You may have not heard of the term omnichannel marketing, but I can guarantee your using it – and it’s safe to say you’re dependent on it. We’re going to share what it is, how it works, and why it provides the most seamless and personalized experience for your customers.
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Sarah: We’re talking about marketing, if you can believe it, here on Marketing Mix. So, there’s Omnichannel Marketing, and many people may not have heard it, but I guarantee everybody is using it in some way or another. And it’s kind of to the point where if it weren’t there, it would be a challenge for us. Like it would almost annoy us because we become so used to it. So the point is, you’re utilizing Omnichannel Marketing; you may not know about it, but here’s the bottom line. It is so important for customer service, and that is why we want every business owner to be paying attention because this is something that can make the customer service experience super seamless and we’re going to show you exactly how. So, without further ado, let’s go.
Glyna: Good morning, again! All right. Welcome to Marketing Mix. Every week, Sarah and I, and sometimes Kelsi, sometimes Rob, will be here to talk about all things digital marketing. We like to mix it up and that’s where the “Marketing Mix” comes in. And let’s take a look at where everybody can find our broadcasts.
Sarah: Sure. Every week we go live on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and you can catch the replay on Instagram, IGTV, and don’t forget about our podcast Marketing and on Mic it’s awesome to listen to. I still go in there and listen to it. It’s a really great resource. And of course, Fusion One Marketing, our YouTube channel. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We’re always putting out new videos. Actually doing, I started throwing some they’re called YouTube shorts, and if you don’t know about them you should know. YouTube Shorts is a whole new section that YouTube has done, which is little short video clips that you can do, and I’ve thrown some on there as well.
Glyna: Fantastic. I had somebody tell me the other day, “I subscribed to the YouTube channel.” They don’t really get on Facebook or anything. I was like, “Cool. That’s so awesome.” But yeah, they were talking about all the videos we had and couldn’t believe all the stuff we have. So, it’s just a free resource for businesses, so take advantage of that.
Sarah: Absolutely. So, okay. Omnichannel Marketing. This is a good one. Here’s the thing. Customers, all of us, interact with businesses in so many different ways. And it can be through social media, live chat, it can be through the website, picking up the phone. Whatever it is, we’re interacting with them and we’re interacting with them on all different devices. But here’s the thing about how we are, we expect to have the exact same type of experience no matter what device we’re using and no matter what channel we’re using. So, that is where Omnichannel Marketing comes in when wondering, “Hey, how do you solve that problem?”.
Glyna: Yes, exactly. And like you mentioned earlier, we’re probably already using this or most companies are using this in some shape or form. It’s just, we haven’t put a name to it. So with Omnichannel Marketing, businesses are faced with how to provide consistent customer experience across all the channels, just as you mentioned. Omnichannel Marketing solves the dilemma by setting up marketing through the eyes of the customer and where they are.
Sarah: Yes! So, let’s break this down. What is Omnichannel Marketing? So the “Omni” part refers to “of all things”. So it works by using all of these marketing channels collectively together to just create one single unified experience for the customer. So, it essentially will adjust, how it works based on the customer’s journey. And it’s consistent regardless of what device they’re using and what channel they’re using. So they’re going to get the same message throughout.
Glyna: Yeah. I mean, it’s really cool how this happens, because the idea is always to give a better experience to the customers and meeting them where they are because everybody does social media, and where they search, and all that, all in different places. So, this allows you to track that customer’s journey where they are, it delivers a consistent, personalized message every time, and at the right time, and then that’s going to help your customers also move down that sales funnel and have a more impactful buying process. So, it’s a win-win.
Sarah: It’s a win-win. And we’re going to give you some examples that are going to make this click and you’re going to be like, “Ah-ha. This is it.” But you may have heard of Multichannel Marketing. So, what’s the difference between the two of those? And I want to give you a little visual to kind of help you.
Sarah: So, Multichannel is it’s using all the same channels as Omnichannel. All channels are available to the consumer, but they’re not integrated, which means all of their options are independent of each other. So they work independently. Omnichannel, where it’s different, is all channels across multiple devices are integrated. So they provide one unified experience to the customer. So the customer is the center point. It doesn’t matter if they’re on the phone, web, store, social media. It’s going to be able to follow it and track it, essentially no matter what they’re doing and what they’re using. It’s pretty fascinating.
