As of 2021, over 6.2 billion people own a smartphone. With nearly 80% of the world’s population connected to the internet, technology has become a part of daily life.

Further, with online businesses catering to nearly every need, the lines between what consumers shop for online and at stores have blurred. With this seismic shift in consumer behavior, marketers have defined several approaches to digital marketing.

However, instead of approaching online business in terms of a desktop or mobile experience, taking a holistic approach and connecting with customers on whichever platform they prefer can offer a range of benefits. This is the essence of Omni channel marketing.

In this post, we define Omni channel marketing and highlight some of the best Omni channel marketing examples to help you implement it in your organization.

What is Omni Channel Marketing?

Omni-channel marketing is a user engagement method wherein a business provides consumers access to its products, offers, and support team across all channels, devices, and platforms.

While many businesses offer support only on their desktop site, businesses using the omni-channel marketing approach offer support via live chat, Facebook Messenger, email, and phone.

But omni-channel marketing strategy is not limited to offering easy access to support. The omni-channel marketing definition gives more perspective:

Omni-channel marketing involves the integration of branding, messaging, and online and offline touchpoints to provide a rousing customer experience to encourage consumers to move down the sales funnel.

In this way, omni-channel marketing strategy takes the consumer-oriented approach, enabling consumers to interact with businesses across channels freely. Subsequently, consumers have a consistently positive experience with the business.

Omni-channel marketing has the following cornerstones:

Distinct and consistent brand tone
Personalized messaging based on specific consumer interests
Content informed by previous interactions and the current stage of the buyer’s journey
Enforcing the brand tone and vision facilitates easier brand awareness and recognition. On the other hand, personalization puts consumers at ease and increases the odds of interaction with branded content across channels.

Benefits of Omni-channel Marketing:

As mentioned earlier, omni-channel marketing strategy offers several benefits. While implementing it is not simple, when done right, it helps brands differentiate themselves from other businesses that are bombarding consumers with messaging.

Some of the other stand-out benefits of omni-channel marketing include:

Excellent User Experience

Businesses taking the omni-channel marketing approach fixate on improving the individual experience rather than taking a channel-by-channel approach. This results in improved customer experience, higher sales, and better retention rates.

Improved Reach

With omni-channel retail, service, or marketing strategy, an organization can ensure that consumers do not have to keep searching for ways to do business with it.

Whether a consumer sees the business on social media or comes across its content on the website, the support team and products will be a click, email, DM, or phone call away

Cohesive Brand Strategy

The omni-channel marketing definition clarifies that the approach involves creating a seamless tone and brand image across channels.

To implement omni-channel marketing strategy, businesses need to determine the core audience’s needs and values and base the tone and image on these aspects.

By improving a consumer’s overall experience and enforcing the brand guidelines on every channel, a business can define a sophisticated brand strategy that functions on targeted messaging and increases loyalty.

Higher Revenue

An omni-channel approach makes the brand more visible, encouraging consumers to engage with the business across multiple touchpoints.

The diversity of a customer’s engagements at every part of the sales funnel can increase revenue. The targeted messaging also helps build loyalty, improving the odds of a customer buying from the brand again.

Creating a loyal customer base is key to keeping a business profitable since repeat customers contribute 40% of a business’s revenue on average – though these customers make up a small portion of the customer base.

Greater Attribution Data Volume

In addition to improving a user’s overall experience with a business, an omni-channel approach also enhances the data analytics capabilities of a business.

Tracking engagements across channels helps brands identify the customer journey, pinpointing which campaigns reap the most value.

Using this data to optimize existing campaigns and build more effective tactics helps improve sales while optimizing media spending.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

When customers have several ways to reach your sales and customer support teams, they will be happier with a brand in the long term.

Customer satisfaction is further increased since omni-channel marketing strategy enables consumers to purchase products from any platform.

Keeping customers happy reduces customer churn and keeps them coming back for more.

Omni Channel Marketing Examples

Here are 11 examples of impressive omni-channel marketing that every business can take away insight from

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the biggest names in the finance industry, and the bank heavily relies on omni-channel marketing to set high customer experience standards.

As of 2022, the bank allows customers to do everything from check deposits to appointment scheduling via the phone app. These features are also available on the desktop site.

That said, Bank of America’s omni channel marketing strategy isn’t perfect. Customers cannot apply for loans or complete other complex banking tasks from their phones.

Marketers can take away that enabling users to complete various tasks from multiple channels offers users the ultimate convenience, which can help a brand stand out in a cutthroat market.

Disney

Disney is one of the biggest brands in the world and nails its omni-channel marketing strategy. The mobile-responsive and beautifully-designed website ensures that consumers start off on the right foot.

The company also has a trip-planning website that works on mobile without any hassle – something many businesses in the travel and tourism industry don’t seem to have gotten right.

After a customer books a trip on the site, they can use the My Disney Experience tool to work out their itinerary – from securing the Fast Pass to dining at a specific restaurant.

Moreover, customers can use the mobile app when visiting the park to locate attractions. The app also shows the estimated waiting time to get on the attraction, allowing customers to plan their visit accordingly.

But the Magic Band program is perhaps the company’s most impressive tool. A hotel room key doubles as a photo storage device, storing all the pictures taken with Disney characters. The tool also enables users to order food, and Fast Pass integration allows customers to keep their vacations moving.

Disney shows off that omni-channel marketing is not limited to online platforms and that much can be done by offering tools to customers.

REI

It’s common for customers to visit a website, find the product they want, and put it in their cart, only to find that the product is not available.

Since this experience can result in customers buying from competitors, businesses need to ensure that each shopping channel works with every channel instantaneously.

REI has connected its shopping channels with its omni-channel initiative, allowing customers to get up-to-date and accurate product information at all times.

