In traditional forms of advertising, brands have been at the center of the model, showcasing products and offerings that hopefully appealed to their audience. As the power of the consumer continues to grow, this model needs (and has already begun) to change. Implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy does just this. Omnichannel marketing puts the consumer at the center of the buying journey. Brands utilize key data points and tactics to showcase products and offers that appeal to that specific audience, throughout their entire buying journey.
80% of consumers expect, want, and prioritize brands who put them at the forefront of their shopping experience. Whether they are interacting with your brand in-store, online, on mobile devices, on social media or via emails & messaging brands should work to create a seamless, connected, customer-centric experience.
However, with the variety of different channels and shopping preferences that consumers have, it can seem overwhelming to narrow down where to start or which ones are essential to implement now. We’ve narrowed down the list for you. Below you’ll find four leading-edge omnichannel marketing strategy tips to help propel your brand’s goals forward.
1. Make Sure Your Mobile Friendly
Mobile, mobile, mobile. It’s been a trending buzzword in the industry for the last few years. But, for good reason. American consumers spend upwards of 5 hours on their phone everyday and when you look at younger shoppers, that jumps up to 6 hours. The importance of advertising on mobile is clear, consumers are spending more and more time on these devices, browsing, watching video and shopping. Ensuring that you have mobile-friendly assets when launching a campaign is essential, however there are other great benefits your brand can take advantage of when investing in mobile.
- Zip code targeting: Using consumer location data, you can use timely advertisements when consumers are within a certain radius of your store to drive in-store traffic. You can also offer specific in-store promos/coupons when you know they are within a certain vicinity of your store. This is an near perfect way of meeting your customer where they are in the buying journey
- App ownership: You can create audiences based on app ownership behaviors paired with other demographic and pshycgorhpic insights you already have about your audiences. The more information you have about your consumer, the more personalized their shopping experience!
2. Like, Comment, Share: The Power of Social Media
Tied directly to the importance of mobile advertising is social media advertising. During that 5 hour window that consumers are on their phone, about half of it is spent scrolling through social media. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, Snachat, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterst, consumers expect brands to have a social media presence. 70% of social media users visit a brand’s page to gain information and 49% of consumers will make a purchase decision based on their information you have.
Consumers use social media as a tool to explore, learn new information, read peer and influencer reviews, discover new products, and even make purchases. All of this makes it a great channel to incorporate into your omnichannel marketing strategy as you have a captive audience ready and willing to explore new brands, products or services. Use this opportunity to hone in on personalized ads. Target certain audiences with interest-based, intent-based or even shoppable ads ads on their social media platform you know they are more active on. All of this personalization increases your brand perception and in turn, sales.
Interested in seeing a real-world brand put the power of social media advertising to use? Read about Popcorner’s used Facebook in their recent product launch here.
3. Add to Cart: In-Store Attribution
Online shopping is another hot industry buzzword that, not surprisingly, has garnered even more attention as coronavirus-related stay at home orders continue into the later half of the year. 63% of shopping occasions begin online. Clearly people begin researching and browning online, but when it comes time to make a decision, e-commerce sales account for about 14% of all sales. These numbers show us the importance of both an online and in-store consumers experience (also known as an omnichannel marketing strategy).
If your digital advertising campaigns are working and drawing customers to your store to make a purchase, that data will be lost without an offline tool to track and correlate in-store purchases with your digital advertisements. In-store attribution measures campaigns’ impact on real-world store visits using mobile and offline location data for attribution. This strategy is essential to tie your entire campaign together.
4. Not Playing Around: The Growth of Video Games
Gaming is one of the fastest growing entertainment industries in the United States and just like online shopping, it’s seeing dramatic increases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic – Microsoft reported a 130% increase in multiplayer engagement across March and April of this year. Between apps, consoles or computer games, about ¾ of Americans households have a video gamer in their home.
With this growing audience, digital advertising tactics continue to expand in order to target this group of people. Below are some examples of how you can reach and interact with this group to continue your brand’s conversation with consumers:
- In-App: Target relevant audiences by app or by type of app.
- Consoles: Similar to Connected TV, reach cord-cutting audiences who have opted to use their gaming console as a television. Using video ads you can reach this audience as they browse and watch television on Wii, Playstation, and XBox.
Understanding your audience: the key to an omnichannel marketing strategy
All of these strategies have one thing in common: they all are used in an effort to better reach and interact with your consumers. That is the #1 tip to keep in mind for any successful omnichannel marketing strategy: understand your consumer. As advertisers it can be overwhelming to keep up with the different channels and tactics emerging on what seems like a weekly basis. But, if you keep the question in the back of your mind “will this help me better understand and target my audience?” it can help you stay on track with your business goals.
Uncovering and implementing audience information and insights will elevate any omnichannel marketing. Find a partner who can do just this and take your campaign to the next level. At Digilant we rely on consumer insights, campaign performance benchmarks, and data-driven strategy to push your campaign to the next level. Interested in learning more about how our data-driven approach can help uncover your audience insights? Let’s Talk