So, you have a business. To grow that business, you will have to market for it, and working with a content writing agency is a crucial step, but so is having the right strategy. With your content writers, you can develop the right kind of strategy – either multichannel or omnichannel marketing. The right strategy will most probably create a better experience for your consumers.
Think to yourself: As a business, how many different marketing channels are you using to advertise or market your company, brand, product, or service?
It’s likely that it is more than one as this gives you the opportunity to reach more than one audience and increase your chances of growing your business.
Today, consumers are seeking content through many different devices and channels. In turn, this brings up the point of choosing between multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing.
While many people seem to think it is the same thing, they are actually quite different. So, before moving forward, let’s break them down for clarification.
What is Multichannel Marketing?
Hint: it’s pretty straightforward.
It is interacting through multiple different channels to reach your prospective customers or clients. These channels include social media, direct mail, email, websites, landing pages, etc. Each individual channel operates in an independent fashion from the others, and each one has its own goals and strategies.
When compared to single-channel marketing, multichannel is oftentimes more effective. This is due to the fact that you and your content writing agency aren’t relying on a single platform to engage with your target market.
Multichannel marketing allows you to reach a wider or different target market across each platform or channel.
How about an example?
If you are a company that has a single-channel marketing strategy and only focus on email advertising, you will only reach people who have or use email. On the other hand, with multichannel marketing, you can increase your company’s reach by using email, social media, website, and more.
In most cases, you will find that multichannel marketing is more effective than single-channel marketing, not only because of reach, but also because consumers prefer to engage with companies that utilize more than one channel. In fact, 72% of consumers would rather connect with businesses through multiple channels vs. only one channel.
With multichannel marketing, you will have a larger opportunity to engage with consumers, which can lead to a boost in revenue.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Yes, there is a difference.
With omnichannel marketing, you are still interacting with consumers through various channels, but the main difference is that you are focused on providing an integrated experience.
Providing an integrated experience for consumers is key for omnichannel marketing. This way, when your consumers go from channel to channel (which they are likely to do nowadays) they will become more inclined to make a purchase or convert.
Harvard Business Review found that 73% of consumers go through multiple channels before making their purchase.
Let’s focus on the consumers a bit. You remember reading about targeting millennials with help from your content writing agency, right?
Well, as consumers, 60% of millennials expect to have a consistent experience when going through multiple channels. This includes online, physical, and all other channels.
When businesses meet these consumer expectations, they increase their retention rate and more.
An important thing to note with omnichannel marketing is that it is more shopper-based compared to channel-based. Consistent engagement through each channel can improve the consumer experience.
Is One Better Than the Other?
To put it simply – it all comes down to the consumer.
Your business will survive with help from your consumers, so why not make sure that they are pleased?
The watch your consumer viewed on their computer is the same as the one they same while scrolling down their Instagram feed, and the same one they got an email about when it went on sale a few days later.
An integrated experience is what you would create for the consumer with the example above. You would keep the message consistent and customize it based on the consumer’s behavior while exploring your different channels.
This information was a lot, so I’m going to break here so that you have some time to digest it all and talk with your content writing agency about your strategy.
We’ll continue next time with how you can benefit more from omnichannel than multichannel marketing in your business strategy!