By prioritizing internal communication, REI ensures every customer interacting with the business online is satisfied and returns to shop again.

Starbucks

Marketers worldwide agree that Starbucks offers one of the best omni-channel experiences in any industry. Looking at the Starbucks rewards app will give you more perspective.

When you use the app, you get a free rewards card that you can use whenever you make a purchase. But Starbucks’s rewards program is different from conventional reward programs since customers can reload the card on their phone, in the store, or on the website.

Any changes in the card reflect immediately across platforms, allowing customers to top off their card when in line and have it ready by the time the cashier is ready to take the order.

This omni-channel approach underlines how critical a customer’s mobile experience is and that having an excellent app goes a long way in keeping customers coming back.

Timberland

Many brick-and-mortar businesses use NFC technology to allow Android and iOS users to pay for their purchases with a simple tap. The wireless technology transfers the required information when the phone is tapped against a special chip, making the payment instantly.

However, Timberland takes a creative approach with the same technology. Every shopper is handed a tablet with an NFC chip, and tapping the tablet against a product or signage makes the product information appear on the tablet.

This removes the need for customers to speak with store clerks for more information, and they can also find deals available for every product.

What’s more, the software on the tablet is equipped for personalization, and as a customer explores their options, the tablet makes suggestions to the customer based on their history.

Timberland’s approach to omni-channel marketing highlights that personalizing every customer experience can help sell overlooked products.

Chipotle

Ordering food online is one of the luxuries of modern living – but it has its downsides. Sometimes, when customers order food online, the order isn’t ready for them when they reach the restaurant.

This is a major inconvenience since it brings the usefulness of an online ordering system into question.

Chipotle understands that this can be frustrating and offers a website portal and an app to allow its customers to order from wherever they are.

Creating an account allows users to save their favorite items and add them to their cart quickly before checking out when on the move. The employees at Chipotle ensure that the order is ready on time.

The idea of omni-channel is always to make the customer’s life as easy as the business can. By offering an easy-to-use app with features quick on-the-go ordering, Chipotle emphasizes that speed and convenience are of prime importance to any customer.

VIP.com

VIP.com is an extremely popular Chinese eCommerce marketplace. The B2B website connects retailers to leads by integrating an omni-channel experience.

When a retailer posts a product on the website, the site’s geolocation function sends notifications to the customers in the retailer’s area. In this way, leads can visit the store directly or use VIP.com’s services to have products delivered to them.

Many businesses overlook geolocation data, but it can be a valuable resource when offering an omni-channel experience. Typically, when customers sign up to use an app, the app asks for permission to use the customer’s location.

For most businesses, it’s only a matter of using the data to notify customers of offers timely.

Pepperfry

Indian-based home furnishings company, Pepperfry, was founded in 2011 by two friends to help Indians buy furniture without any hassle.

The website has an online store, but the company also offers an immersive in-person experience termed Studio Pepperfry that allows customers to see how the furniture will fit in their space.

The customers tour the studio with a Pepperfry design consultant, who helps the customer find the ideal home décor. With the expert’s suggestions, customers can ensure they do not experience buyer’s remorse.

The best part is that customers can buy furniture at a physical store or return home to think it over and buy it online. This alleviates the pressure on both customers and salespeople about the purchase.

Investing in these physical studios has paid off for Pepperfry, with the company reporting 10-15% sales from the studio locations. This is a testimony to how intertwining the online experience with an in-person experience can make it easier for customers to buy products.

Google Chrome

Google heavily relies on omni-channel experiences to cater to its users, but let’s zone in on Google Chrome for this example.

When a user logs into their Google account, the browser syncs the activity and history on all of the user’s other devices. In other words, a user can access a tab they opened on their laptop from their phone.

This synchronization of user data provides users with a seamless experience and makes life so much easier. It’s no wonder that Google Chrome holds the majority market share.

Google Chrome is an excellent example of how an omni-channel experience is not limited to sales and marketing but also extends to the product itself.

Walgreens

The omni-channel experience the Walgreens mobile app offers makes it stand out in the industry. The mobile app is the primary tool for brand communications for Walgreens.

You can install the app to check and refill your prescriptions without needing to call the location. Additionally, a customer can set reminders on their app to help them keep track of when a prescription needs to be renewed.

While the app itself is nothing special, it comes with features that make the customer’s experience with pharmaceutical purchases convenient.

Since there are no calls involved, there are no hold times, and customers also do not need to wait for long when picking up their prescriptions at the store.

Apple

Apple’s devices communicate with each other via iCloud accounts, taking the omni-channel experience to the next level. Every user’s messages, images, and devices display the same regardless of which Apple device is in use.

After a customer sets up their device and account, all the pertinent information and settings are downloaded to the newly setup device.

For many businesses, achieving this type of interconnectivity between their products and services seems impossible.

However, the omni-channel experience can be emulated by doing something as simple as ensuring that customers don’t have to explain their problems over and over when they call your team.

Achieving this becomes easier using a CRM platform that stores and organizations every interaction a customer makes with a business.

Whether a customer connects with the business via email, over the phone, or chat, the right CRM will ensure that your team always understands why a customer is connecting with the team.

Conclusion

Leveraging omni-channel marketing like the businesses on our list begins with collecting data about your consumers, analyzing it, and mapping out the customer journey.

The idea is to understand how your target audience finds your brand and take steps to increase profits by setting brand guidelines and continually testing the marketing approach.

Using an Omni channel marketing platform can ensure that your marketing efforts do not fall short. For a business to benefit from omni-channel marketing, it must spread its resources across each channel.

With the right platform and inferences from our list of Omni channel marketing examples above, you can tackle building an omni-channel experience for your business.