Think of an omni-channel marketing strategy as the supercharged version of integrated marketing.

What is an omni-channel marketing strategy?

Omni-channel marketing refers to the concept of providing a seamless user experience across all channels relevant to the buyer’s journey. The term emphasizes a shift in the way people progress through the marketing funnel.

In the US, 213 million adults access the internet with an average of 4 different devices. They’re more connected, and they have more control over the buying process than ever before.

What used to be a one or two-stop shop is now a journey that spans days, times, locations, and channels. And those channels aren’t strictly digital ones. They can be a direct mailer, newspapers or magazines or catalogs in the mail. They can be your storefront, word of mouth, or an outbound ad like a billboard.

For example, a customer can be browsing your website online from a desktop or mobile device, calling your office by phone, getting a tide card in the mail or walking into your Dealership and the message and sales experience will be seamless.

When customers can interact with a brand anytime / anywhere, how is your Dealership preparing to accommodate them?

This Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy Checklist covers strategies you should consider for lead generation and customer acquisition.

Improving search marketing

When a prospect uses Google to search on your company name or product, a paid search ad should pop up and direct them to your website or landing page. Make sure you have an easy-to-click phone icon for prospects to call if they want immediate gratification.

Retargeting

When a prospect interacts with content on a media site or searches on a specific term, a sequence of follow-up ads, known as retargeting, should show up as they visit other sites.  Many people refer to this as “stalking” a prospect. For example, if you’ve ever clicked on an ad for shoes on-line, you know you will see other ads for shoes every time you open up your Facebook. You can even take this a step further and incorporate your open leads in your google remarketing strategy.

Crafting a response strategy

When a prospect subscribes to an email newsletter or calls into your dealership  to ask about a service, you should have a response strategy in place. This might include using a sequence of email, direct mail and follow up phone calls to start to develop rapport and educate the customer about the brand or product.  Bottom line, you are looking to generate a sale and you have to start somewhere. Don’t forget to cue in your receptionist. This is vital when you have a promotion going on. Nothing is worse than wasting valuable resources if you don’t have a system in place to handle the response.

Following up on customer interest  

With an omni-channel marketing strategy, when a prospect clicks on a link in an email or interacts with content on a site, you have a plan in place to interact with them. Is there an automated system that triggers email, direct mail or a phone reminder about what they were looking at?

Reducing attrition

When a shopper abandons their shopping cart, you need to have a combination of communications to win them back in place. For example, someone who was looking at the page for Schedule a Water Test on-line and dropped off should get a follow-up email to remind them about the benefits of getting that water test done asap, with a link to going back in.

Creating frequency rules

It’s important that messages stay relevant and don’t become intrusive. Nothing gets people angrier than too many emails cluttering up their inboxes. You need to create rules for the maximum number of emails that are sent in a given period (one a month or one a week) and the interval between them (for example, at least 4 days).

Selecting the right channels

This means using the best channel(s) for the customer, which fits their
preferences and the right channel for your company, which gives you the best combination of cost and response.  It means that for some customers you focus on email communications because they interact and respond to them. But other customers may absolutely not respond to email which means direct mail may be the best choice to communicate with them.

Reviewing and improving channel sequence

How are prospects and customers moving from channel to channel?  When prospects progress through the sales funnel, what channels are they going first? You can actually find these things out using your google analytics.

Making the right offer

An omni-channel marketing strategy offer will vary in effectiveness according to the target audience and the media channel. A direct mail offer may be way different than an on-line offer. Test different offers that deliver the right message and make someone want to respond. Don’t be cheap. People know the difference between a so-so offer and a valuable one. Limited time offers work best. If an offer is indefinitely valuable, prospects will save it for later and then forget about it.

This article was printed in the January, 2019 issue of Water Conditioning Products magazine