Different Paths to a Purchase Decision
Is omnichannel marketing just a retail concept, or is it already part of forward-looking B2B marketing? Find out whether this term is worth integrating into your strategy or whether it can be dismissed as just another buzzword.
Take a look at your customers’ purchasing behavior and how it affects your company’s growth. In this article, you’ll learn what omnichannel marketing actually means and how to not only develop but also implement a truly effective omnichannel strategy.
What is omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is a cross-channel model based on the premise of non-linear purchasing behavior. This means that potential customers use different devices and channels in an intertwined manner when they come into contact with a product or a company.
This means that omnichannel marketing is more than just an intuitively designed online store or a user-friendly website. It is the effective combination of several areas that makes omnichannel strategies successful:
Search Engine Visibility (SEO, SEA)
Cross-channel online and offline communication (social media, blog, newsletter, phone calls, PR)
Automated Processes (Marketing Automation)
Use of Data from (Google Analytics)
How to Develop a Good Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
1. Offer user-focused content
To meet the expectations of your customers and prospects, you should continuously work to provide relevant content at the right time through the right channels. This could include blog posts that help you gain visibility in search engines for important topics. Or you can design an automated email workflow that’s personalized and precisely tailored to your communication goals.
First, you should understand what your potential customers need. To this end, buyer personas are created based on collected data and experience. These provide a new, more detailed view of an archetypal representative of your target audience. The goal of this process is to identify marketing and sales channels, as well as potential content, that appeal to the buyer persona.
To get started with omnichannel marketing, ask yourself the following questions:
- Through which channels does your persona stay informed and engaged?
- Where does she actually interact with your company, and what are her expectations for what happens next?
The responses can be used to map out a meaningful customer journey, in which the results are documented. The customer journey is a helpful analytical tool. In this analysis, online and offline channels should be treated equally. All too often, one is neglected in favor of the other.
Omnichannel Marketing – An Example
A technology company is developing a lead generation strategy and is therefore focusing on all key online channels: from its website and corporate blog to social media platforms, newsletters, and automated email marketing campaigns. Offline channels such as magazines and trade journals were not included in the considerations, nor was the possibility of generating leads through cold calling.
What has been overlooked here is that PR activities, just like professional phone calls (prospecting or lead qualification), can be an essential part of a lead generation strategy. Omnichannel marketing for targeted lead generation therefore starts with the persona’s needs. The result is a customer journey that reveals which channels (both online and offline) are actually relevant and what content should be made available to the personas on those channels.
Tip
A good omnichannel marketing strategy allows you to seamlessly integrate digital and traditional channels.
2. Collecting Information About Customers
You can use the right analytics tools to determine your customers’ journeys, the content they consume, and the channels they interact with. This allows you to continually learn new things about your personas and tailor your content and strategies specifically to them.
Using Google Analytics reports, such as the one shown in the following chart, you can analyze KPIs such as the engagement rate and page views. The engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that involve interaction. This could be, for example, a visit to your website during which at least two or more pages were viewed, a link was clicked, or a video was watched.
The engagement rate is therefore calculated as follows:
Engagement Rate =
Number of sessions with interaction / Total number of sessions
However, GA4 already handles this for you and displays the percentage.
Pageviews are defined as a view of a page on your website that is tracked by the Google Analytics tracking code. If someone visits a subpage, this counts as another pageview. Each additional page is recorded as an additional pageview in Google Analytics. Pageviews are displayed as events in GA4.
3. Behavior-Based Advertising
Cross-channel tracking is a key aspect of omnichannel marketing. This term refers to tracking a user’s digital footprint across various channels online. This is possible at the individual level only until Google—as announced—no longer supports third-party providers. The alternative is called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). With this, Google has created a new solution for an advertising platform in which data is no longer collected and shared on an individual level, but is instead stored in each individual browser.
Advertisers can thus track data and use the information gathered for advertising purposes. However, instead of using individualized user profiles, this approach relies on so-called cohorts. These are larger groups based on browser data from thousands of users. This protects users’ privacy while still allowing them to be shown personalized ads.
