eting in the age the Omnipresent Consumer //

Multichannel. Omnichannel. Omnipresent. These marketing strategies go beyond buzzwords and aim to provide a better customer experience, which in turn will drive higher business results.

In today’s dynamic world, it is crucial to use the right mix of channels. This is how to engage your audience and better meet their evolving needs and preferences.

Multichannel, Omnichannel and Omnipresent Marketing Definitions

Let’s discuss each strategy in order to create a context that will guide the rest of this article.

Multichannel marketing

Multichannel marketing is a mix of channels that reach customers. These include email, in-store, social media, and email. These channels can be managed and promoted on their own, but there is limited coordination. This strategy may work well for marketers with limited budgets that want to target specific channels to reach their target audiences.

Omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing is a holistic approach that uses all channels. This is a great option for companies who want to offer seamless customer experiences and increase customer loyalty. It is important to provide a consistent experience, regardless of channel. To ensure consistency across touchpoints, this approach requires a single customer database.

Omnipresent marketing

Omnipresent marketing means being available wherever customers are, no matter what device they use to interact with the brand. This approach allows for seamless integration across all channels and touchpoints to ensure a seamless customer experience. This approach is perfect for companies that want to offer a personalized and always-available customer service.

Meet the expectations of the omnipresent consumer

Omnipresent consumers are always connected and available through multiple channels, devices and touchpoints. These consumers are:

• You can expect a seamless, personalized and integrated experience across all media channels.
• Get in touch with brands according to their terms.
• Look for brands that offer these qualities.

These expectations must be met by brands that adopt a holistic approach.

• Eliminating silos between functions and departments
• Integration of data and systems
• Delivering a single view of the customer

It’s easier said than done. Many companies have difficulty managing the complexity of customer journey. Many still rely on siloed processes, data and systems. The rapid advancements mean that what was revolutionary a year ago might now be outdated.

Get to the bottom of 3 ways you can deliver more relevant customer experiences

Data is crucial in Omnipresent Marketing

Modern marketing is not complete without data. We can personalize our messages and tailor campaigns to each customer with actionable data.

Data-driven strategies result in greater engagement, greater relevance, and a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. Here are some examples.

• A retailer can suggest products to customers using web analytics based on browsing and buying behavior. This makes it easier for them to find the right product to suit their needs and interests.
• Marketers can segment their email lists using data from CRM and customer feedback to send targeted messages to different customer segments. Targeted messaging results in higher open rates, click through rates, and conversions.
• Third-party data and social media provide insights into customer preferences and interests, allowing us to create campaigns that are relevant to their current context (i.e. location or time of the day).

Omnichannel and Omnipresent marketing are both sides of the same coin. The difference is in the level of commitment they have to the customer journey. Omnichannel is focused on bridges between channels while omnipresent aims to embed the brand in the fabric of the customer’s daily life. It’s not about being everywhere. It’s about being everywhere that matters.

— Adam Vazquez (Partner, HEARD Media)

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Going beyond traditional engagement strategies

Brands must be customer-centric and holistic in their engagement strategies if they want to achieve omnipresence. The following are key elements to this approach:

Customer journey

You can deliver an exceptional customer experience by understanding your customers’ interactions across all channels.

• Their journey.
• Monitoring preferences and behaviors
• Identifying your pain points and potential opportunities.

Seamless experience

Try to offer a consistent and integrated experience across all channels and touchpoints by:

• Technology used to manage customer data
• Personalizing content and offering
• Consistent messaging and design.

Innovative engagement

Keep ahead of the curve by incorporating new technologies and channels (e.g., voice assistants and conversational intelligence) into your strategy. This requires adaptability, agility, and continuous testing and refinement.

Collaborative effort

Strong leadership, clear goals and effective communication tools can foster collaboration among teams.

Outcome-oriented

An engagement strategy’s success shouldn’t be measured only by its outputs. It should also be assessed based on its effect on business outcomes such as customer loyalty, revenue growth, and customer experience.

Not outputs but outcomes

This 2012 HBR article demonstrates the importance of marketing efforts that focus on outcomes and not just outputs. These authors contend that too often the focus is on outputs (i.e. total impressions, clicks, or leads generated) and not on achieving desired outcomes (i.e. increased sales, customer loyalty, or brand recognition).

Companies that place too much emphasis on outputs like total impressions could miss the potential impact of offline marketing. Customers experience may also be overlooked in the marketing process. A lack of accountability can result from a focus on outputs. It’s hard to know how they drive outcomes.

The authors recommend a holistic approach that focuses on customer experience and outcomes. The entire customer journey must be considered, from the first contact through to the post-purchase engagement. Next, measure marketing’s impact upon customer behavior and business performance. Although this customer-centric, data-driven approach is more difficult than it sounds, it leads to a better return on investment and better marketing results.

Omnipresent marketing in today’s digital landscape

It is a major shift in the way brands interact with customers that has occurred from multichannel to Omnichannel marketing. Today, relying on just one channel to market your brand is not enough.

To deliver seamless, consistent, and personalized experiences across all touchpoints, brands must be data-driven and technology-enabled. Only then will they be able to meet the changing demands and expectations of their target audience. A competitive advantage is to embrace an “always present” approach.

MarTech first published the post Marketing in an age of the Omnipresent Consumer.