You’ve built the foundation, now it’s time to build the house! Here are some key steps that you need to take to get the ball rolling.
Train team members that are customer touchpoints:
Your buyer personas will indicate how you should be talking to your customers. People in a luxury boutique and a bookstore will probably have very different expectations.
Are they expecting to sit down and be attended by a well-dressed sales representative?
Or do they prefer to be left alone until they have a specific question for staff?
Make sure that members of your team who interact with customers are aware of this data and have been trained on how to conduct themselves. This can include sales representatives, cashiers, receptionists and admin, customer service, and marketers.
Rework targeted messaging to align with the customer journey of your buyer persona:
The crux of an omnichannel strategy is personalization, which is achievable using segmentation. When you’re just starting out, you can use a combination of your buyer personas and historic aggregate data to create customer segments.
Individuals in a customer segment will have similar customer journeys, so they will have similar needs in each stage. If your segments are accurate, then you can be certain you’re sending the right message to the right person.
Regarding the message itself, you should focus on delivering value by fulfilling the customer’s job to be done. A customer that just purchased a camper van from you will probably feel annoyed if your post-sale SMS mentions a special discount they didn’t get. But, the same customer will probably appreciate a friendly email about road trip routes in the area.
Experiment, and optimize your strategy:
An omnichannel strategy is something that gets better with time. As you collect data about your consumers, you’ll know more about their preferences and shopping behaviors.
If you notice a certain campaign isn’t performing well, try experimenting with different variables and check if you’re tracking the relevant KPI.
You should also be iterating your buyer personas and customer segments as you gather data from campaigns. It’s highly likely you’ll get off to a bumpy start, but don’t be discouraged!
Over time, you’ll understand your consumers intimately and improve the accuracy of your targeting.
Don’t neglect mobile:
A study by the Harvard Business Review found that 73% of 46,000 participants used multiple channels while shopping. Some even used a mobile channel while shopping in the physical store.
For most, mobile is the preferred entry point to the internet and online shopping. You might even consider designing your future campaigns with mobile in mind if your data points you in that direction.
