Omnichannel Marketing 101: Master Unified Strategies

Reading Time: 18 minutes

Picture this scenario.

A customer sees a Facebook banner showing your latest running shoe release. They click it and are sent to your e-commerce site, where they add the shoe to their cart.

However, they decided they wanted to try it in person first. They check your site to find which store the shoe is available in. Once they go there, they like the shoe and purchase it. Using your mobile app and your loyalty program, they receive points for the purchase.

When they come home, they receive a thank-you email for the shoe they bought. Much later, they’ll receive an email reminding them that they can use their collected points to get exclusive items and discounts.

Want to know what all of that was? That, my friend, is omnichannel marketing.

Omnichannel marketing is not just a buzzword that marketers say. It’s a powerful strategy that provides customers with a seamless, satisfying experience whether they encounter your brand online or offline.

This article will teach you everything you need to know about omnichannel marketing and guide you on how to build a successful strategy for your own business—from optimizing your website and polishing your in-store display to subtly incorporating your branding and logo design to make your business more recognizable to your customers’ eyes.

Let’s get started!

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omni is the Latin word for “all.” It means everywhere or everything.

That is also the exact meaning of omnichannel marketing. It’s a strategy that integrates all your online and offline channels to provide customers with a unified and positive shopping experience.

Whether they clicked on your Instagram ad, browsed your website, saw your poster, or messaged your customer support, they should get the same positive experience.

But how can you ensure this? The answer is through data.

A brand can collect data from a customer’s digital footprint, such as previous interactions with your site, items they’ve purchased, what type of email they click, sites they usually visit, and so on. They can also collect data from market research, social listening, surveys, events, or in-store interactions with staff.

You can then use this data to ensure that all your channels work harmoniously together and that you are there for your customers wherever they are in their buying journey.

That is omnichannel marketing in a nutshell.

What are the benefits of omnichannel marketing?

The key benefits of omnichannel marketing are:

Personalized Experience—Personalization is when brands provide customers with tailored suggestions and experiences based on their data and preferences. For example, food delivery apps suggest fries to go along with your burger, or social media ads show you workout leggings after you search for a workout top.

Omnichannel marketing leverages your data so it can easily provide personalized content that will make your customers feel more valued and catered to.

Consistency – Omnichannel marketing makes it easier for your brand to be consistent whether your customers switch between devices or go from online to your physical store.

Increased Brand Loyalty – Turning your customers into repeat buyers is now easier with this strategy. This is because you can target them based on their previous purchases with loyalty points, discounts, vouchers, exclusive access, etc.

Higher Brand Awareness – According to studies, it takes 5-7 interactions before a person remembers your brand. Being present in multiple channels can easily get you the interactions you need, leading to higher brand recognition and recall.

Smarter and More Efficient Targeting – You can easily spot which channels are more effective for you and which one needs work. You can then adjust your strategies accordingly. You can also see if a particular channel is more efficient for a particular customer and focus all your efforts there, which can lead to higher conversions.

How To Create an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

A successful omnichannel marketing strategy can be done by following these steps:

Step 1: Know your customer’s journey

Your customers won’t just wake up one day and decide that they love your product.

Instead, they go through different stages of awareness and consideration before they even buy it. Even after purchasing, there are still stages that will make them decide if they will purchase from you again.

This is called a customer journey.

Unlike a buyer’s journey that solely focuses on getting a sale, the customer journey is all about retention and turning a buyer into a loyal customer.

It’s divided into different stages:

Awareness – This stage is when a customer becomes aware of a problem or pain point they have. Thus, they will do research to solve it, whether via Google, social media, articles, and so on.
Consideration – Customers are now actively evaluating and comparing solutions.
Decision – Customers are now ready to buy. You can encourage them to choose you by giving discounts, special offers, free products after signing up, etc.
Retention – At this post-purchase stage, you should incentivize customers to return to you. Brands can send out thank you emails, give discounts for their next purchase, have stellar customer support, or provide an extensive knowledge base about their products in case a customer runs into an issue.
Loyalty – This stage is about turning a customer into a loyal advocate for your brand. Brands can do so by continuously providing excellent products and services, having loyalty or rewards programs, creating a referral program, or providing discounts for continued purchases.

Knowing the different stages and how a customer will act at each stage can help you create a more tailored strategy. This can also help you identify the touchpoints where you can interact with a customer.

Step 2: Create a customer journey map

The next step is to map out your customer journey.

