Marketing is an industry full of buzzwords, and at first glance the terms multichannel and omnichannel marketing seem to be describing the same thing. Both involve reaching out to customers in a variety of ways, and both involve monitoring touchpoints. Marketers need to know what those differences are so that they can decide which goal to shoot for.
What is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing?
Multichannel marketing involves communicating with customers across multiple platforms and channels. It increases brand presence and gives customers the ability to choose their own favoured method of interacting and engaging with a brand. Perhaps social media ads resonate better with your target demographic, or maybe radio ads could reach a fresh audience in a new way. Utilizing multiple marketing channels is beneficial, especially because 98% of Americans switch between devices multiple times in a day. A consistent multichannel experience maximizes brand awareness while also making it easier for customers to reach out to the brand when they’re ready to buy.
Omnichannel marketing is multichannel marketing taken to the next level, by creating a consistent and cohesive customer experience across all channels and types of engagement. It covers every possible interaction with the customer across all channels, from pre-sales to post-sales and everything in between.
Omnichannel marketing means that every single touch point with the customer has to seamlessly fit together to generate a personalized experience. Customers should feel comfortable and familiar interacting with your brand whether it's on social media, through a landing page or though an outreach email.
Benefits of omnichannel marketing
If omnichannel marketing sounds like it’s a lot of work, that’s because it is. Maintaining that level of consistency across multiple channels, platforms and teams is extremely difficult. 61% of customers can’t easily switch from one channel to another when dealing with customer service. Most companies simply don’t have the infrastructure or process required to make omnichannel work.
But the payoffs are enormous when it does work. Businesses that successfully adopt omnichannel marketing strategies achieve 91% greater year-over-year retention rates over those that don’t. Customers that can access a brand through multiple channels are more likely to trust, recommend and use a brand over time than traditional campaigns.
Take your first step towards omnichannel marketing
Tackling omnichannel marketing involves multiple technologies and integrations, it's common to feel overwhelmed when trying to create and manage a consistent brand experience over multiple channels for the first time. The easiest way is to start small, one step at a time and slowly modernize your marketing strategy.
We recommend focusing on one area first, then move on to others once you’ve established a standard of quality. This “pioneering stage” so to speak will have the greatest impact on your campaign. For most businesses this usually starts with modernizing your customer service experience.
Customer service is the thorniest part of the omnichannel marketing experience because it has the most impact on a customer’s happiness, and yet is the most difficult to get consistent. Disconnected systems and uncoordinated databases break up the flow of a support call and force customers to grudgingly repeat the same information, such as when their call is transferred around various departments or from one agent to another.
A proper call management and tracking system helps solve these problems by:
- Coordinating omnichannel information between marketing, sales and customer support
- Alerting call center agents as to the nature of the call prior to actually starting the conversation
- Carrying over call data from various channels to create a personalized experience
- Retrieve information from a previous call or engagement to prepare call agents prior to connecting.
- Using detailed call metrics to create accurate marketing insights
Retreaver’s call tracking platform makes it easy to transition into an omnichannel experience for your customers. Get started on your omnichannel marketing strategy by improving your contact center performance and provide valuable metrics for your marketing and sales departments.