Two terms bounded around the marketing world, but how are they difference and what difference does it make to planning your future marketing strategies?
Well, Omnichannel has become a vital component of consumer marketing but the term is often confused with Multichannel. Well, let’s clear this up. Omnichannel is a seamless experience across every different medium through consistency of messages whilst Multichannel is the experience of a customer who makes purchases through various channels. Now there are more channels than ever – I suppose this comes down to the explosion of data that is available to us and, of course, the continuous emerging technology and digital trends. For example, there is web, email, social, mobile, in-store and video, just to name a few. The more connected customers become, the more pressure marketers are under to engage with them.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel provides a consistent experience from channel to channel, giving the customer harmonious messages. No matter how many times a customer transitions between channels, there will always be integrated, connected communications.
Multichannel
The experience of a customer who makes purchases using multiple channels such as a website, social media, mobile and even a bricks-and-mortar store. So a brand might want to adopt two or more channels to engage their customer, but instead of a focus on consistency their focus is to engage customers with a siloed approach across various touch points.
Weighing up the differences in taking an integrated versus a siloed approach is important and should reflect your brand and business objective – either way, the ideal is create a connected, all-rounded customer experience – which holds many advantages. One thing to consider is customer behaviour – their behaviour will differ with every different channel and this is where you need to bring in data.
The more conversations you have with customers, informed by big data, the greater the customer experience. But more so, marketers need to have a clarity in their strategic vision for either approach, centering the customer in the middle of your decision.