After seeing your brand, what do they do? Do they research further or go immediately to purchase on your site? Do they immediately buy after getting a free sample in-store? After buying, do they follow you on social media or sign up for your email newsletter?

This can help you get a more visual representation. It can also help you identify potential roadblocks or potential deviations.

For example, Customer A might be indecisive. They might put something in their cart and forget it once they see a different brand. Sending them cart abandonment emails or leveraging scarcity marketing might effectively engage them again.

Customer B, on the other hand, might be a more thorough shopper. Instead of giving them discounts and sales offers, sending them informative articles or in-depth guides might be more helpful in retaining their loyalty.

Step 3: Identify all your channels

Next is to identify the channels that your brand would ideally use.

It’s a misconception that you should be present in every channel available. It’s better to find where your customers are and focus your efforts there instead of trying to be everywhere.

Knowing this can help you get better engagement and higher conversion. It will also dictate what type of strategies you will use.

For instance, you may find that your customers are active on LinkedIn. Therefore, running LinkedIn ads might help you reach them.

Some of them might prefer buying in-store rather than through e-commerce sites. That means running more in-store events or doing more interactive displays.

While some might exclusively shop online, this means running more digital campaigns, sending out emails for vouchers and sales, and focusing on improving your website’s UX.

Step 4: Collect and analyze data

Aside from knowing where your customers are, it’s also important to know their preferences, behaviors, goals, and pain points.

You can do this through data.

You won’t have much customer data if you’re a new brand. You can rely on market research, competitor analysis, keyword research, product research, and social listening to determine what your customers want.

If your brand has been operating for a while, you have more data to work on. You can check out analytics for each platform to see how customers respond to you.

Some examples include checking your social media to see what kind of content performs well, checking your website’s bounce rate or where your traffic comes from, studying heatmaps to create a better website layout, knowing your mobile app’s retention rate, and so on.

You can also run through your current channels to see a customer experience firsthand. For instance, you can check your website. Scroll through it. Do you find it easy to find a product? Are your order forms too long? Is it easy to talk to your chatbot? Etc.

Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes can help you better understand what to improve.

Step 5: Make sure all your teams are on the same page

Omnichannel marketing is all about creating a unified experience.

However, most teams are typically siloed. Email marketing will only focus on email marketing, and vice versa.

Make sure everyone – from your marketing directors to graphic artists to retail staff – understands your goals and the message you want to put out.

To make this easier, you can create a brand guide, style guide, or a wiki that all teams can refer to. This should help them know if their actions adhere to the message that your brand wants to put out.

Again, you can also go through your channels yourself. This time, it’s to see if the experience is the same throughout. Do your social media ads follow the same brand voice as your emails? Is your website design cohesive with your in-store flyers? Are your retail staff promoting the same product on your website ads? You can easily adjust or provide feedback when you go through the customer journey.

Step 6: Test and optimize

Your omnichannel marketing strategy is not just one-and-done. It needs to evolve and adapt to your customer’s ever-changing needs continuously.

Make sure to continuously monitor your analytics to see if there are any improvements or changes you can make. Running surveys from time to time (but more especially if you just released a new product or if you made any changes) can help you get customer’s insights.

A/B testing should also be done as much as you can. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the process of sending out two similar versions of something to see which one your customers will like better. For example, a red CTA button might be more effective than a yellow one.

Doing all of these tests can help you optimize your strategy for maximum engagement and conversion.

Online Omnichannel Marketing Strategies You Can Do

Let’s head on to the different channels that you can include in your omnichannel marketing strategy. To make it easier to understand, we divided them into online and offline channels.

Let’s start with the online marketing strategies:

Website

Your website is crucial for omnichannel marketing as it serves as your central touchpoint for all things online.

Think of your website as your main office or a physical store. It’s where customers will go if they need information, want to contact you, know your product offerings, or if they’re going to purchase something.

Simply having a website is not enough, however. You’ll also need to provide a great user experience for your customers. Because if you have an unappealing website, you waste all your omnichannel marketing efforts.

This means your website should be easy to use. Customers should not be clicking through hundreds of pages just to find one item or scrolling way too long just to find your email address.

Your website should also follow typical site conventions. This means all your text is left aligned, your icons and buttons work just like they do on other sites, clicking the logo means going back to the homepage, highlighting blue text means it’s a link, etc.

Fast-loading pages are also critical. No one wants a slow and laggy site. If your website is slow, use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to diagnose your problems.