Glyna: Yes, it really is. And having that repetitiveness, over and over, no matter where you’re looking, again, drives it to their mind and keeps you “front of mind”. So, let’s talk about some examples, places that people know. Let’s talk about Walgreens. They definitely use Omnichannel marketing. Let’s think about this. When you go to Walgreens, you basically have an Omnichannel pharmaceutical experience. And what do we mean by that? Everything they do is on their mobile app. So they use that as their primary tool for communications and everybody knows that and it’s very customer-friendly. Customers can use the app to check and refill prescriptions without even having to go to the pharmacy, without having to call the pharmacy. And it can also send them reminders of prescriptions that need to be renewed. So it’s so cool. Again, it’s all about the customer. It’s helping them solve this problem of having to remember to get your prescription refilled.
Sarah: Yeah. I’m quite dependent on Walgreens with my whole family and all the drugs we take. I’m just kidding. Totally kidding.
Sarah: No, but it’s true. When you have all that, getting those reminders, not having to call the pharmacy, it’s like it’s a memory bank. It’s remembering everything, tracking it, and letting you know. Sephora is another really, really good one. Cosmetics and retail do phenomenal with Omnichannel marketing. But so, Sephora contacts shoppers to like this online purchase to the in-store experience. So they could be shopping online, and when they go in-store, everything they have is what they call a beauty bag. And it’s these little tablets that you can pull up and it allows you to kind of look at the details, virtually try on everything, and save it, using this digital software. And then once you go to the store, you can pick all that stuff up in your little personalized beauty bag. So it’s just, again, this whole thing to like a personalized experience. I feel like we used to, when this first came out, be like, “Oh my gosh. They’re tracking me. They know all my stuff.” Now, like we have this where we expect it. Do you know what I mean? We expect to have this, like, “You’re going to remember my shopping cart. You’re going to remember where I left off.” And it makes it so seamless for the customers.
Glyna: Yeah. And I don’t know if you do this like I’ll have a certain time where I may be scrolling through things, whether it’s Sephora or something else. And I find a few things I like, and it’s like, “Do I want it though?” But things like this, having a product like this, you can add it to a wishlist.
Sarah: Yes.
Glyna: They add it to a wishlist for you. And then you’re able to purchase all of those items using the app. But the biggest thing is, if you have to leave and you can’t do it all right then, it’s saved for you. So again, customer experience. Because it’s horrible when you’re like, “Oh man, I didn’t get that purchase.” And you go back and you have to start all over again.
Sarah: Yes.
Glyna: You’re like, “I don’t even know what I had in my cart or my wishlist.” So anyway, it’s really cool. And all of this helps customers narrow their options and keep track of all those products they intend to purchase, which is really good for Sephora or anybody who has this, because it’s a reminder of, “Hey, you like this. Don’t you want to purchase it?”
Sarah: Yes. Right.
Glyna: I love it when they come back and say, “Hey, you left some stuff in a bag. Don’t you want to come back and get it?”
Sarah: Yes. Or other recommendations. Like other recommendations, I’m like, “Oh, that’s great.” I will say as a side note, you need to have a sales rep that knows the right recommendations. Because I had an experience recently where I was recommended a concealer that was not so much a good recommendation. So sometimes I actually depend more on the virtual recommendation than I do the in-person.
Glyna: I mean, bedside manner comes into play when you’re selling cosmetics. This guy needs to get a grip. Do you want to share what he told you?
Sarah: I was in there and I was telling them about my eyes, and I was getting some wrinkles and darker circles and all this kind of stuff. And he looked at me, he goes, “That’s called getting older honey.” And I was like, “You’re not going to get my business when you talk to me like that, okay?”
Glyna: I’m going to go back and deal with the app and leave you alone.
Sarah: That’s what I said. I was like, “I’d rather deal with this virtual recommendation than you.”
Glyna: Golly. Yeah, please.
Sarah: I was like, “You’re young and you’re not allowed to say that to me.”
Glyna: I’m moving on down the line.
