Is Your Digital Marketing Integrated Enough For Omnichannel Success?

Eva Maria Schmidt
July 2, 2019

More and more businesses realize that delivering seamless customer experiences across channels is crucial for their long-term success. In 2019, more than 90 percent of retailers and brands have defined an omnichannel strategy or will soon make the investment. But only 8 percent said they have mastered omnichannel.

When it comes to mastering omnichannel, the most important element, according to 46 percent of marketers worldwide, is providing ‘fully integrated channels of engagement’. Brands with integrated omnichannel touch points can let customers start researching a product on their laptop, receive related advertising on social, ask questions on chat, make the purchase on their phone and pick up the product at their nearest store.

Combining these touchpoints harmoniously – and supported by targeted, personalized marketing communications – requires integration on the following three levels:

  1. Integration of experiences. How can you provide a consistent experience for customers across the channels you provide? Where will you need channel-specific images, messages and CTAs? What will you need for mobile users? Are you using individual channels for specific tasks, like push messages for real time marketing experiences?
  2. Integration of MarTech solutions. Do you have a single technology solution to address all of your channels? If not, can individual technology solutions integrate or ‘talk’ to one another via open architectures and APIs? Are all your data points plugged into a customer data platform (CDP)?
  3. Integration at the business level. Are you working and communicating with other departments that play a part in your omnichannel marketing experience? Can you control marketing pressure across channels to avoid over-communicating? Are your marketing data points, consumer behavior and insights accessible to in-store staff, customer support, ecommerce teams?

Marketers need to achieve integration on all three levels to meet the demands of today’s channel-agnostic customers. According to recent surveys, 95 percent of customers use three or more channels and 62 percent use more than one device to connect with a company in a single service interaction. Retail purchasing habits are equally diversified: 73 percent of U.S. shoppers use multiple channels to complete a purchase and ‘omnichannel customers’ are avid users of brand-owned touchpoints.

How Brands Make Omnichannel Integration Happen

Showing is better than telling. Here are some examples of excellent customer experiences, founded on omnichannel integration:

The brands leading the way with customer-centric omnichannel experiences are not here by accident. They have made a strategic decision to get serious about serving customers across channels (also read our white paper on Getting Started with True Omnichannel Marketing). Inspired by a growing list of successful examples, more and more brands are increasing their omnichannel commitment.

In 2018, 43 percent of U.S. marketers wanted to spend more on omnichannel services and capabilities than the previous year, while 5 percent were ready to double their investment. The main goal, for 58 percent of respondents, is better integration of existing technology systems. By integrating experiences, MarTech solutions and business strategies, these brands will be ready to serve the right message on the right channel, right when the customer needs it.