So, you’ve seen the potential of investing in an omnichannel marketing strategy and are ready to start building your own.
Admittedly, Starbucks, Disney, and Singapore Airlines are huge companies, but there are resources available that make omnichannel strategies accessible to everyone.
Before you rush into getting quotes for a mobile app it’s important to lay some groundwork to keep you on track.
Before You Start…
Discuss with your team:
Although it's called omnichannel marketing, implementing an omnichannel strategy requires a company-wide effort since customer touchpoints aren’t exclusively handled by your marketing department.
Siloed departments will make it almost impossible to break up siloed channels. Discuss the pros and cons of an omnichannel strategy with your team, the work involved, and how this will impact their work.
Analyze customer data:
We mentioned earlier that one of the benefits of an omnichannel strategy is improved data and consumer insights. But everyone needs to start somewhere.
Audit the data that you do have to identify gaps in your knowledge about your consumers. Then you can go about collecting this data to create the first iteration of your buyer personas.
Choose the right channels:
Once you have your buyer personas down, you’ll know what channels they prefer and where you should be engaging them.
If your customers prefer to shop in person to see big-ticket wares themselves, is there really a need for an e-commerce app?
Rather, you could consider using tablets or computers in-store to provide detailed product information and bring the till to paying customers.
We discuss channels in-depth later on!
Lock down your brand identity guidelines and update your channels accordingly:
As we mentioned before, consistent brand identity is a key component of your omnichannel strategy.
This is because consumers must feel that they’re interacting with the same entity across channels. If the identity suddenly changes when they’re taken to another channel, they might feel lost or suspicious.
Review your brand identity guidelines to see if they’re up to date with your current activities and if they would appeal to your buyer personas. It’s also worth checking if your channels actually follow these brand guidelines.
