape of 2023. More and more B2B companies both large and small are developing integrated experiences for their clients across all types of digital channels.

Companies driving omnichannel experiences are generating positive outcomes. One such outcome was revealed by a 2019 study by Omnisend, which showed that omnichannel campaigns had a client engagement rate of 18.96%. In stark contrast, single-channel campaigns had an engagement rate of just 5.4%.

Additionally (and according to the same study), clients who experience an omnichannel marketing campaign also spend more (up to 13% more, in fact) than those who only engage with one channel.

WHAT IS OMNICHANNEL MARKETING?

Omnichannel marketing is a strategy in which a business curates a cohesive and personalised experience across multiple channels. These channels can include the company website, apps, email, social media accounts, and more.

Below is a 4-step breakdown of how to build an omnichannel strategy, beginning with understanding your target audience.

Part 1:

Understanding your target audience

Step 1: Learn data types

Specific types of data exist to help marketers identify and understand their target audience and Ideal Client Profile (ICP). They include:

Firmographics: Firmographics examine metrics such as the type of industry, the size of the organisation, their revenue, and more. B2B marketers use firmographics to inform campaigns directed at high-value accounts (such as via Account Based Marketing).

Demographics: Demographics include data points on a person including their age, race, gender, income, education level, and occupation. This information aids marketers in identifying the channels and messaging that will be most effective with their target audience and select accounts.

Psychographics: Psychographics include personality traits, morals/values, preferences, and personal interests. This information allows marketers to establish stronger, more personable relationships.

Behavioural data: Behavioural data tracks how leads interact with an organisation. This type of data informs a variety of important omnichannel marketing decisions, such as the timing of seasonal advertisements, the type of content published on social media, and other metrics influenced by buyer habits and intent.

Geographic data: Different regions come with unique economic and cultural trends. As such, they represent opportunities for driving engagement with custom-tailored, omnichannel marketing that resonates with these buyers’ local needs and preferences.

guide

Read the Definitive Guide to B2B Market Segmentation for more detail on methods to leverage data for omnichannel strategies

Step 2: Identify user preferences

Understanding target audiences requires the collection of client data and preferences across the data sets described in the previous section. Below are the most common ways of identifying user preferences:

Social listening: Social listening and keyword monitoring tools (such as Google Alerts) provide insights into the discussions of your target audience and can inform strategies to capitalise on trends and update offerings to align with new buyer expectations.

Surveys and focus groups: Surveys and focus groups can identify needs, pain points, and desires related to the brand that are not quantifiable by software and can not be found elsewhere.

Step 3: Analyse user behaviour across channels

Different analytical tools can be leveraged to track user behaviour and inform omnichannel strategies:

Client journey mapping: Client journey mapping involves tracking how a client makes their 'journey' to buying a B2B service. Each step on the journey where they interact with the business in some way is called a touchpoint.

Learning how clients navigate these touchpoints reveals valuable information about them and can lead to an improvement in their brand experience across channels.

Cross-channel analysis: Cross-channel analysis is a strategy that marketers often use to determine how clients behave differently on marketing channels. Knowing this behavioural data helps marketers identify opportunities for guiding the client across channels toward a specific action, such as subscribing to an email newsletter, or talking with a salesperson.

Step 4: Create buyer personas

Marketers use buyer personas to tailor omnichannel strategies that resonate with the needs of their ICPs. Developing personas for different niches helps inform individual campaigns which drive better outcomes in terms of engagement and conversions.

Part 2:

Creating an integrated marketing plan

After identifying the target audience and developing client personas, start building an integrated marketing plan. This plan involves communicating a unified brand identity across all marketing channels.

Step 1: Identify relevant marketing channels

Use the data collected on the target audience and buyer personas, as well as cross-channel analytics and client journey maps, to find which channels the target audience utilises the most.

Moreover, define which channels provide the most meaningful engagement in terms of resulting in desired user actions for the business, such as evaluating solutions for their pain points.

Step 2: Align messaging and branding across channels

The next step is to align messaging and branding across all marketing channels, as follows:

Visual branding: Visual consistency is key when it comes to branding. Uniform visual branding across channels results in a much smoother omnichannel experience.

Brand voice: Maintain a brand voice across channels, which delivers the same brand values to audiences no matter which channel they are on. However, make sure to adapt tone accordingly as needed, so information is contextually relevant and engaging. For example, messaging through an email should differ from the language used in an Instagram post.

