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To win the brave new digital future, brands need cohesive omnichannel strategies

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By Ward de Kruiff.

Digital disruption reshapes commerce across platforms, says Ward de Kruiff of EPAM Continuum. As new technologies create a pivot-point, success lies in cohesive omnichannel experiences.

A new paradigm is emerging in the sphere of commerce. The unification of disparate strands – spanning from e-commerce to the nascent realms of gaming and spatial commerce – particularly with the advent of platforms like Apple’s Vision Pro holds great potential for brands. Nowhere is this shift felt more than in the realm of luxury and fashion.

The key to success is crafting experiences that transcend physical and digital boundaries. Omnichannel excellence is no longer a buzzword but a baseline expectation. Consumers seek seamless experiences, whether scrolling through mobile apps, browsing in a physical store, or engaging with a brand in an immersive game environment.

E-commerce, m-commerce, and Gen-Z

The journey began with e-commerce, a digital revolution that turned the entire internet into a potential storefront. But e-commerce is not just about online transactions; it’s about an ecosystem that supports customer journeys with rich content, virtual try-ons, and personalized services. It’s a space where luxury fashion isn’t just displayed but can be experienced.

The proliferation of smartphones has given birth to mobile commerce (m-commerce) and social commerce, transforming smartphones into shopping assistants. In social and m-commerce, the luxury experience is literally in the palm of a customer’s hand. It’s instant, it’s personal, and it’s where digital-savvy customers are. The buzz yesterday was about building community with Gen-Z, hence brands entering the world of gaming commerce, a place where fashion often meets virtual reality.

Here, luxury brands are not just selling products but crafting experiences and stories. In-game fashion shows, virtual outfits for avatars, and interactive brand storytelling are the tip of the iceberg. Gaming commerce is about being present in a new market and also engaging with a new generation of consumers. With the introduction of platforms like Apple’s Vision Pro, spatial commerce will redefine how we perceive brand engagement.

The new frontier in commerce is spatial

Spatial commerce is about leveraging augmented reality, live-streaming, and socia-media platforms to create immersive shopping experiences. This combination can bring a level of interactivity and community engagement that traditional platforms might struggle to match.

The launch of Apple’s Vision Pro marks the cusp of a substantial transformation across many industries with the onset of Web4. Perhaps most excitingly, the new technology heralds novel methods for transactions and content creation, ultimately leading the way for enhanced use cases of spatial and social commerce.

Akin to the evolution of the App Store since its inception with the inaugural iPhone in 2007, the spatial computing digital economy of visionOS will take several years to fully develop. This time around, however, it’s different. The device disruption of wearables will be broad given the range of the new technology. And there will be lots of experimentation in translating the retail experience into spatial computing.

Marketers can be architects in this digital renaissance

We stand at a pivotal moment. The future for retail and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands isn’t just about choosing between e-commerce, m-commerce, gaming, or social commerce – it’s about unifying these channels into a cohesive, omnichannel strategy. This strategy should be built on personalization, immersive experiences, and a seamless customer journey. It shouldn’t just be about selling products, it should be about curating experiences and emotions as well.

The call to action is clear: embrace the completeness of digital commerce. Retailers and brands must understand that their customers do not differentiate between a physical store, a mobile app, a social-media platform, or a virtual world. They seek excellence, consistency, and engagement across all platforms.

As we forge ahead, let us be the architects of a new digital renaissance, where luxury meets technology, tradition meets innovation, and commerce becomes an endless realm of possibility. Let’s lead with creativity, courage, and commitment to customers, crafting a future that’s not only profitable but also profoundly inspiring.

By Ward de Kruiff

Sourced from The Drum

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Why An Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Should Be Your Top Priority

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By Bernard May

Every department (or agency) that specializes in a particular marketing channel understandably wants to claim success no matter the brand, audience or industry. Social media managers, Google Ads experts, SEO savants and others all have a stake in their particular strategy being labelled the silver bullet that is driving profitability for the organization or client.

The good part? Every department cares, has drive and wants to be the best. The bad part? From what I’ve seen, this ambition is often misdirected as individuals seek success for their own department rather than the overall success of a multichannel campaign.

Now, this is rarely the fault of individual marketing departments; rather, it’s due to the ways in which we have trained our teams to measure success as individuals rather than as a unit.

