One of the last frontiers of digital marketing is joining up online and offline channels, also known as ‘omnichannel marketing’.
The reason omnichannel has remained out of reach for most marketers is that consumers seem to almost deliberately throw marketers ‘off the scent’ by failing to use coupons, forgetting to scan QR codes, and (most annoyingly of all) changing their internet-connected device between searching online and visiting the physical store.
Seriously, though, it’s pretty tough for those tasked with coming up with an omnichannel strategy as online-to-offline customer journeys are notoriously difficult to map and joining the relevant data is almost impossible.
So, what is a marketer tasked with an omnichannel initiative to do? To find out, Econsultancy recently invited dozens of client-side marketers to discuss omnichannel marketing. At the tables led by both Dean Salakas, Director at The Party People and Chris Jahnsen, Data & Content Manager at Tourism Tropical North Queensland, marketers openly discussed their frustrations and occasional successes with one of marketing’s most difficult concepts, omnichannel.
So what should someone who is working on an omnichannel strategy know?
There are many ways to get omnichannel data
First off, those working on an omnichannel projected listed a number of ways that marketers can get data which helps link online and offline customers:
- WiFi sign on
- Beacons
- Coupons / loyalty programmes
- Competitions
- Call centres
- Specialized landing pages
- Events
Additionally, both Google and Facebook offer ‘store visit’ conversions so that you can measure the effect of your digital ad on real-world behaviour.
Finally, some more experienced marketers said that third party data, such as from Quantium, was a good way to decipher the omnichannel customer journey but warned that third party data can be prohibitively expensive.
All in all, marketers recommended that people who are just starting in omnichannel should do as much research as possible to find the data sources which most closely match their requirements.
