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5 Omnichannel Marketing Trends in 2022

Blueshift

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Blueshift and Paperform partner for omnichannel marketing trends series

As online consumer behavior rapidly shifts, ecommerce marketing also undergoes major changes. With the ever-declining attention span of consumers, brands must think of ways to stand out in just a snap.

Today’s online consumers are dominated by millennials and Gen Z. These two audience segments expect a high quality and speed of customer experience. They will often hop between apps and websites and interact with the same brand through two or more channels.

For example, one will start their browsing via email, continue it on social media, and then eventually land on a brand’s website. So, if your branding across platforms is inconsistent, you may be losing customers without even knowing.

This is often what online shoppers do, and it has become a pain point for brands. One way to solve this is to ensure that brands and marketers unify all their channels and ensure that customer journeys across all platforms and devices are cohesive.

Omnichannel marketing is the next transformation of marketing campaigns. Now, your customers can not only engage with you on whichever platform they want, but also decide which of those platforms is most relevant and compelling to them.

In this blog, we’ll cover the most important trends in the omnichannel marketing space that you should follow in 2022.

GETTING STARTED WITH OMNICHANNEL

What Is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is an effective way to engage with your audience across multiple channels and devices. It is a consumer-centric strategy where the goal is to provide a positive and consistent experience across all relevant channels.

Consumers now have multiple ways of interacting with brands as they shop. They may visit a physical store, find items to buy, and ultimately finish their buying journey online.

You may now realize how important it is to be present and consistent on all marketing channels. For instance, if one person sees an item online on sale and then visits a physical store only to find that it has different pricing, chances are you’re losing that one customer.

That could be an easily avoidable mistake for your business — and this is exactly where omnichannel marketing comes in.

Omnichannel marketing allows marketers and business owners to combine all of the available platforms to provide a seamless and personalized customer experience.

You can truly transform your business by implementing omnichannel marketing strategies because:

  • It provides an opportunity to create personalized experiences.
  • You can cross-sell and upsell products through all of your channels to increase sales.
  • It can help you reach your target audience based on their offline and online behaviors.
  • You’ll gain a competitive advantage in the market as others may not have adopted it yet.

We’ve moved away from one-way communication and batch-and-blast marketing. Gone are the days when you could simply focus on one platform and communicate with all your customers in the same way.

For all of these reasons, businesses must adopt a consistent omnichannel strategy to ensure that they are tapping into their target market across the most effective channels.

Are you sold on omnichannel marketing yet? Find out what to expect for the upcoming year and what strategies you could start implementing right now. Here are several trends to understand and follow as you head into 2022.

CUSTOMER VS. CHANNEL

1. Omnichannel Beats Multichannel

Not to be confused with multichannel marketing, omnichannel marketing’s main difference is being customer focused.

Multichannel is where you are present in various channels such as having a website, social media presence, and email or push notification strategy. Multichannel marketing campaigns often start with the brand in mind and spread across channels.

The main goal of multichannel marketing is to reach as many people using as many channels as possible. In other words, it’s channel-centric — so the brand messaging will depend on where they are promoting their products.

5 Omnichannel Marketing Trends in 2022

On the other hand, omnichannel marketing is platform- and device-agnostic. Regardless of the channels most relevant or effective for reaching specific consumers, brand messaging will be consistent and seamless.

For instance, if a customer gets a push notification on their mobile phone, it’ll coincide with the info they might receive via email, SMS, and even in-store. So whenever the customer uses a different platform, they will see messages that build onto their individual journey with that brand.

Omnichannel marketing is poised to beat multichannel since it’s far more effective and agile. This trend by itself isn’t new, but it’s likely to be even more apparent and important in 2022.

A DYNAMIC WAY TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS

2. Video Marketing Is on the Rise

Video marketing has surged in popularity, and businesses quickly realize it’s one of the best ways to get their message out. This is why creating video content is a perfect way to unify your marketing across all channels and make each customer journey as engaging as possible.

The videos can be in the form of announcing what your brand is about, showcasing your products, and even communicating current offers.

Here are even more benefits to using video:

  • Allows you to highlight essential information so there is less time dedicated to answering FAQs from customers.
  • Lowers website bounce rate as customers will stay on-page to watch the videos.
  • Provides another level of engagement that isn’t possible with static content.
  • Can increase your SEO rankings, as Google loves long-form and video content.

Lastly, videos are effective in omnichannel marketing as they work perfectly in physical locations, mobile, social platforms, etc. — creating a unified experience for customers.

YOUR WEBSITE STILL MATTERS

3. Site Search Become Increasingly Important

A good omnichannel experience begins with a powerful and functioning website search. It means that you should ensure that when customers look for something, they will find it in a single search.

One of the common mistakes of big ecommerce sites is that their internal site search functionality is often overlooked. But it can also happen to smaller businesses who don’t treat site search as a powerful feature to increase conversions.

If a potential customer sees your ad online and doesn’t see it on your website even after searching, then you’d expect that they may look somewhere else.

This is such an easy fix, but not doing it properly can cause a lot of damage. In fact, 68% of shoppers will not return because of poor site search results. Adding in a few more keywords on your website in addition to brand-specific messaging will help customers find what they are looking for and will lead to an increase in sales.

CASH? NOT ANYMORE

4. Digital Payments Are the Norm

As our industry evolves into increasingly relying on mobile devices and digital payment platforms, cash is continuing to become an obsolete consideration to brands focused on driving sales.

As more consumers shop on their phones, it’s necessary for businesses to adopt an omnichannel approach to payments. If you don’t want to lag behind, you should make sure that your business supports all the possible payment options.

This means that if a customer visits your physical store, they can proceed with the transaction via any type of payment method on any device they prefer.

We expect that in 2022, mobile wallets, cryptocurrencies, virtual credit cards, and other cashless alternatives will further become the norm worldwide. More and more consumers are becoming tech savvy and will carry less cash (if any at all) as they expect some form of digital payment option wherever they go.

The evolution of digital payments has reshaped the way we do business, and by providing convenient ways to pay for your goods across various digital channels, you can increase customer retention and overall brand loyalty.

IN-PERSON EXPERIENCE COUNTS

5. Brick and Mortar Is Here to Stay

We are undoubtedly in a phase of digital transformation. But while many businesses are successful in the digital space, brick and mortar is here to stay in 2022 and beyond.

In fact, brick-and-mortar retail is making a comeback, and many people still prefer to shop in person.

When convenient, many consumers visit physical stores to directly interact with the desired items before purchase. Some customers also want to avoid waiting for delivery, accruing large shipping costs., or dealing with the potential glitches of digital ordering methods (yet another incentive to make your website CX as smooth as possible). With brick-and-mortar retailers, you have foot traffic and don’t only rely on online advertisements; however, to create a meaningful omnichannel experience, the customer journeys you facilitate online must line up with your marketing tactics in person.

Some customers will check out products in store, possibly wait for some online promos, and then finally buy online using a digital wallet. This is why brick and mortar is not dead and is a perfect omnichannel gateway to enhance customer experience.

THE SOLUTION: A SMARTHUB CDP

Get Ready for Omnichannel in 2022

Whether you’re online-only or a tried-and-true brick and mortar, the average consumer will want to engage with your brand in multiple ways, digitally and in person, across all of the platforms that matter to them. That’s why implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy is crucial for creating the seamless experiences your customers expect.

Omnichannel marketing isn’t the future — it’s already here. When you learn how to orchestrate engaging omnichannel campaigns, and you have a SmartHub CDP to put them out into the world, your customers will keep coming back to your brand for years to come.

To learn more about how Blueshift can make omnichannel a reality for your company, contact an expert today.

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