Omnichannel is a strategy for almost every company operating at least partially online. Implementing this approach will help you attract more customers, build a consistent brand image, and cultivate good, long-term relationships with your target group. However, implementing omnichannel varies depending on the company's profile. That's why we want to show you five practical examples of how you can implement this strategy in your company.
Let's start with a short explanation: Omnichannel is a communication strategy that involves using all available channels to stay in touch with customers/users. It is also important that these channels are unified - each offers the same communication and the same offers. In this way, your company can build trust and engagement among the target group.
To show you how it works in practice, we took a closer look at five types of companies that can use this approach in their work:
Let's start with the online store.
Online stores probably have one of the widest scopes of omnichannel that can be implemented. This is because they can communicate with their audiences via a website, mobile app, social media, email marketing, push notifications, and even brick-and-mortar stores. So implementing omnichannel in e-commerce can be really broad, if your budget allows.
Let's take a look at a typical e-commerce purchase journey and how omnichannel can improve it:
The customer starts their journey by browsing products on your store’s mobile app. They sign up for your newsletter (to get a welcome discount on their first order) and receive personalized product recommendations via email. Now, this customer has two options – they can place an order online or go to a brick-and-mortar store (if there is one) and see the products in person. If this e-commerce company has a brick-and-mortar store, the customer should be able to order the product online and pick it up in the store at their convenience.
There are other communication tools available, such as push notifications and pop-ups. E-commerce businesses can use both to promote special offers, educate customers, showcase new products, and support advertising campaigns (e.g., Google Ads). It is also important that customer service is consistent across all of these channels to ensure that every customer receives the same service and attention. An omnichannel online store can also implement a virtual assistant who can assist customers 24/7.
A SaaS platform can leverage omnichannel primarily by unifying communications across available channels, such as a website, mobile app, email marketing, customer service, and social media.
Here's what it might look like for a B2B company :
A potential customer finds the company through an ad (e.g. on Google or LinkedIn) and decides to sign up for a trial period via the website. After a while, this customer receives a confirmation of the sign-up via email along with login details. The onboarding team contacts this customer via email to offer support and free online training. At the same time, this customer can always ask for help from the platform's customer service via chat or the mobile app.
This SaaS company takes building credibility and trust seriously, so as part of its omnichannel approach, it creates and distributes a lot of content. It does this by creating webinars, podcasts, and regularly posting on social media (like the aforementioned LinkedIn) to educate users and promote new features. Everything is integrated, so this SaaS company can track user activity and personalize communications based on available data. It’s similar with customer service. Because agents have access to previous interactions with each customer, they can offer tailored solutions regardless of the channel a customer uses.
Generally, when we think of omnichannel, small B2B companies like a marketing agency are not the first thing that comes to mind. But the truth is that such companies can also leverage omnichannel. They can do so by simply integrating communication with their customers and leads via email, social media, and other communication channels. Marketing agencies can also use content marketing to build credibility on social media.
Here's what it might look like:
A potential client sees an agency’s LinkedIn profile and decides to see what the company has to offer. The client decides to visit their website and sees content tailored to their company profile. As a result, they decide to contact the agency and schedule a free consultation. While we’ve outlined the entire process in a few sentences, the truth is that it can take weeks, if not months.
To make this process effective and repeatable, the agency should continually build visibility and authority on social media to showcase case studies and projects, while also driving traffic to the website or contact form. Additionally, through integration with CRM tools, the agency can track customer engagement across multiple channels and offer consistent experiences. Whether the first point of contact for a customer is social media, email marketing, or referrals, the agency should maintain brand and messaging consistency across the board.
An FMCG company can implement omnichannel by integrating its e-commerce platform, in-store promotions, mobile apps, email marketing, and social media. These companies are usually very active in both the offline and online worlds, so it is likely that customers will see ads for the company's products on Instagram, in the supermarket, or even at a bus stop. FMCG companies also often use different types of discount codes to provide customers with additional benefits.
An FMCG company looking to implement omnichannel should synchronize such codes and other promotions across all offline and online channels to offer consumers the opportunity to redeem the offer from multiple locations. Some FMCG companies may also use email marketing and SMS/push notifications to provide customers with product updates, while social media channels help them build customer engagement through interactive content and events like challenges and competitions. And since we’re talking about omnichannel, the FMCG company should ensure that all consumers receive consistent messages and can seamlessly “switch” between online and offline channels when interacting with the brand.
Finally, let’s talk briefly about how a travel agency can use omnichannel to unify communications across its marketing and sales channels. For these businesses, these channels typically include a website, mobile app, email marketing, social media, and brick-and-mortar locations.
Here's a typical scenario for how customers would interact with such a company:
We start with a customer who wants to go on vacation. The customer searches for available options and destinations on the travel agency's website, signs up for a newsletter (which gives them a discount on their first trip), and receives personalized travel recommendations via email. In a short time, the customer decides to purchase the trip and downloads a mobile app, which allows them to track all the important information related to their upcoming trip in real time.
Social media platforms like Instagram are also very important for travel agencies. Many travel companies use these platforms to share travel inspiration and showcase beautiful photos of the hotels and places the company offers.
A travel agency can also offer live/online consultations, and agents can have access to customer profiles and travel preferences gathered from various online channels (this is where a good CRM comes into play!). A travel company can also use push notifications to inform travelers about flight changes, new hotel deals, or destination tips; all of this should align with the agency’s overall communications strategy. By integrating these channels, a travel agency can provide a seamless experience throughout the entire customer journey, from planning a trip to returning home.
Omnichannel is definitely worth implementing; this strategy can make your business more interactive and more responsive to the needs and preferences of your customers/users. If you are thinking about implementing omnichannel in your business, iPresso can help you. We have many tools and features that are essential to implement this strategy in almost every business.
If you want to see how iPresso can help your business, start with a free 30-day trial !