Digital marketing is a critical part of the modern consumer’s path to purchase and continues to establish itself in the South African market. As communication technologies have become more affordable and access to the internet more wide-spread and readily available to South African consumers, brands now have the ability to speak to them anywhere, anytime and over multiple platforms, which offers both unique opportunities and challenges.
While it remains true that great marketing provides the consumer with an experience that feels personal and seamless, if you want to cater to the modern consumer, you have to adopt a new approach to customer experience – an omnichannel approach.
What is an ‘omnichannel’ approach?
This is when a business advertises to, and communicates with, customers across multiple channels, treating each interaction or touchpoint (e.g. social media, WhatsApp, SMS, websites etc.) as part of a single, frictionless whole. This approach enables customers to begin their experience with a brand in one channel and continue it on another channel seamlessly.
Omnichannel vs multichannel
Most businesses use multiple channels for sales and customer support. But, having multiple channels doesn’t automatically equate to an omnichannel experience. If every channel operates independently in its own silo, it’s not omnichannel!
An omnichannel approach involves interacting with consumers through a variety of channels, but instead of having a unique strategy for each one, omnichannel focuses on creating an integrated experience in real time.
The benefits of an omnichannel approach
It allows brands to reach consumers in a contextually relevant way at every point in their journey, regardless of the channel they access from. This has been shown to positively impact the quality of customer interactions, increase customer engagement, improve customer retention and generate more revenue (according to a recent ClickZ study – shoppers who use three or more channels to interact with brands have a purchasing frequency rate 250% higher than single-channel users).
Sounds good, what’s next?
Adopting, implementing, or improving on an omnichannel approach to customer experience requires in-depth research and strategy development – this is by no means a simple task…but, it’s where hoola delivers remarkable impact!
Our omnichannel marketing solutions include mapping the customer journey, recommending the right technology, using data-gathering and analytics to generate insights into who your ideal market is and what they need from you, and creating content that not only breaks boundaries, but also ensures that your brand communication remains consistent across all channels.
Consistency is key to developing trust. Trust builds repeat customers, and the easiest way to grow revenue is through repeat business.