Step 3: Create relevant content for all channels

There are two elements within content creation that B2B marketers should prioritise: strategy and distribution.

Content strategy: Content strategy is the thinking and roadmap B2B companies apply to promote their solutions and gain market share through content marketing efforts. Developing a unique strategy is crucial to ensure content is relevant to the brand’s audience.

Content distribution: The distribution of content through channels is crucial to the success of the marketing strategy. Therefore, make sure to promote content on channels where it will be most relevant to your audience, as well as consider user expectations when receiving this content (such as timing, format, etc.).

Step 4: Establish a single view of the client

A single client view (SCV) is a tool that shows how each client interacts with various marketing channels during their journey. SCV is useful because it helps marketers develop strategies based on where, how, and when the target audience engages with the brand.

Marketers typically use one of two methods to generate an SCV: a client data platform or integration with marketing automation tools.

A client data platform (CDP) is a program that acts as a repository for the target audience’s demographic and psychographic data, pulled from other marketing management software. Marketing automation programs have the capacity to automate tedious and time-consuming tasks as well as orchestrate user information on buyers from a client relationship management (CRM) system.

By integrating marketing automation tools with other software, such as a CDP, B2B marketing teams can create a more comprehensive SCV to drive outcomes with omnichannel strategies

Part 3:

Optimising the client journey

With an integrated marketing plan in place, focus on optimising the client journey through the sales funnel.

Step 1: Understand the role of each channel

Each channel has a specific role to play in the separate steps of the client journey. Understanding those roles and how to orchestrate channels into a seamless omnichannel experience will enable a B2B brand to use all its marketing channels to the fullest effect.

Implement channel-specific tactics to obtain results, such as blogging to drive SEO traffic and thought leadership via content syndication to drive long-term demand for the organisation.

Step 2: Develop a seamless user and client experience (UX and CX)

Sustain an engaging and relevant brand experience across channels with UX and CX best practices:

User experience (UX) design: Ensure that the design of all channels is intuitive for the user. This way, they have a pleasant experience and are more likely to utilise brand services.

CX also goes in hand with UX, ensuring that the experience clients have through the brand is relevant, enjoyable, and achieves their goals. Building an internal Client Success team is crucial for driving CX efforts.

Mobile optimisation: More buyers are expected to use a mobile device to research and make purchases in 2023 than ever before. Therefore it is imperative to fully optimise all channels to ensure your content is accessible on mobile devices.

Step 3: Personalise messaging

Basic personalisation strategies include addressing each client by their first name in email outreach, sending them discounts on their birthday, and making individualised product recommendations. Leverage client data such as their name, date of birth, and purchase history to make these strategies more effective.

However, to address evolving buyer demands for personalisation, it is crucial to drive more sophisticated personalisation efforts, such as targeting at an account level through an Account Based Experience (ABX).

Part 4:

Measuring and evaluating success

Follow the next steps to ensure your omnichannel strategy utilises resources in a cost-effective manner:

Step 1: Define key performance indicators (KPIs)

You should track several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for omnichannel, including:

Channel engagement metrics such as views, clicks, follows, comments, bounce rate, and time spent on a webpage
Click-through rate (CTR)
Conversion rate
Return on advertising spend (ROAS)
Return on investment (ROI)

Step 2: Track user interactions

Track interactions across channels and compare them to before the implementation of the omnichannel strategy. One way to achieve this is through cross-channel attribution and performance data via surveys, analytics platforms, and social media metrics.

Step 3: Analyse data and identify opportunities

Identify pitfalls in the omnichannel strategy, such as lower-performing channels and content topics, to create new opportunities to enhance user engagement. By consistently tracking KPIs, changes can be implemented on a regular basis (such as quarterly) to drive better outcomes via omnichannel strategies.

CONCLUSION

Building an omnichannel marketing strategy requires constant optimisation to determine what is most relevant to your target audience.

By continuously tracking the performance of omnichannel content, and ensuring a relevant user experience, brands can drive better results with their omnichannel strategies and drive a stable pipeline of sales opportunities.

About the Author

Alise Zaiceva

Alise Zaiceva is a content marketing specialist at website monetisation platform Setupad. She is passionate about content and helping publishers scale their businesses through powerful digital marketing strategies.