The rapid
growth in the digital media and marketing has ensured that marketers are faced
with more choices than ever on how to reach customers. While the traditional
retail, print, radio and TV advertising techniques are still prevalent, we
often hear people using multiple devices and methods even for a single
transaction. This has been possible due to the prevalence of digital
marketing. Today, from cell-phone to tablets to desktops to social media
to an in-store visit, we are entering an Omni-channel world, where consumers
seek an Omni-channel experience. This certainly adds challenge to the marketer
who would no longer focus on just one channel of marketing but ensure that his
or her brand is always carried with the customer.
Here’s a
chart from Telco 2.0 Research, illustrating the frequency of multi-device paths
to purchase:
It is
important to understand that Omni-channel marketing in its real essence ensures
that the marketing is integrated and real-time across channels. In other words,
customer disparate data sets would not exist at any instance across channels say between online and
mobile content. If such data sets
existed, there are potentially two types of risks: One wasting marketing
dollars by targeting those customers who are not interested in a product or
service as indicated by one data set and the other which is even worse is not
marketing to the consumers who are really interested in that product or
service. Often the data across different channels is integrated by unique
information identifying a particular customer say his or her email id or mobile
phone which could be used across various channels.
Helps
Targeted promotions
A
significant advantage of Omni-channel marketing is that it is able to gather
valuable information about customers by integrating and aggregating customer
behavior across various channels such as internet, mobile, social media
especially Facebook and Twitter etc. This helps the marketers to customize their
promotions for different customers. It helps to provide a 360 degree view of
the customer. Thus, Omni-channel would aid the Big-data initiative of the
marketing analytics.
According to
a report from MIT University, more than 80% of store shoppers check price
online. This clearly shows the rapid evolution of Omni-channel. Customers are
going from screen to mobile to store and from store to mobile and other
channels. This process is continuous and reiterates an important point that
customers today need to be engaged across different marketing channels.
Macy's has embraced Omni-channel marketing and the related short video briefly describes the concept.
2015
predictions
With the
increasing prevalence of 4G technology, video advertising is predicted to be a
growth area where mobile will become the platform of choice in 2015. Apple
Watch is rumored to be launching in March 2015. Its function in Omni-channel
marketing is presently not clear but analysts predict it could be a stepping
stone.
By the end
of 2015, it is predicted that the practice of dividing marketing by platform
would be over and Omni-channel marketing would be the default standard.
Reference:
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