For businesses targeting professionals in the world of education as well as many other market segments, omni-channel marketing is a crucial consideration. A strong omni-channel presence dictates some significant advantages, but it also is increasingly seen as a requirement for effective, modern companies. Let’s review what sets omni-channel marketing apart from other strategies and how it helps you connect with customers.
Omni-channel marketing connects many different platforms to create a consistent, streamlined experience for customers.
What is omni-channel marketing?
Omni-channel marketing can be applied in a number of different contexts, but the core concept supports these successful efforts: a streamlined, seamless experience that is consistent across all possible channels where a customer might interact with your company. That means providing essential features – such as sales and support – whenever possible, in all environments where your clients choose to make contact with you.
Marketo highlighted one especially important consideration in the world of omni-channel, which is that businesses need to make interactions across multiple platforms as seamless and intuitive as they can be. That means allowing clients to start a purchase by adding items to their shopping cart on their mobile device, for example, then working with that same shopping cart on their desktop computer to quickly and easily complete the sale. There are many more permutations of this seamless experience that need to be considered, applying to everything from marketing campaigns that avoid repetition across platforms to customer support that is consistent in all contexts.
One way to view omni-channel marketing is as an extension of the older multichannel marketing concept. The two ideas are very similar, with multichannel essentially a less-developed version of omni-channel. Multichannel focuses nearly exclusively on interacting with customers through various channels without paying much attention to the seamless cross-channel experience prioritized by the omnichannel approach. Hubspot pointed to the depth of integration as a key distinguishing factor between the two.
Consistency, personalization and an engaging atmosphere help drive the omni-channel approach
An omni-channel marketing strategy isn’t necessarily easy. Many companies will have to make changes that require some level of investment in technology or encouraging employees to change the way they address workflows and customer issues. These changes are far from impossible, of course, and carry many benefits like increasing customer loyalty and improving the likelihood of sales conversions. However, they aren’t always changes that can be made in a single day or week. Some planning, strategy and careful implementation are all required to realize sustainable, significant benefits from an omnichannel implementation.
Many businesses focused on the education industry have some advantages to consider. They generally don’t operate dedicated retail outlets – which present many unique needs for integration into an omni-channel operation – and likely already have some degree of combined strategy for addressing marketing, sales, and support needs.
Adjusting your approach to marketing in such a significant way leads to some major benefits, but can seem intimidating at first. Get in touch with the experts at Agile to learn more about making your educational marketing strategy as effective as possible!