Lastly, consider your web design. Ever clicked out of the site because the text is too small to read? Or is the background color too harsh on your sites? Well, this should give you an idea of what to avoid.

Make sure you have a clean layout, use high-quality graphics, and that your site adheres to your branding style. Make sure to also browse your website to spot these design issues before you present your site to your customers or start any campaign.

Email Marketing

Connecting your email marketing to your other omnichannel strategies can help you make the most out of it.

Consider the following tips:

Send out personalized emails – Always send tailored messages that suit your audience. This can be based on your audience’s demographics, previous purchases, previous interactions, or browsing behavior.
Send behavior-based messages – You can set up your emails to send messages when they “trigger” a specific behavior or activity. For example, sending them a cart abandonment message when they leave an item on their cart, a thank you message when they place an order, a welcome email when they sign up, or warning them that your sale is about to end.
Do cross-channel integration – Always have links to your social media pages and website in your emails. If you want to step it up further, you can also promote in-store events, inform them of your ongoing social media contests, or remind them about upcoming tradeshows and events.
Be consistent in your messaging – How you write your emails, how they are visually designed, and what type of content you send out should be consistent with all your other channels. If you have a more formal tone in your branding, you can’t suddenly use memes and slang in your emails. And if you’re promoting Product A on your website, don’t send promotional emails about Product B.

Social Media Marketing

Just like your emails, your social media accounts should also be consistent with your messaging across other platforms and do cross-channel integration as well.

Some other tips for incorporating social media into your omnichannel marketing are:

Create content that adheres to your brand – The content that you put out on social media should be in line with your brand identity and target audience. This will result in better engagement with your customers. For example, a target audience full of Gen Zs will appreciate a funny TikTok video, but a group of financial executives will not.
Vary your content – Follow the rule of thirds: ⅓ promotional content, ⅓ sharing relevant news and posts, and ⅓ interacting with your audience. Ideally, you should also mix your content type. For example, mix videos with GIFs, image posts, carousels, blog article links, etc.
Focus on user-generated content (UGC) – Encourage your customers to share their experiences and product reviews on social media. You can then display these UGCs on your website, e-commerce product pages, emails, or even on in-store digital displays to build trust and serve as social proof in your brand.
Enable social shopping – Make shopping seamless across all your channels by incorporating e-commerce features like Instagram Shopping and TikTok Shop. This allows your customers to easily buy products from you without leaving the app.

Paid Advertising

Paid ads can help you target customers more effectively. It can also help you direct them to different channels by having ads that encourage email newsletter sign-ups, mobile app downloads, flash sales on your website, or following your social media pages.

Ads can be done through your social media accounts. If you’re looking to start an ad campaign, you can check out our more in-depth guides here:

Paid ads can also be done through Google Ads. These ads can appear on the search results, Gmail, Google Maps, and other platforms under the Google umbrella. It can also appear on their partner sites, such as YouTube and Blogger.

To make the most out of your ads, make sure you create tailored and targeted campaigns for a more personalized experience.

You can also do retargeting campaigns. For example, did a customer forget to check out their items on your mobile app? You can then send them ads about that specific item on Facebook to subtly remind them and hopefully encourage them to finally make the purchase.

Offline Omnichannel Marketing Strategies You Can Do

Let’s now move on to the offline marketing strategies you can do. These are:

In-store Experience

Creating a memorable and engaging in-store experience should be your priority, especially if you run a retail store.

This can be through eye-catching window displays, interactive digital displays that show product information, or running in-store promotions. This should make your in-store shopping feel more engaging and fun, and can help encourage customers to visit your physical store more often.

You’ll need to integrate your online strategies with in-store as well for a well-rounded omnichannel marketing strategy.

For example, your mobile app can be used to scan items for more information. Click-and-collect options where a customer can buy something online and then just pick it up in your store can also be considered. Your loyalty program should also sync seamlessly whether they buy online or offline. You can also use beacon marketing to send personalized notifications or ads whenever they are near your store.

Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems

A POS system is what essentially allows you to accept payment from your customers whenever they buy something from you.

“Isn’t that just the cash register?” you may ask. Well yes, but not really. Because your POS system does the transaction, it also helps you keep track of your sales.

This information can be used in your omnichannel marketing.

For example, you can integrate your POS system into your CRMs, website, or e-commerce platform to consolidate your customer’s data. This should give you a good overview of a customer’s buying behavior and purchase history which you can use to create targeted strategies on your other channels.