Online advertising has the advantage over traditional advertising channels in that the target audience can be narrowed down very precisely through targeting. This allows you to achieve measurable results and maintain full control over costs. Under these conditions, advertising decisions can be made with much greater flexibility and a greater willingness to take risks.
In omnichannel marketing, you should set up and test different activities or campaigns. Adopt a “trial and error” mindset to keep improving your approach. Marketing automation is an ongoing process that involves testing, measuring, and learning from the results.
Omnichannel marketing is a crucial part of a forward-looking B2B marketing strategy. With a successful omnichannel strategy, you can deliver relevant content through the channels that make sense for each persona. In doing so, you can continuously learn from your users’ behavior and make data-driven decisions.
4. Automation Tools Make Omnichannel Marketing Complete
If you collect data and enter it correctly into CRM systems right away, you can automate your marketing activities. Marketing automation helps you collect data across all channels, generate leads, and segment your audience.
Leads are added to a list based on various criteria, such as downloaded content, demographics, specific interactions with your content, willingness to purchase, or completed workflows. Segmentation and user behavior derived from data make it possible to distribute highly targeted content to prospects. Customer journeys are defined, and the system automatically responds to user behavior.
With this lead nurturing method, you continue to maintain and foster contact with potential customers. The goal of this tactic is to provide prospects with relevant content. This helps you raise awareness of your company’s services or the quality of your products. Leads are further qualified in this way so they can be automatically transferred—for example, to the telemarketing team —and subsequently passed on to the sales team as Sales Qualified Leads (SQL).
This means that you can also integrate offline activities—such as appointments for telemarketing staff—into the marketing automation process using modern tools like HubSpot.
Some trends are here to stay and will shape the future of marketing
In recent years, numerous companies have adopted a cross-channel approach. The retail sector, in particular, has been shaped by terms such as omnichannel marketing, multichannel, and cross-channel. These developments stem from changing consumer behavior. According to a study by Comarch & KantarTNS¹, 87% of consumers expect to find digital services available in brick-and-mortar stores as well.
While omnichannel marketing has long been the norm in B2C retail, it is also gaining ground in the B2B sector. Today’s customers have high expectations, regardless of the industry. These include a simple and fast ordering process with transparent product information and a personalized customer journey. The fact that [1] is already the case in B2B e-commerce is a clear sign that B2B companies, too, need an omnichannel strategy to remain competitive in the future.
The challenges of the future are, above all, dynamic and global markets as well as diverse target audiences. These can only be addressed with a sound digital strategy, automated processes, and intelligent use of data.
3 Common Questions About Omnichannel Marketing
What is the goal of omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing aims to provide customers and prospects with consistent communication tailored to their needs, both online and offline. This also means that, as a company, you maintain a presence on all key channels.
Your advertising should reach people who have already shown interest in your brand, as well as those who are still considered latent leads. At the end of the day, a well-designed omnichannel strategy leads to increased sales and a higher return on investment.
Omnichannel Marketing – Does That Mean Using All Channels?
Good channels are those where your target audience is active. This varies depending on the industry, product, and resulting buyer personas. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to follow a specific formula when choosing channels.
Tip
Focus on the channels that are relevant to you!
How do we implement our omnichannel marketing?
The idea behind omnichannel marketing—linking different channels together—is a good start. The challenge is to implement the concept and continue working on it consistently. Start by defining buyer personas, get to know your customers, and create a personalized buying process.
Next, launch a continuous omnichannel marketing process—for which it’s best to create an implementation plan. The measures range from regularly creating and improving your content to implementing new tools and processes for user-optimized advertising and marketing automation.
Tip
Bring experts on board who can provide expertise!
The Most Important Points for Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy at a Glance
- Define buyer personas and their needs so that you can then map out your customer journey.
- Combine online and offline channels for your lead generation.
- Learn from your users’ behavior. Tailor your channels and messages accordingly.
- Focus on customer preferences and try out new approaches in your advertising.
- Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and create a measurable implementation plan.
- Measure your success and continuously optimize your strategies and content.