It’s time we all understand how to attribute marketing success as a collective, strategic front rather than assuming that the last touch solely defines the success of a campaign.

The Data Points To Omnichannel

Data shows that consumers visit more than two websites (on average) before settling on a purchase decision, and at the same time, nearly 90% of e-commerce shopping carts were left abandoned in March 2020.

This indicates that when it comes to e-commerce shopping, consumers are certainly doing their research and are willing to walk away from a purchase should they find a better option. It’s crucial for businesses, brands and marketers alike to see that consumer behaviour does not exist in a vacuum and that omnichannel strategies are a very real remedy.

Common Attribution Mistakes

Let’s take a look at some very common situations in which the reality of multiple touchpoints (along the customer journey) can lead to attributing success to the wrong places.

Situation 1: A customer sees your product in their social media feed and clicks on your ad but then decides to leave the platform and visit your site directly. After seeing your “On-Site Only” monthly promotion, the customer purchases a couple of products. You deserve a high-five. Attributed success: Organic SEO team. Actual success: Social media, SEO and web development teams.

Situation 2: A customer finds your business with a Google search, visits your site, looks at your latest products and leaves without a purchase. Later that day, a Facebook ad featuring these latest products from your site graces their news feed. The customer is intrigued by the 15% off social commerce offer and makes a purchase. Congratulations. You are a rock star. Attributed success: Social media team. Actual success: SEO, social media, social ads and graphics teams.

Situation 3: The customer sees an Instagram ad, visits your website, adds products to their cart, gets distracted and abandons their order. One week and three “You have items in your shopping cart!” emails later, the customer returns and completes their purchase. Whew — you had to work for that one. Attributed success: The marketing automation team. Actual success: SEO, social media, social ads, graphics and marketing automation teams.

In each of these common examples, there is an unconscious omnichannel mindset that customers have adopted and take part in regularly. Therefore, it should be a priority for your business to not only recognize but also leverage this to the customers’ (and your) advantage.

Leaving A Trail Of Bread Crumbs

Expanding your marketing (and attribution) strategy from single channels to omnichannel is akin to leaving a trail of “branded bread crumbs” to attract, nurture and ultimately convert customers. Here are just a few ways you can connect the dots and get your omnichannel machine moving:

• Facebook and Instagram: If you don’t have the Facebook pixel installed on your site (and you are running social media ads), you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. The pixel gives you the ammunition to retarget those non-converting website visitors with more personalized campaigns so you can bring them back. As these remarketing campaigns are only triggered by (shown to) those who have already been to your website, you not only know the multiple points of attribution, but you can also see what group of customers (and ad groups) is converting at a higher level.

• Google Ads: The remarketing/retargeting trend certainly did not originate with Facebook. As with Facebook, though, you can use this strategy to target your customers “beyond the click,” for example, via their Google news feed (Discovery ads), YouTube, display, dynamic remarketing ads or even just your website. Again, these segmented, remarketing-specific ad sets will be triggered by the placement of your Google Ads pixel — so you know where they found you first and what brought them back.

• Marketing automation and email marketing: This is an oldie but a goodie. Using supplemental nurturing emails as part of your various ad campaigns can bring that warmer traffic back — to either fuel their interest or even close the sale altogether — via automation. Seeing as you can provide specific messaging, templates and calls to action across your different campaigns, your marketing automation platform will show you which audiences, campaign types and emails are driving the highest returns.

Tracking And Attributing Success

The single biggest hurdle when it comes to applying (and benefiting from) omnichannel strategies is tracking success and attribution. This means that you need to track every campaign, ad variation, website, landing page and clickable link.

Set up goals in Google Analytics; create custom tracking links for emails; and ensure that primary, retargeting and nurturing campaigns (of all types) are separated and easily searchable should you need to dig up granular results.

If you can’t track it, you cannot accurately attribute success to it.

When channels start to multiply, make sure that your cross-channel marketing teams increase communication to keep everyone on the same page. SEO teams need to meet with Google Ads teams, who need to talk to the email marketing team, etc. Effective omnichannel strategies cannot function without communicating the big picture.

Going omnichannel won’t happen overnight and can include far more than the tactics I provided above, but the sooner you begin, the faster your business can reap the benefits.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Bernard May

Bernard May is the CEO of National Positions, a 5-time Inc. 500 company, award-winning marketing agency and Google Premier Partner. Read Bernard May’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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10 Questions To Ask To Know If An Omnichannel Strategy Is Working

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Sourced from Forbes

With everyone social distancing and spending more time at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, marketing through a variety of channels is vital to a company’s success. A robust omnichannel marketing plan ensures that the business can connect and engage with consumers at multiple touch points.