You can use it to keep track of your inventory. This helps ensure that your items are tagged appropriately as available or out of stock whether they are shopping online or offline.

Your POS system is also the one keeping track of your points for your loyalty program and helps you process product returns.

Choosing a great POS system and seamlessly incorporating it into your omnichannel marketing can help you create a better shopping experience.

Traditional Advertising

While digital marketing has seen a tremendous rise in popularity and effectiveness, we shouldn’t dismiss the power of traditional marketing.

These are your TV, radio, and print ads (flyers, posters, brochures, billboards, newspapers, etc.). You can use these channels to promote your website, social media, events, or ongoing sale.

You may be wondering if these are still effective nowadays. And yes, they still are.

What’s great about traditional media is that they are present everywhere. You can easily see a poster when walking to your office or get handed out a flier when you are at a mall.

Traditional media is also effective if you have an older audience. As they rarely spend time online, you can use these media to reach them. This ensures that they still get the same message even if they don’t see your social media page or your YouTube ad.

Events

Events and promotions can be used to drive both in-store traffic and online engagement.

These events include trade shows, expos, pop-up shops, product launches, new store openings, in-store workshops, or customer appreciation days. On the online side, businesses can also host webinars or virtual events.

Promotions can also be used to encourage more engagement with your customers. These can be 50% off sales on one specific store branch, the first ten customers will get a prize, seasonal events like Christmas or Valentine’s sales, and so on.

As always, cross-promotions should be done to integrate both online and offline channels seamlessly.

What are examples of successful omnichannel marketing strategies?

Below are examples of brands that have managed to incorporate omnichannel marketing in their business strategies successfully:

Sephora

Beauty retailer Sephora manages to blend its online and offline presence with technology seamlessly.

Sephora’s physical stores and mobile apps are equipped with tools such as Color IQ. This tool helps customers find their perfect foundation and lipstick shade match by scanning their skin and analyzing their color and undertones.

Their mobile app also has a Virtual Artist feature. This AI tool harnesses the power of augmented reality to help people virtually “try on” products to see how they will look.

Sephora also has Beauty Advisors present in all their stores. Customers can interact with advisors to get personalized recommendations for buying products or a beauty makeover.

After the makeover, Beauty Advisors will scan and log every item they used on the customer. This would then be emailed so they can recreate the look on their own or buy the product.

Sephora also has a loyalty program called Beauty Insider. It allows customers to earn points per purchase. They can then use those points to redeem special items such as birthday gifts, product samples, or access to exclusive events.

Nike

Remember our running shoe example from the start of the article? It’s not a made-up scenario; it’s actually Nike’s real-life omnichannel strategy.

To add to the methods mentioned above, we also want to highlight how Nike nails their in-store experience.

They do this by providing a “smart mirror” in selected stores. These smart mirrors guide the customer through different movement and breathing exercises to help them assess if the product they are trying on is the right fit for them. Customers can also provide feedback right there in the fitting room, which can help their AI give them a personalized size or product recommendation.

Nike also has an “Art of Movement” experience. Customers can do a series of workouts that can affect the room’s sound, lighting, and visual effects. This allows a customer to create “art” based on their movements.

Their mobile app is also seamlessly integrated into their in-store experience. For example, customers will be alerted if an item they like is available in the store they are currently in. They can also scan the barcode of an item with their app to read more information and reviews about it.

Nike is also the king of personalized content. For instance, Nike will email workout recommendations based on the items on customers’ carts or the previous items they’ve purchased. The products they will recommend on their app will not only be based on product preferences but also on their favorite sports idol.

The Nike ads that you see on social media will also be tailored to fit customers’ tastes. For example, they might see leggings or parkas that can suit the color, style, or design of the product that they’ve purchased.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s is the expert on seamless transitions between their website and mobile app.

A customer’s current cart, previous orders, food preferences, and payment details are all synced throughout their digital platforms. They can even start an order on their computer and finish it on the app. They also provide various options for delivery, curbside pickup, in-store pickup, or third-party platforms such as DoorDash.

This also works harmoniously with their in-store orders. Customers can place their orders ahead of time and choose a specific pickup time, drastically reducing the wait time for their food. At the same time, their physical stores are also less congested and can cater to their walk-in customers more efficiently.

Speaking of their in-store experience, let’s talk about the self-service kiosks available at every McDonald’s branch. These kiosks were installed to allow customers to bypass long queues and start an order by themselves. These kiosks also offer suggestions for food items that are best paired with the items in their cart. It’s also easier to personalize their order as they can see every option they have instead of relying on staff to help them.