Sarah: So, two more examples. Chick-fil-A and Chipotle. They all have the same type of thing where you can sign up for like a rewards program, but in addition to that, you can order online on the app, wherever you are, it’ll track you, tracks when you’re arriving, you can save your favorite orders, it’ll save it. So everything is seamless and that’s the whole purpose of this Omnichannel, which is making it seamless. And so what you do is you can save your favorite orders and then the next time you pull it up, it’ll be like, “Oh, do you want the same thing you ordered?” Bing. It’s just all these clicks of a button. So cool.
Glyna: Oh, I mean, and you’re seeing this more and more with pizza places and restaurants, especially. And I know we’ll talk about that in a second. But yes, I love that. The less you have to think, you’re like, “I love that place because I don’t even have to worry about what I’m going to buy or what I like. I can’t remember what I ordered last time.” All that stuff. So this is really cool stuff. Another great example, Spotify. All right, Spotify. Obviously, if you use Spotify, you know that they have a web app, you can use your desktop. You can use your mobile app. But it all syncs all the apps altogether and you can have them all open at the same time. So, you don’t have to just use one or the other. That’s what I love. That’s the beauty of Spotify and some other companies that do that. It also memorizes your playlists, your favorites, and it will personalize a playlist from the things you’ve played before. The other really cool thing is that it suggests playlists or songs based on what you’ve listened to before.
Sarah: That’s so cool.
Glyna: It’s so cool. The other people who do this that comes to mind is like if you stream like if you watch Netflix or Prime and all of that, it will have a section, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, where you scroll down and it says, “Here are some other shows based on what you’ve already watched that you might like.” So, all of this, makes your life a lot easier.
Sarah: It does. And it’s almost like having your own personal assistant or something in a way. And so if you take away anything from today, it’s that concept of how an Omnichannel marketing works is it’s like it saves your place in line, or it’s like its own little memory bank, and it’s all about that customer’s journey, and what you said at the beginning of the show is leading them down that sales channel even easier, that sales funnel, so that they’re going to be more likely to make a purchase because you’ve made it so easy for them. And there’s a ton of industries that do this. So that’s kind of the thing. We named these big companies of like Chick-fil-A and Sephora. But here’s the thing. This is really something that any industry can benefit from. I mean, any business. Here’s the way you need to look at it. If you would benefit from providing a more personalized experience for your customer, then this is for you. Financial industries do really well with this because you need to build like a customer profile and what better way than to have something that helps you build that customer profile so that customer feels like they’re getting a really individualized service. E-commerce. I mean, they do phenomenal. Any type of retail, cosmetics. It’s that whole thing of, “If I’m on my phone and then I go to my desktop?” But wherever I’m going, it’s going to track it and save it and help you pick up where you left off. And you were talking about that. Shopping carts. Anytime we have a shopping cart like this is what you need to think about.
Glyna: Exactly. And some other industries I think that would be great to use this, or they are using it, is the automotive industry. I think again, if you’re shopping online for an automobile, again if it’s remembering what you like and saving, especially if you’re ordering a new one and you don’t know what you want and you start adding little extras in, you don’t have to go back through all of that. So saves that information for you. Restaurants, I think we mentioned before I know. Right off the bat, some pizza places will suggest, “Hey, do you want what you had last time?” I think you mentioned that earlier. So in an age where everybody expects personalization, it’s really becoming a rule instead of the exception. So you need to really provide an integrated and seamless shopping experience. And that’s what makes all the difference to the customer. The easier you make it for them, the easier it is going to be for them to buy.
Sarah: That’s so true. This is so true. So, advantages of this, why this works so well. The biggest thing, it’s a greater reach. I mean, by focusing on the customer, instead of the platform, you’re delivering a totally different experience. And you’re also doing what they call cross-device-interaction. So what is that? Customers are frequently, all of us are doing this, we’re frequently beginning on one device, but then make a purchase on a different device. So you have to be able to have that capability to track that for your customer. So that, as you said before, none of their progress gets lost and it’s like they’re a blank slate. So it’s that whole thing of you’re kind of molding your marketing and you’re dictating it around how the customer behaves.
