Omnichannel Marketing
throughout that journey. The goal of
omnichannel is to make that dance as
smooth and effortless as possible. That
means that every touchpoint with the
shopper needs to be crafted in a way
that is consistent throughout that pro-
cess regardless of the channel. There-
fore, an effective omnichannel strategy
must include messaging, branding,
product assortment, product attributes,
pricing, returns, shipping. with a merchant should be intentional
and crafted for a specific purpose. To
accomplish this, merchants must learn
more about their shoppers.
This begins by creating a digital re-
lationship with them via email, through
a loyalty program, with mobile, or on
social media. Once a relationship has
been established, gather as much infor-
mation about them as possible. Elicit
feedback, track purchases, and use the For example, to reach the teach-
er described here, the marketing
strategy could include a blog post
that discusses how to inspire stu-
dents, advertisements on Pinterest
for products that are geared towards
emotional wellness, an email cam-
paign offering creative teaching
training materials, or a back to
school promotion for discounted
classroom decor.
To address each of these areas,
let’s group them into three focus areas
so I can highlight some critical omni-
channel considerations for each. data gathered to fix negative situations
or to recreate positive experiences for
other customers.
This data can also be used to
create buyer personas. In this critical
process, shoppers are segmented
into similar groups, perhaps “new
female teacher”, “new male teacher”,
“elementary child’s mom”, “school
administrator”, “PTA President”,
“homeschool teacher”, etc. For each,
list that persona’s buying habits, per-
sonality traits, and motivators. Once
established, craft each touchpoint of
that persona’s buying journey so they
are served relevant content that will
appeal to them at each step. While brand interaction ad-
dresses how well merchants relate
to shoppers, the omnichannel
shopping experience tackles how
fluidly a shopper can move between
channels. When designing strategy,
a few scenarios stand out as they are
not only frequently encountered by
shoppers but also tend to be com-
mon points of failure on the omni-
channel quest.
1. Brand interaction
2. Shopping experience
3. Operational support
As I mentioned earlier, the heart of
any omnichannel strategy is the shop-
per. Every interaction a shopper has
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