What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Updated: September 27, 2023
Omnichannel marketing connects and contextualizes content across channels with the tools you need to make your vision a reality.
What is omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is a strategy that uses multiple channels — digital and otherwise — to deliver experiences that are compelling to audiences, authentic to each channel, connected with each other, and consistent with your brand.
People engage with brands across multiple touchpoints — email, website, social media, mobile apps, voice searches, in-store. These are omnichannel experiences, whether the brands intend for them to be or not. An omnichannel strategy weaves all these touchpoints, or channels, together into a consistent experience that is tailored to each channel and stage of the customer journey.
Omnichannel marketing encourages people to discover different aspects of your company or organization as they engage with your brand through different channels. Think exclusive offers, inside jokes, and behind-the-scenes details that are channel-specific. An omnichannel marketing strategy rewards people who follow your brand on multiple channels instead of punishing them with repetitive — or worse, conflicting — content. It’s customer-centric and requires an understanding of the nuances of customer engagement on different channels.
It sounds simple and it’s not a new idea, but companies still struggle to manage multiple channels — digital and in-store — well. Gartner reports that 50% of large brands will fail in their attempt to unify channels and deliver connected customer experiences.
Multichannel vs omnichannel marketing: what's the difference?
The key difference between multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing is the ability to connect the dots between channels to deliver a seamless customer experience. Multichannel marketing is channel-centric. Channels operate in silos and occasionally pull together to broadcast out bigger promotions. This can lead to jarring shifts and redundant content as users move between social media, mobile apps, ads, web pages, and physical stores.
Omnichannel marketing is customer-centric. It uses multiple channels strategically and in coordination to enrich the user experience. Each channel adds something new and a little different. It feels authentic because it's how people share their own stories. We announce career updates on LinkedIn, post vacation pics on Instagram, and debut our dance moves on TikTok, but all of that content is part of the same story. It's the reason we connect with friends in multiple places, and it's how brands build strong customer relationships.
What are the benefits of omnichannel marketing?
Here are some real-world examples of Contentful customers that have deployed and reaped the benefits of an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Milwaukee Bucks build better customer experiences with technology to enhance the in-person experience for sports fans
Sporting events are exciting, but as stadiums expand into large entertainment districts, fans face a wealth of choices for pre- and post-game celebrations. Outside the Milwaukee Bucks’ Fiserv Forum, the Deer District boasts seven restaurants and bars, two retailers, and an apartment complex. Visitors can enjoy concerts, farmer’s markets, and festivals in addition to game day festivities.
To make sure fans don’t miss a thing, the Bucks launched a website and native mobile app experience that bring the district to life digitally. Fans can quickly get event information, strategize gameday seating, decide where to dine, and find other things to do. This seamless integration of digital into the in-person experience gives loyal Bucks fans something to cheer about.
Take a peek at the playbook the Milwaukee Bucks used to launch their winning strategy.
Meet your customers where they’re at: KFC reaches gamers with a winning cheat code campaign
Fueling a multi-hour video game session is the perfect fit for KFC, but the king of finger lickin’ good chicken needed a way to reach gamers without interrupting their play. Instead of a game-stopping ad, KFC launched a cheat code gamers could use to order their favorite meal and have it delivered. For gamers who hadn’t signed up yet, the code opened a menu of KFC foods that can be eaten with one hand.
The beauty of this campaign is that KFC met the audience where they were both physically and emotionally. The campaign was authentic to the channel and consistent with the brand.
See how KFC, Google, and Audible use storytelling to connect with customers
Increase web traffic and sales: BMW increased test drive bookings 47%
BMW’s network of 147 dealerships provide great showroom experiences. The question was how to extend those experiences into the digital world. Working with Contentful partner TMWx, BMW set out to make their digital presence an extension of the showroom experience, including everything from finding a car through legal paperwork.
On the frontend, they use pictures and quotes from employees to bring the human element online. On the backend, the Contentful Composable Content Platform provides BMW and its network of dealerships with the right mix of consistency and flexibility. Legal and brand content is tightly controlled, but dealerships have the ability to add offers and bring their own voices to life. This is a double win for BMW. They increased test drive bookings 47% and inspired their dealer network to be more engaged in delivering a personalized experience online.
Build customer loyalty: BarkBox gives customers a reason to opt in
People love their pets and it turns out they love hearing from BarkBox, a subscription-based pet product company, too. A year after adding SMS to their marketing mix, BarkBox has 175,000 users opted in to receive text messages, and that number is growing an average of 35% each quarter, according to Digital Commerce 360.
On all of their channels, BarkBox focuses on making content feel like a personalized conversation rather than a promotional campaign. Text messages complement their email marketing with a mix of product announcements, seasonal messages, and order status updates. When customers reply to text messages, a BarkBox employee picks up the conversation. No wonder their loyal subscribers are opting in for more.
Why omnichannel marketing is still a challenge
Omnichannel marketing is not a new idea. We know it's what customers want. So why is it still such an elusive goal? Part of the challenge is that what constitutes a true “omnichannel” strategy is a moving target. We’re always going to struggle to keep up with new channels, the different ways people use those channels, and changing customer expectations.
The other part of the problem is operational. Most organizations are still operating in a really outdated channel-by-channel mode. This makes it incredibly difficult to deliver omnichannel experiences. Customer data is siloed and fragmented. Teams are focused on “their channels.” And executing a cohesive campaign requires weeks or more of manual work. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.
But it's not their fault — or yours. Omnichannel marketing requires a different set of tools. Tools that unify content, structure it for delivery to any digital channel, and provide the right mix of guardrails and freedom.
How can Contentful help you deliver omnichannel experiences at scale?
How do you make omnichannel marketing less of a Sisyphean struggle and more creative, efficient, and (dare we say) fun? The answer is a composable content strategy and platform that supports your omnichannel objectives. Omnichannel marketing requires structured content to work across any digital channel, fitting into any space or format that’s needed or required. Composable content makes this possible.
With a composable approach, you create great content and then empower teams to mix and match it endlessly. This gives marketers the ability to quickly and easily create new content experiences that are channel-specific, but still clearly recognizable as part of the same brand story.
The Contentful® Composable Content Platform is built for omnichannel content delivery. It aggregates all of your content — videos, images, copy, product information — in one place and lets you distribute and manage it across all your digital channels. Cloud-native, API-first technology architecture makes it easy to integrate translation, personalization, analytics, AI tools, and more into your content workflows.
Our powerful platform and intuitive user interfaces give content creators and marketers super powers without a lot of reliance on developers. Marketers can see their visions come to life across channels, with tailored content that’s easy to manage (bye, bye copy-paste).
“As a content manager, having the option to change content once and have the update populate in the ten or 20 other places it's referenced is a huge benefit. I have peace of mind that there aren’t any lingering inaccuracies.” — Caroline Durham, Director of Content, Breastcancer.org
Contentful has the platform your technical and non-technical teams need to keep up with people in a fast-paced, omnichannel world without all the pain and frustration.
Ready to make the leap from siloed multichannel marketing to true omnichannel marketing? Let’s chat.