Glyna: Yes, exactly. There’s nothing more maddening, like I said when you’ve been shopping for something specific, you pick up your tablet instead of your phone, you log in, it’s like, “Oh, you got to be kidding me. Now I’ve got to find my phone and figure this out again.” So anyway, it’s all about improved customer experience. We talk about this all the time and in so many different levels of marketing, so it’s a 360-degree customer view is really what you’re dealing with. Not only can you collect the data, but you can use it in unison, like you said, across all platforms and the customer’s experience never gets disrupted. They don’t get disgruntled. They don’t get mad because it’s all right there because it essentially holds like you mentioned before, your place in line. Or holds all their stuff so they don’t have to start all over. I think grocery stores too, are starting to do this, which is a huge thing. It’s like, “Do you want what you had last time?” “Heck yeah. Just put it in there.”
Sarah: Right.
Glyna: “I’m done.” I think Meaghan was talking about that last week. She’s like, “We use an app for our grocery shopping because we can do it like in five minutes.”
Sarah: Yeah. And it will give her their meals and they can make the decision, “Do we want to do this? Or do we want to modify it?” But the fact is, is that it saves so much time?
Glyna: Oh my gosh. Yes. So if you’re not doing this and you’re especially retail, like we talked about, you need to be working on this because you’re creating your customer profile and you’re helping them in the end. You’re going to create that stronger personalization, which turns into better campaigns, and also leads to more conversion because they don’t have to think about it. “Here. Here’s your stuff. Just go buy it.”
Sarah: Yes. Right. The convenience factor. And this is the last part of this is we’re going to kind of show you cause it’s easier than you think to set this up. That’s the thing. I mean, I’d say it’s, it’s not snap of a finger, but it’s one of those things once you do have the right tools in place and set it up, it helps do all the data collection for you. So, greater profits. So talking about the advantages. When you deliver this seamless experience, you’re able to provide such exceptional customer service, which frankly we’re all starting to just by default expect. So it’s customer service and how that experience is such a leading factor in how we make purchase decisions. So when you’re doing that, you’re able to just, it’s going to improve that customer retention and that loyalty because you are giving them such a high level of convenience. And it’s really, really, I mean, that’s huge.
Glyna: Well, yeah. Especially today when everybody’s so busy with everything and you have so many things going on, it’s hard to keep track of it. So using all of this also makes it cost-effective. So the data that’s collected from Omnichannel Marketing helps identify exactly what’s working and also drives engagement which is the biggest thing. I mean, you’re tailoring all of these strategies to make it more effective, to have it across all channels. And for you, a business owner, it’s going to deliver a better ROI, return on investment, because you’re making it easy. That’s the term today. We want it easy. Where is the easy button?
Sarah: Yes. We want easy, easy, easy. All right. So let’s talk about how to get started. Now, like anything, you’re going to have to do some data collection. There are so many tools out there, and I’ll list some of them, but there’s a customer relationship management software, it’s a CRM. That’s huge. There’s a ton of marketing automation tools. And even these tools will start to set up those personas and it will do, I mean, these tools are actually working Omnichannel already. Like to set you up with Omnichannel Marketing, they actually have those functionalities in there where it’s going to build a persona. We even have stuff, a tool that we use were based on how that person, like say when they look at the email, what time of a day, they’re going to put that in a slot of like, “Okay, that customer tends to look at emails at 10:00 AM.” So it’s going to set up like an automatic trigger to say, “Okay, I’m going to send that because I know by based on their behavior, I’m going to send them another email at 10:00 AM because that’s their most responsive time.” So those marketing automation tools are out there to help you get all that synchronized. And there are even the social media management tools, and there are data and analytics tools, and there’s some of them that are free that are going to give you enough information to get started on collecting that data. But all of that stuff, that tracking, is available to you.
Glyna: Yeah. I mean, even if you just start with social media management tools, I mean, even just Facebook, all of them have some sort of analytics, and you can get software that helps you even take it to another level. But yeah, you need to learn what these people are doing. The email example’s perfect, and kind of scary. It’s like, “Oh, she always opens email at 10 o’clock. So let’s send it to her then.” The thing is you have to be able to map your customer’s journey. So you do have to have some sort of tool or tools in place to make sure you know where they’re going and be able to keep track of it cause it would be virtually impossible to keep track of all that by hand and not have some tool that recognizes it. So what you’re going to do, is really these tools take a look at every touchpoint that a buyer comes across before coming to your customer. Where are they going? Where are they looking at your stuff? And you can even have retargeting. What we call retargeting. So, if they went to one place, then that’s where you’re going to throw an ad up of what you do and you’re going to follow them to different places. So, that’s where retargeting comes in. You have to ask yourself these touchpoints, “Do they provide a consistent customer experience?” Everywhere they go, you want them to have the same experience with you. If not, you need to gather the necessary data that we talked about and departments to make this change. So set up a campaign, maybe of a discount code or promotion or something like that that gets it started, so you know what they like or what appeals to them.
