With so many different touch points now accessible to customers, it’s more important than ever to create a unified and satisfying experience across all channels. From a customer’s first touch point (perhaps on a company website) to the conversation they have over the phone with a sales rep, to the in-store visit where they complete their purchase – having unified omnichannel marketing is now key to satisfying customers in the modern age of technology.
According to a 2014 report from Kitewheel, 54% of consumers expect that an experience is seamless across digital and physical touch points. What’s more, according to the same report, only 29% of consumers prefer to communicate with companies strictly through digital touch points – demonstrating the continued importance of offline touch points such as phone calls. The call center ranked as the second most common consumer communication method, just second to company websites.
With consumers expecting a seamless experience across digital and traditional contact methods, unifying your marketing across these channels is now key to keeping them satisfied. Below are a couple of ways you can unify your marketing across all channels.
Optimize All of Your Marketing to Generate Phone Calls
Since the call center ranked second for the most common consumer communication method, making it easy for customers to call you should be a priority. 61% of consumers believe it’s important that businesses give them a phone number to call, so whether a customer visits your website or sees a billboard, they should see a phone number prominently displayed so they can call.
With call tracking software you can display unique, trackable phone numbers on all of your digital marketing to track the number of phone calls each channel generates – email, search, social, display. You can then use static call tracking numbers for print and more traditional advertising methods, and then compare the number of calls generated by each channel. Using call tracking software in combination with marketing automation and CRM, marketing teams are able to achieve a more accurate picture of which marketing channels generate leads, opportunities, and revenue.
You can also include click-to-call numbers on web pages to make it easy for mobile consumers to call you. According to Google, 70% of mobile searchers have clicked a “call” button. With the rise of smartphones, consumers are calling businesses more than ever to get information or complete a sale, and click-to-calls make it easy for mobile consumers to connect in a call with your business almost instantly.
Personalize for Consumers Across Channels
Personalization can make a huge difference in customer satisfaction. When it comes to personalization, relevant offers and deals can be provided to encourage a purchase and build trust. Emails are one of the simplest digital marketing tools that can be personalized with marketing automation. Any information you have – name, product interest, etc. that you can include in an email will help improve the customer’s experience.
One way retailers can increase sales through personalization is to offer customers a personalized deal via email after they abandon a shopping cart. Personalized incentive, such as “10% off the items in your cart if you complete your purchase in the next three hours,” helps companies nudge consumers into completing the purchase process – even if they’ve already abandoned it. According to Kitewheel, 91% of consumers feel that an “in the moment” offer from a brand could influence their purchase.
Companies of all industries can take personalization to the next level by providing special offers through iBeacons and push alerts. See some examples in the image below.
There are many more ways you can optimize your marketing across all channels to improve customer satisfaction. To learn more about omnichannel marketing, watch the free webinar: Smartphones & Omnichannel Retail: 7 Tips to Optimize Sales.