McDonald’s also has a reward program called MyMcDonald’s Rewards. A customer can earn 100 points per dollar that they spend. They can then stack up points to get various free items. The more points you have, the bigger the food you can get. As these points have a short expiration time, customers are incentivized to keep on ordering to get these deals.

Omnichannel Marketing Tools and Platforms To Try

Omnichannel marketing may be difficult, but it can be easier with the help of tools and technology. Some examples are:

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)

CDPs are software that compiles data you’ve collected on various sites and tools. You can use it to create a centralized database about your customers and then use that to create a segmented or personalized strategy for them.

Some CDPs you can use are Segment, Bloomreach, and Totango.

Marketing Automation Platforms

These are tools you can use to automate menial and repetitive tasks for any online omnichannel strategy.

For example, you can use scheduling tools to automatically post on your social media pages at a specific time and date. You can also set a follow-up email in case you don’t get a response from your first one. Ads can also be automated to target specific audiences only.

These tools can streamline your processes and make your workflow more efficient.

Some social media scheduling tools you can use are Hootsuite, Buffer, and Coschedule. If you’re looking for help in social listening and monitoring, check out Meltwater and Sprout Social.

For email marketing, you can check out Mailchimp and Drip. If you’re looking for an all-in-one messaging solution, go for Hubspot, Sender, and Omnisend.

Design Tools

These tools provide customizable templates for marketing materials so you don’t have to create one from scratch. Because they are also pre-made, it’s ensured that they meet the “standards” of a great marketing material—whether by size, layout, or visual quality.

You can check out our very own templates for Facebook posts, TikTok videos, posters, and so much more here on the BrandCrowd site.

Customer Support Tools

There are also tools available to make your customer service even better.

For example, chatbots can help you provide 24/7 assistance to your customers. As AI powers these, you don’t need to worry about them getting tired or needing sleep. Some chatbots can be integrated not only on your website but even on your social media pages.

Some tools to try are Botpress, Bostsonic, or Chatbase.

You can also check out various help desk tools to centralize all customer queries and streamline your process. Some help desks even have the option to automatically sort tickets by priority and direct specific questions to the appropriate agent.

Popular tools include Zendesk, Zoho, Helpshift, and Freshdesk.

Feedback and survey forms can also help make gathering customer insights and reviews a lot easier. Some of our recommended tools for this are SurveyMonkey and Typeform.

Mobile App

Now, this one is a tool you’ll create instead of a tool you’ll download or sign-up on.

But why do you need a mobile app for your omnichannel marketing? The answer is because of a consumer’s mobile-first mindset.

Mobile accounts for 60% of the market share, as opposed to only 38% of desktops and 2% of tablets. People also spent a total of 3.8 trillion hours using mobile apps. Seventy-three percent of millennials also use apps to shop.

Having a mobile app can help you reach your customers. The majority of people also depend on their phones to do tasks – whether for shopping, ordering food, buying medicine, and so on. If they can’t find you on mobile, you might as well not exist for them.

Of course, not every business needs an app. If you find that your customer prefers brick-and-mortar shops, desktops, or tablets, then you don’t need one. After all, creating an app takes a lot of time and resources. Not to mention the upkeep and maintenance of it.

But if you find that your customers are mainly mobile users, then it makes sense to have one. If you don’t have coding skills, you can check out no-code app builders like Glide, Bubble, and Shoutem. You can also hire mobile app developers or app designers on reputable freelance sites.

Unify Your Channels, Amplify Your Impact With BrandCrowd

You’ll need an omnichannel marketing strategy if you want your business to stay competitive in this fast-paced world.

Omnichannel marketing helps you give your customers a cohesive and personalized experience wherever they may encounter your brand.

From the vibe of your Instagram Reels to the product description of your e-commerce site, down to how your retail staff interacts with customers – all of these should feel like they came from the same brand. All of your channels should be able to meet your customer’s needs and preferences to give them a smooth and happy shopping experience.

By giving them such an experience, you’ll be able to capture your customers’ hearts and loyalty. This leads to more sales and of course, business growth (which is what we all want! 😉)

We hope this guide can help you navigate the world of omnichannel marketing a little better. If you want to learn more about marketing, check out our other articles:

Feel free to check out our other customizable templates as well that can help you – business cards, gift certificates, and more.

Good luck, and we wish you the best for your business!

Omnichannel Marketing 101: Crafting a Unified Online and Offline Strategy