Customers today want a consistent, smooth, and personalised experience regardless of how they interact with your company – online, in-store, over the phone, live chat, SMS, or elsewhere. However, as companies scramble to satisfy clients on their preferred channels, two major issues have arisen –  semented silos and obsolete software. Teams have traditionally been organised to focus on certain channels (marketing oversees email campaigns, customer support handles incoming calls, social media is split between paid and organic,etc.) However, in the absence of a centralised data centre, teams frequently develop tunnel vision, focusing on only a portion of the omnichannel engagement and client experience. As a result, the consumer experience is clumsy and disconnected. An omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, brings all channels together to provide a complete picture of the user journey.

Read on to know more about what omnichannel engagement is, how to execute it successfully, and how other businesses have used it to delight their consumers.

What is the need for Omnichannel Engagement?

They don’t just jump from one store to the next, but they also shop across numerous channels as well. They may make online purchases while waiting in line at a physical store, or they may use cellphones as shopping assistants in stores. As a result, 87 % of retailers consider omnichannel marketing to be critical to their success. They recognise that in order to stay on top of their act, they must provide customers with a consistent experience across all touchpoints. It is important for the retailers to understand the role of  omnichannel marketing and how you can use it to give your customers a unique experience while increasing your ROI.

To assist you with making a great omnichannel marketing campaign, we have put up a complete guide with suggestions and omnichannel engagement and marketing techniques. Let’s get this party started.

How to make omnichannel engagement work

Infrastructure

First, organizations must have the proper infrastructure in place to implement multichannel consumer engagement. Teams across the company should have access to a consolidated data hub that provides a single source of truth for customer behaviour and history across all channels.

Although it may seem self-evident, an unified customer experience starts with an integrated technology stack. There are a few important factors to consider in this situation. The first is the issue of accessibility. The idea is to make this aggregated consumer data useful. It’s critical to have a simple interface that enables teams to access, share, and act on insights. This includes the ability to group users into cohorts based on their event behaviour or other characteristics (like purchase frequency,  pages viewed, and so on).

Scalability

Customer channels are continuously changing and expanding, and organisations are adding additional tools and apps to their processes to keep up with them. It’s critical to be able to easily incorporate fresh data sources. This helps to retain momentum and a 360-degree perspective of the customer.

Businesses will never miss an opportunity to engage customers while using real-time information to trigger relevant messaging.

You may focus your omnichannel engagement and marketing around mobile apps in four ways for distinct client phases:

• Welcoming new users: Develop a well-thought-out onboarding strategy to guide users through the app’s various capabilities.
• Keeping them engaged: Keeping your users interested with your programme will prevent them from uninstalling it.
• Re-engaging inactive users: Re-engage dormant users with tailored and rich push alerts.
• Convert customers into brand advocates: The most reliable method is to turn your consumers into brand evangelists.

How can financial services handle client engagement across all channels?

The below mentioned methods give multichannel engagement to your clients once you have made the decision to position your brand as a lifestyle brand

1. Analyze

Combine all of your consumer data into a one, 360-degree view that includes their app/online behaviour as well as their demographics. Your bank most likely already has a solid data architecture in place. How do you get the appropriate data so you can build the right services for your clients at the right time?

2. Segment

Segmenting consumers based on detailed customer data also allows you to determine which customers are better positioned.  It also helps you reach out more actively to those who are more likely to require assistance. Understand how it works and helps marketers.

3. Optimize omnichannel engagement strategy

Make efficient use of AI and other innovations to develop conversion-optimized campaigns. AI can also assist you customise each user’s experience on your website or app. Because your customers know you are looking out for them, personalization increases brand trust.

4. Engage:

   No one wants to be bombarded with notifications for services they have previously signed up for or aren’t using. Keep customers engaged by sending the correct communication at the right moment. By creating and delivering content that targeted the appropriate audience at the right time using predictive analytics identifying user location and prior patterns in purchase. This strategy results in a tenfold increase in gold account conversions.

What is the best way to build a seamless omnichannel engagement experience?

To build the ideal omnichannel experience, start with a thorough understanding of your customer. Understanding your clients on a deeper level entails paying attention to the platforms they use to shop. You can consider their purchase habits, the issues they confront when shopping, communication mode at every touchpoint, and the devices. This information will assist you in identifying the appropriate touch points and focusing on strengthening your efforts. By integrating the platforms you can provide a seamless and customised experience for your clients. It assists in determining typical client challenges and suggest a feasible solution.

Here are some options for omnichannel engagement:

• Build a detailed strategy for how you want the customer’s experience to flow across all touchpoints. Understand their channels, their behaviour across all channels, and create a specific plan to provide seamless experience across all touchpoints.
• Use data as a foundation for strategizing – Using CRM data, social listening data, and consumer internet search behaviour. You will be able to understand how your customers behave and develop a relevant solution. With effective use of the data, you can even cut churn.
• Segment users and customise the trip – Once you have analysed the data, you can quickly categorise people into distinct groups based on similar patterns of behaviour. This will guide marketers to create unique journeys for each customer type.
• Get the context correct – The context is the most important aspect of an omnichannel marketing plan. Your users may get disappointed and stop engaging with the brands as a result of sending wrong message at the wrong timing. Hence, ensure to send relevant message to the user at the right time where they spend more time.
• Choose the correct marketing automation tools – Use the correct marketing platforms to implement your strategy, from ideation through implementation. Conduct a thorough investigation before choosing on the best one.
• Make your company more customer-focused – This is a crucial step. Because no plan or marketing tool can work unless your personnel are taught to provide a consistent experience to clients.

Tips for Increasing Your Return on Investment through omnichannel engagement

• Constant messaging: Ensure that the messaging is consistent across the customer lifecycle, from training your marketing, sales, and customer service professionals to personalising the content.
• Consistent experience: If you want to increase customer lifetime value (LTV), you need to focus on providing a consistent experience across all touchpoints. Ensure that your personnel is well-trained to give such an experience. As different customers will connect with your business in different ways, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
• Data-driven marketing: The key to successful marketing is personalization. Use data-driven marketing to better understand your clients so you can communicate with them in the most effective way possible.

Takeaway

A centralised data hub that consolidates customer data in real time from any source with new apps and platforms. Furthermore, the omnichannel comes with the ability to group all of your customers into a single profile that is updated in real time, regardless of how they engage with your company. Its flexible characteristics to send individualised communications and preferences across a variety of consumer engagement platforms helps in personalization.