However, because of its distributed nature, it’s easy for an underperforming channel to slip through the cracks and go unnoticed. To help manage this risk, marketing teams need to be able to identify weak points in their omnichannel marketing strategies so that they can make needed adjustments and not waste time or money on ineffective channels.

1. ‘Are we really where we need to be?’

So many people jump onto a platform because it’s where they were “told” to go, or because they think it will be the “next big trend.” But what if your audience isn’t on that platform, or is no longer engaging on that channel, but has gone somewhere else? Then, you need to revaluate your efforts. Ask yourself the basics: “Where is my audience? And what do they need?” – Christina Hager, Ovations Digital

2. ‘Are we tracking the right customer data?’

Are you tracking the right data to adapt your marketing strategy to evolving customer preferences? The pandemic has emphasized the need for flexibility, and marketers cannot improve what they are not tracking. A robust omnichannel strategy requires communicators to tailor their message for each customer and every touch point. This can only be done by tracking how customers engage and respond. – Marija Zivanovic-Smith, NCR Corporation

3. ‘Do our channels create a unified message?’

One question marketers need to ask themselves is, “Do my channels work together to create a unified message, voice and brand?” When omnichannel marketing is done correctly, the customer can be shopping online from a desktop, on a mobile device, via phone or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience will be seamless. Once you’ve achieved a cohesive experience, you’ll know you’ve done it right. – Christian Anderson, Lost Boy Entertainment Company

4. ‘How do customers make a purchase?’

This is a very important question for retailers to answer so that they can adapt omnichannel marketing strategies and customize the shopping experience in ways to maximize revenue generation and profit. The pandemic accelerated digital adoption. Retailers must reprioritize digital, but fight the urge to go all-in on it at the expense of profitable customers who require consultation. – Anand Rao, AutoNation

 

5. ‘Do we offer seamless transitions across channels?’

One question marketers should ask is, “Can customers seamlessly transition their conversations with our brand across channels?” Today’s consumers are on the move. They may begin a conversation with you from their laptop and need to switch over to SMS text or a phone call midway through. Forcing customers to start over will cause frustration; it’s imperative that your company empowers them to transition across channels without disruption. – James Freeze, Interactions LLC

6. ‘Are we investing in the right cloud technology?’

Retail marketing is all about supporting customers on new “journeys.” This could include letting them create a cart on a store’s app that they can then use to check out at a self-checkout in the store; or it can be as simple as using contactless payments in more stores. Retailers who want to get ahead need to be selective and invest in the right cloud marketing tech now. – Lynn Kier, Diebold Nixdorf

7. ‘Are all of our campaigns connected?’

Marketing team leaders should ask themselves, “Are all of our campaigns connected and informing the success of each other?” Too many omnichannel efforts are all working independently across the various channels and not creating enough benefit for each other. – Jonathan Sasse, Metova

8. ‘Are we automating whenever possible?’

There aren’t enough hours in the day to manually harmonize content across every marketing channel. So, use marketing integration software to automate tedious workflows and manual tasks. Then, do a quarterly review of every channel’s performance. If one channel is lagging behind others on your key performance indicators, it’s time to reintroduce a focus group and see where the pain points are. – Amine Rahal, Regal Assets

9. ‘Can all touch points access updated customer information?’

The question to ask is whether all customer touch points have access to the most updated customer information so that they can deliver relevant messages to each customer. To deliver a seamless omnichannel strategy, data silos need to be removed by centralizing customer data, unifying it and making the (constantly updated) information available to each channel for a better customer journey. – Tom Treanor, Treasure Data

10. ‘Are our digital channels equipped to manage inbound?’

Customer care must be a priority. Marketing and communication professionals should ask themselves if their digital channels are equipped to manage and respond to inbound customer service requests. The digital transformation that took place this year is here to stay, and brands must prioritize their customer care efforts so that they can continue providing exceptional experiences on an ongoing basis. – Andrew Caravella, Sprout Social

Sourced from Forbes

Communications, PR, public affairs & media relations executives from Forbes Communications Council share first-hand insights.

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