The days of recording information about leads and sales and associating this data with certain advertising campaigns are gone. Today, the customer journey has grown into something much more complex - a winding path, if you like, which moves fluidly between various online and offline channels, with the customer firmly in the driving seat.
As a result of this shift, online tracking data has evolved to become a key element of omnichannel marketing attribution. Being able to see precisely at what stage your potential customer is along the purchasing funnel, and knowing how to optimise each channel to deliver the most efficient customer experience, is the key with omnichannel marketing.
Let's take a look at some new technology tools allowing us to connect customer touchpoints and four ways to effectively fine-tune your approach to guiding consumers along their path to purchase.
Optimise the entire search funnel
Nowadays, consumers will spend long periods of time doing their own pre-purchase research and according to Google clickstream research, 70 percent of shoppers use search at some point during that research process.
To achieve the maximum number of profitable sales or conversions, digital marketers need to understand the value of every 'assist' click and search term entered along the consumer path. This means thinking about the full search market and not just the highly commercial terms. We often assume that consumers begin with a generic keyword and move on to brand terms, however this is not always the case. If you want to maximise sales you need to take advantage of all consumer touchpoints, and not just those terms that drive business on a last-click basis.
Actions:
- expose undervalued keywords in your paid search campaigns by measuring the sensitivity of keyword performance to multiple attribution models;
- use conversion tracking to understand which keywords lead to 'assist' click and which are your big 'last-click' keywords;
- identify areas for possible misattribution, using tools such as Google's Search Funnels.
Make the most of online data
Although keeping track of customers has become a lot more complicated, the benefit of online tracking data is that it means highly personalised targeting is becoming closer to a reality.
Keywords, website clicks, and engagement on social channels are the online clues that constitute the customer profile. Having access to these clues not only allows you to send promotional offers at the right time, but means you can create a complete omnichannel experience for the customer. See at what stage the user is along the purchasing funnel, and know exactly which offer to promote, and also, perhaps, which channel to target them on.
Actions:
- analyse the data you have acquired about your customer behaviour - segment and target this data according to your marketing goals;
- test out different promotional offers based on which stage people are in the purchasing funnel.
Remember to integrate offline channels
In an era of sophisticated online insight tools, marketers are often reluctant to accept that one of the most important channels in a successful omnichannel strategy is an offline one: the phone.
Although we may live in an 'always-on' world, human relationships are what foster the most memorable customer experiences. 74 percent of online shoppers polled by ResponseTap, said that speaking to a call center rep gives them peace of mind and confidence that they're getting exactly what they want. The offline world may be much more difficult to integrate into your omnichannel strategy due to the absence of trackable data. However, when done right it promises to offer a considerably more memorable and satisfying experience for the customer.
Actions:
- ensure your marketing department and call center are closely linked and don't operate in information silos.
Connect data and go omnichannel
The main factor influencing your brand's ability to stand out is no longer simply about your message, but how you manage to build relationships with your audience. Omnichannel marketing is about personalising your message in order to give the impression you are interacting directly with the customer. It seeks to provide a flexible and seamless brand message regardless of whether the customer is browsing your website, interacting on social media, or speaking to a call center rep.
See the benefits of an omnichannel in this infographic from Deloitte:
One way to build solid relationships is to use data from customer interactions to deliver increasingly relevant communications, content, and offers. This relationship will need to span multiple channels, from social media and websites to brick-and-mortar locations and the contact center.
Actions:
- use this tool from Google to explore how customers move through channels within your industry, and to learn which channels you should be linking up as a priority.