Voice, Personalization, Subscriptions and  Omnichannel Marketing

Table of Contents

  1. What is omnichannel?
  2. What is omnichannel marketing?
  3. Using omnichannel marketing to turn customers into subscribers
  4. How omnichannel marketing lets you get personal
  5. Omnichannel marketing across the internet of things
  6. How omnichannel affects the future of eCommerce
  7. What is an omnichannel marketing strategy?
  8. What is the difference between omnichannel and multichannel?
  9. What are some examples of omnichannel strategies?


The coming year is bound to be another big year for eCommerce innovations, with new frontiers offering a multitude of opportunities for smart and forward-thinking companies to expand their customer bases, develop new ways of connecting with and anticipating customers' needs, and establishing a strong presence and bond with new generations whose buying power will be driving the economies of the future.

New technologies are creating new markets and new ways to reach customers. The ways customers approach and relate to the brands and products they most frequently shop for are changing, as are the ways companies need to market, advertise, and sell their products.

What is omnichannel?

One key new trend that any company that expects to be a competitive player in the years to come needs to take note of is the rise of omnichannel. This refers to not merely a multichannel approach to sales, but one that fully integrates all platforms into a seamless experience for the customer.

Full back-end synchronicity among web, mobile, social media, and brick-and-mortar channels is required to give customers the ideal omnichannel shopping experience.  

It's not something they're likely to be fully aware of — few customers will cite "omnichannel" as a desired element when they're shopping — but they will always appreciate it when they can walk into a physical store location to return an internet order or check what's in stock at their local store from the mobile device.

As seamless eCommerce experiences become more ingrained in customers' expectations, omnichannel is moving from an advantageous element to a required one.

What is omnichannel marketing?

When marketers talk about their efforts to reach out to customers, they often talk about "channels." Much like a channel on a TV, a marketing channel is a media outlet or platform used by advertisers to reach out to potential customers and develop sales.

With the development of the internet, email, and social media, the definition of what constitutes a "channel" has transformed. These channels can include digital interactions on websites, social media advertising, organic content marketing, paid search, mobile advertising, display ads, email, and more. 

The critical aspect of omnichannel marketing that makes it such a powerful strategy is that it creates a seamless customer experience across all of these channels. Instead of partitioning markets for every aspect of the advertising strategy, it attempts to utilize a holistic approach. 

What benefits does omnichannel marketing provide customers?

  • Making it easier to navigate, interact, and buy. When a customer moves across different media channels, an omnichannel approach ensures that they don't experience a broken, disjointed, or difficult experience.
  • Creating a unified brand experience. Having a recognizable brand supports your customers by providing recognition. A coherent brand across an omnichannel strategy can further promote trust as the customer moves through your sales funnel(s). 

Unlike a multichannel strategy, which will funnel customers into a sales point from different places, the omnichannel approach is all about optimizing their experience no matter where they are. That way customers can enter, exit, and re-enter the sales funnel through different channels without running into problems or inefficiencies. 

Using omnichannel marketing to turn customers into subscribers

Subscription-based purchasing models are gaining steam, offering features that merchants and customers alike can appreciate. Customers like the convenience, time-saving aspects, regular and predictable deliveries of the products and services they enjoy, and the perception that they're getting a good value by subscribing instead of making repeat individual purchases.  

For merchants, the advantages of getting customers to sign up for long-term commitments are obvious, and the line of communication that a subscription keeps open affords plenty of opportunities for up-selling.  

More and more, merchants are finding ways to apply a subscription model to what they've already been selling.

As customers introduce more smart devices into their homes, those devices are becoming increasingly capable of managing their own subscriptions for refills, filters, and other necessary parts.

Omnichannel marketing can be an effective tool for gaining subscribers, especially for businesses that offer both single-purchase products and subscriptions. An in-store or online purchase of a product for which you offer a subscription refill program could trigger advertisements for that subscription which are delivered to that customer by email or on the website or mobile app.

If a customer uses the website or app to look for a subscription-eligible product that's out of stock, you can use that information to advertise a subscription to that customer, since automatic deliveries would prevent them from having to worry about whether or not the product is in stock when they run out in the future.
 

How omnichannel marketing lets you get personal

Increasingly, customers are seeking out personalized products and services.  Millennials and younger customers, who grew up on the internet and have grown 

entirely accustomed to brands engaging more directly with them and tailoring their outreach and marketing to their interests and expectations, represent a key demographic for most businesses right now, and they don't have time for companies that won't meet them where they're at.

Offerings based on previous purchases, geographic location, personal information, and individual preferences are the best way to loosen up spending dollars from this savvy and discerning generation of customers.

Being recognizable and having a strong reputation won't be enough in itself for a brand to earn the loyalty of younger customers.

Millennials are far more likely than any previous generation to research products and services online before making a purchase, even a relatively small one.

While most retail merchants know how important having a website is in the internet age, many of them don't realize that for younger customers, a website without detailed information about and reviews of the products and services a business offers isn't much different from having no website at all.

Even retail merchants who don't engage in eCommerce would benefit from tying their inventory into their website so customers can see what's available and in-stock, and tying together what a customer viewed and searched for online and what they actually bought, where possible, can allow you to advertise to that customer in a more targeted way.

While millennials and younger customers appreciate targeted advertisements, they also appreciate having some control over them. While the idea was pioneered by social media, the option for customers to click a button to say that an ad isn't relevant to them or that they dislike it can allow any business to more effectively tailor their advertising to each individual customer.

Omnichannel marketing across the internet of things

One of the fastest-growing

categories of smart devices, and the one that's sure to be the biggest mover and shaker when it comes to shaping eCommerce trends in the years to come is voice-activated assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

It's already possible to place orders for the things you need just by asking your smart speaker device, but retailers have yet to fully exploit all the possible ways this new technology can be used to engage with customers, advertise, and seamlessly integrate their marketing into a voice-driven platform that differs greatly from radio, television, and online ads.

Voice recognition is going to spread to other devices as well, not just smart speakers specifically designed for that functionality. Comcast already has cable boxes that respond to voice commands, and further devices and appliances will follow. If you need to reorder detergent, wouldn't it make sense to tell your washing machine to take care of that for you?

As more voice channels open up between the devices customers use every day and retailers on the back end, the companies that are poised to step in early and lead the way in delivering voice-activated shopping solutions will have a tremendous advantage when it comes to building trust and confidence among customers.

How omnichannel affects the future of eCommerce

We can expect all of these trends to connect with each other in many ways in 2021 and beyond.  

  1. The subscriptions that customers will most gravitate to will be the ones that are personalized for them, rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.  
  2. Data that helps companies create personalized solutions for customers will come from information provided through voice-operated technologies.  
  3. Customers that place orders through smart speakers will want to be able to review, modify, and track those orders by pulling them up on their phones or tablets. 

That's a lot of eCommerce threads to pull together, but companies that want to thrive in the coming year and beyond will have to rise to the challenge.

FAQ

What is an omnichannel marketing strategy?

An omnichannel marketing strategy approaches marketing across multiple channels (website, email, social media, search engine, etc.) to create a unified experience for the customer no matter wherever they are. In this way, customers can navigate their journey more easily.
 

What is the difference between omnichannel and multichannel?

Multichannel is literally that — marketing across multiple channels. Omnichannel is an extension of multichannel marketing that strives for a unified customer experience.
 

What are some examples of omnichannel strategies?

Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and BarkShip utilize omnichannel marketing by integrating digital customer experiences through their apps, websites, social media, and even (depending on the organization) through physical objects (through the Internet of Things) or in their brick-and-mortar locations.
 

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