Omnichannel marketing: Delivering experiences at scale

Omnichannel marketing is a strategy that uses multiple channels — digital and otherwise — to deliver experiences that are compelling to audiences, authentic to each channel, connected with each other, and consistent with your brand.

People engage with brands across multiple touchpoints — email, website, social media, mobile apps, voice searches, and in-store. Omnichannel marketing weaves all these touchpoints and channels together into a consistent experience that is tailored to each channel and stage of the customer journey.

An omnichannel strategy encourages people to discover different aspects of your company or organization as they engage with your brand through different channels. Think exclusive offers, inside jokes, and behind-the-scenes details that are channel-specific.

An omnichannel marketing strategy rewards people who follow your brand on multiple channels instead of punishing them with repetitive — or worse, conflicting — content. It’s customer-centric and requires an understanding of the nuances of customer engagement on different channels.

The key difference between multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing is the ability to connect the dots between channels and orchestrate messaging across touchpoints to deliver a seamless customer experience.

Multichannel marketing is channel-centric and tends to focus on pushing product messages out. Channels operate in silos and occasionally pull together to broadcast out bigger promotions. This can lead to jarring shifts and redundant content as users move between social media, mobile apps, ads, web pages, and physical stores.

Omnichannel marketing is customer-centric. It uses multiple channels strategically and in coordination to entice users to take a desired action.

For example, a restaurant might send an email out at 11:00 a.m. sharing lunch specials. Then further target mobile app users with recommendations based on their location data (e.g., offering soup on a cold day). Regular customers might get a text reminder with the ability to place their usual order by replying yes or no. Everything is coordinated and focused on the customer’s needs in the moment.

Omnichannel marketing helps brands:

• Build better customer experiences.
• Connect with customers where they are in the moment.
• Increase sales and conversions.
• Increase loyalty and engagement.

Here are some real-world examples of Contentful customers that have deployed and reaped the benefits of an omnichannel marketing strategy.

Milwaukee Bucks build better customer experiences with technology to enhance the in-person experience for sports fans

Sporting events are exciting, but as stadiums expand into large entertainment districts, fans face a wealth of choices for pre- and post-game celebrations. Outside the Milwaukee Bucks’ Fiserv Forum, the Deer District boasts seven restaurants and bars, two retailers, and an apartment complex. Visitors can enjoy concerts, farmer’s markets, and festivals in addition to game day festivities.

To make sure fans don’t miss a thing, the Bucks launched a website and native mobile app experience that bring the district to life digitally. Fans can quickly get event information, strategize gameday seating, decide where to dine, and find other things to do. This seamless integration of digital into the in-person experience gives loyal Bucks fans something to cheer about.

Take a peek at the playbook the Milwaukee Bucks used to launch their winning strategy.

Meet your customers where they’re at: KFC reaches gamers with a winning cheat code campaign

Fueling a multi-hour video game session is the perfect fit for KFC, but the king of Finger Lickin’ Good chicken needed a way to reach gamers without interrupting their play. Instead of a game-stopping ad, KFC launched a cheat code gamers could use to order their favorite meal and have it delivered. For gamers who hadn’t signed up yet, the code opened a menu of KFC foods that can be eaten with one hand.

The beauty of this campaign is that KFC met the audience where they were both physically and emotionally. The campaign was authentic to the channel and consistent with the brand.

See how KFC, Google, and Audible use storytelling to connect with customers.

Increase web traffic and sales: BMW increased test-drive bookings 47%

BMW’s network of 147 dealerships provide great showroom experiences. The question was how to extend those experiences into the digital world. Working with Contentful partner TMWX, BMW set out to make their digital presence an extension of the showroom experience, including everything from finding a car through legal paperwork.

On the front end, they use pictures and quotes from employees to bring the human element online. On the back end, the Contentful Composable Content Platform provides BMW and its network of dealerships with the right mix of consistency and flexibility. Legal and brand content is tightly controlled, but dealerships have the ability to add offers and bring their own voices to life.

This is a double win for BMW. They increased test-drive bookings 47% and inspired their dealer network to be more engaged in delivering a personalized experience online.

See how composable content and an extensible platform help BMW deliver a consistent experience across their network of dealers.

Build customer loyalty: BarkBox gives customers a reason to opt in

People love their pets and it turns out they love hearing from BarkBox, a subscription-based pet product company too. A year after adding SMS to their marketing mix, BarkBox has 175,000 users opted in to receive text messages, and that number is growing an average of 35% each quarter, according to Digital Commerce 360.

On all of their channels, BarkBox focuses on making content feel like a personalized conversation rather than a promotional campaign. Text messages complement their email marketing with a mix of product announcements, seasonal messages, and order status updates. When customers reply to text messages, a BarkBox employee picks up the conversation. No wonder their loyal subscribers are opting in for more.

Omnichannel marketing is not a new idea. We know it's what customers want. So why is it still such an elusive goal? Part of the challenge is that what constitutes a true “omnichannel” experience is a moving target. We’re always going to struggle to keep up with new channels, the different ways people use those channels, and changing customer expectations.

As we said in the chapter on developing an omnichannel strategy, brands need a plan to pull multiple channels together and align teams to deliver the seamless omnichannel experiences customers expect.

Legacy tools and channel-centric operations are holding marketers back

The other part of the problem is operational. Most organizations are still operating in a really outdated channel-by-channel mode. This makes it incredibly difficult for marketers to deliver omnichannel experiences.

Customer data is siloed and fragmented. Teams are focused on “their channels.” And executing a cohesive campaign requires weeks or more of manual work and waiting in developer queues. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

But it's not their fault — or yours. Omnichannel marketing requires a different set of tools. Tools that unify content, structure it for delivery to any digital channel, and provide the right mix of guardrails and freedom.

How do you make omnichannel marketing less of a Sisyphean struggle and more creative, efficient, and (dare we say) fun? The answer is an omnichannel strategy supported by a composable content platform.

Omnichannel marketing requires structured content to work across any digital channel, fitting into any space or format that’s needed or required. A composable content platform makes it possible for marketers to meet omnichannel objectives in a way that’s efficient and scalable.

With a composable approach, you create great content and then empower teams to mix and match it endlessly. This gives marketers the ability to quickly and easily create new omnichannel experiences with channel-specific elements that are clearly recognizable as part of the same brand story.

Up next: Omnichannel commerce

Learn about omnichannel commerce, its key principles, supporting technologies, and the benefits of a composable strategy.