Sarah: Yeah, that’s a good tip because it’s like, “Okay, if you collected the data, but maybe feel like there are some missing touchpoints. There are some things I don’t quite know about the customer’s journey.” Then do set up a campaign or something like you said with a promo code, use that as like your tracking of like, “Okay, let’s see like how the customer responds.” Bottom line, we’ve talked about this many times, is you’ve got to know your customers. I mean, you have to. And that’s why we talk about developing buyer personas, identify who your target audience is, different buyer preferences, and again, there are these tools in place that are going to help you gather those things and store them so that you, or maybe like, “I don’t know my demographics. Like, I don’t know their journey. I don’t know any of this stuff.” So then you can just start getting these tools in place that will help you map that out.
Glyna: Yeah, exactly. When we talk about personas, again, we’re talking about your demographics. Who’s buying your product? And if you don’t know that, you need to back way up and start with that. You need to think about who is buying it, whether it’s, I think we’re going to talk about gender and stuff here in a second like you could segment them out by gender, female or male. What location? Where are they located? What kind of previous purchases did they have? What kind of loyalty rewards did they use? And even just previous engagement. So you’re going to develop these segments based on your buyer personas. And that means what does that person look like that buys your products, where they’re going, their subscription statuses, just everything you can get with them. It helps you target and retarget these groups at the right time, over and over and over. And I know we’ve started doing a lot of retargeting for companies and it’s amazing what you can do. You find out where these people are living and where they’re going, and guess what? “There’s an ad for Fusion One Marketing.” And “Oh, they went back over here to this place. There’s another ad for Fusion One Marketing.” So it is amazing what you can do with this Omnichannel Marketing and retargeting. It’s not necessarily new, but it’s something that’s becoming just normal, I guess.
Sarah: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s not necessarily new, but it’s now becoming the norm of like the customer’s expectations. So, that leads it to like that personalization level. So, we do use a software tool that helps us with this and it has this feature called Developing Dynamic Content. It’s so cool. So once you kind of have mapped out who your customer is like, what their persona is, what their buying behaviors are, their interests, you can set up like this Dynamic Content where essentially it’s going to personalize something and swap out a piece of content that’s like, “Oh, their interest is this. So I’ve tagged them that they like this versus this. So the content that I sent them is going to change based on that. So they’re only going to see the things that they’re interested in.” It’s really the same framework, but it’s swapping out pieces of content based on that persona that I built. And again, it’s that whole level of personalization that makes customers feel more appreciated, frankly, because it’s like, “They know me. They understand me.” But, many prefer that. They prefer content that is more personalized because I mean, if you’re going to send out something that’s just a carbon copy, you’re going to lose people cause they’re going to be like, “I’m not interested in any of this.” I mean, it doesn’t. So again, with these right tools, you can really develop and send out individual content to your prospects. And I’m telling you this goes across the board. Retail, that we talked about, e-commerce, financial industries, all that stuff. It’s amazing.
Glyna: Yeah, it really is. And I’ll tell you what, I will choose companies that I don’t want to deal with because they don’t make it easy. And so anyway. Enough about that. But it’s just the coolest thing that’s going on right now. Omnichannel Marketing and retargeting. And I do want to say good morning to Lisa Phillips, who is the Mary Kay bomb.com.
Sarah: She sure is.
Glyna: And I think Mary Kay has their website and apps and stuff like that do a lot of this Omnichannel Marketing. So check out Lisa and her Mary Kay stuff. But anyway, that’s a broad overview of Omnichannel Marketing.
Sarah: Yes.
Glyna: So, I don’t know. Is that a wrap?
Sarah: That’s a wrap. And yeah, this was a little bit more of an educational one, but very important because these are things that we want to make sure businesses are thinking about to put on the radar. Again, to just help with that customer service and get more business. So, that’s that. And we’re always here if anybody needs to have a conversation. And thanks for watching everyone. And we’ll see you next week.
Glyna: Bye.
Sarah: Bye.