Omnichanneling: the right way to promote yourself online

Here you are! You have recently put your ecommerce website online and would like all the effort, financial and cognitive to generate excellent performance on the platform to be paid off with a cascade of sales. You have everything you need: the site is aesthetically beautiful, the design is functional, the products you sell are perfect, but visits to the site are sporadic and random. There is a big problem!

It’s not enough to put a shop online, create social pages and hope something happens!

In order for what every entrepreneur in the digital world would like to see to happen, it is important to implement an omnichannel strategy that systematizes and enhances all media manned by the brand in the right way. According to the data of Osservatorio Omnichannel Customer Experience:

70 percent of large and medium-sized companies consider omnichannel the best way for strategic business development.

What Omnichannelality means in an online business

“Omnichannel” holistically identifies the concept of customer experience built from knowledge of the customer journey. In recent years, customer experience, has evolved from mere marketing strategies useful for maximizing sales to an overview that includes customer care, retail, logistics and supply chain. To truly understand the concept of omnichannelality, one must first focus on that of customer experience. The consumer experience is realized through all the interactions the consumer has with the brand through institutional communication, consumer experience, and social comparison. Thus emerges a strictly personal abstract concept that involves the customer emotionally, rationally, sensorially and physically. Having clarified the concept of “consumer experience” and analyzed the factors that determine it, the definition of omnichannelality can be introduced through the timely words of Inside Marketing:

“Omnichannelality is the term used to refer to the synergistic management of all contact points between the company and customers (online and offline) that must be interconnected. It aims to make sure that we provide an optimal brand contact experience that is seamless and totally consumer-centric.”.

From this assumption, it emerges how this delicate practice synergistically involves all the touchpoints used by the company to reach the customer, i.e., the assets that the company has at its disposal to develop a firm bond with the customer that is as long-lasting as possible. These tools fall into 2 categories:

• • physical such as retail, call centers, service centers;

• • online such as social media, mobile app, website and e-commerce.

Thus, it emerges that the differential factor between a well-done marketing strategy and an excellent marketing strategy comes from the integrated management of these channels. This new vision stems from a strong awareness of different media and their potential, moving from optimized to integrated management. Thus emerge the concepts of multichannel as the combined use of multiple channels and cross-channel, which involves the development of integrated projects across multiple channels generating a customer experience that enhances two or more different touchpoints. An omnichannel marketing strategy makes it possible to increase the number of potential customers by intercepting and converting more consumers during all steps of the customer journey. The initiatives undertaken all start from a data-driven approach by ensuring that the actions implemented are suggested and take their cues from the user habits implemented up to that point. In reality, there are currently few companies using systems to automate and personalize omnichannel marketing initiatives. From a retail perspective, omnichannel can be seen as a competitive factor. This is now familiar to all retailers who, since digital has disrupted our consumption habits, are busy reformulating their business proposition through synergistic integration of all channels.

Benefits offered by an omnichannel strategy

Omnichannel impacts all business units of an organization by generating widespread benefits for the entire organization. The business areas most involved, in planning and benefits, are those that preside over the “last mile” by establishing a relationship with the customer. It thus emerges that those most involved in such activities are those working in the marketing and communications, sales, crm and customer care departments. These, more than others, are able to exert direct control over the customer experience by having a decisive impact on it. The benefits that emerge from virtuous activities of this kind generate: an increase in sales and revenues; an optimization of costs and internal processes; an improvement in lead acquisition in terms of volume of contacts generated and cost per contact; increased consumer and employee satisfaction; a higher rate of customer engagement and loyalty; and an improvement in service levels.

Data-driven omnichanneling: timely management of marketing initiatives

Using an approach based on the analysis and study of data is definitely an added value for Omnichannel management. The data to be extracted, organized and analyzed will have to refer to all the actions the customer takes during the customer journey. Since the internet and the network have become pervasive in all the actions we perform our devices produce a multitude of data, still segmented and uneven, that leave a furrow in the world of the web and digital hypertext. This data, being produced in disproportionate volumes, will need to be organized according to the interests and goals pursued. Once the policy of data collection and use has been rationalized, the data will need to be organized into digital repositories that catalog them in a timely and effective manner. One of the many databases that can facilitate such work is Hubspot a very effective tool in which the Biscuitway team believes strongly, to the point of becoming its certified partner. This model can be defined as “data-driven” in that the consumer and his or her habits are intercepted through the collection, analysis and exploitation of data released by the latter in all moments of contact with the brand. The three steps needed to develop a strategy based on firm point data are:

• • Data collection: at this stage all data, primary and secondary, available to the organization are collected and integrated. The touchpoints through which data can be collected are: the point of sale, the website, direct marketing channels, corporate information systems, and data purchased from third-party providers.
  • Data Analysis: once the data is collected, it is analyzed and processed in order to obtain new insights that have the corporate objectives as their focus. It will then be possible to generate a general overview of the consumer. The analyses can be of various kinds from the simplest and merely descriptive, to multivariate analyses using complex algorithms.
  • Data Execution: this third step consists of data activation. These are delivered to the different business divisions that will use them for communication, marketing and sales initiatives. This data will also be used to create protocols and rules useful for activating specific actions on specific targets.

Omnichannel technologies and tools

From what we have learned so far, it is clear that this practice is increasingly central to Italian companies. The most advanced realities that generate satisfactory results invest a multitude of time and resources each year in implementing Customer Experience Management activities and technologies. In these processes it is necessary to possess technologies and infrastructures capable of collecting and processing large amounts of data quickly and with a very high level of accuracy. The two tools that will necessarily have to be used are:

• • Customer Experience Management (CXM): tools and technologies useful for managing the customer experience by monitoring customer activities in real time. One of the most advanced methods of developing this is Content Intelligence, which involves semantic analysis of content to profile the interests that the individual makes explicit online.

• • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): essential tool for managing and nurturing the relationship with current and potential customers by integrating personal data, authorized under GDPR, with careful reporting of all moments of contact between the brand and the customer.

Your Growth Agency can make the difference

Biscuitway sees big data as the most valuable starting point for strategic implementation of operations in the digital world. Within our team, all resources have a data-driven approach to make available to our partners. We also believe that presiding over as many touchpoints as possible in an integrated and synergistic way is the true added value of a business, and every day, driven by a love of innovation, we work to discover and master all the tools that can help you reach your target customers. Our bakery not only bakes donuts but churns out delicious cookies, cupcakes and macarons every day. Come try them and let’s write a new recipe for success together!