Marketing Trend: Omni-Channel Marketing

Marketing is ever evolving, and consumers’ paths to purchasing are no longer as linear as they once were. Because marketers need to adapt to a changing climate, new techniques are constantly developed. Omni-Channel marketing is one such strategy that businesses are using to keep up with the trend of keeping things as simple as possible.

What is Omni-Channel Marketing?

“Omni-Channel”  is no doubt a marketing buzzword, but the concept adheres to a shift in the needs of both consumer and marketer. Omni-channel marketing is the answer to marketers needing to provide a consistent experience and path to purchase.

Because consumers now can engage with a brand and products on multiple platforms (physical store, app, website, catalog, social media), it is important that each experience with the product and brand complement the others.

Hubspot defines omni-channel marketing as “… a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.” Read about some of their top examples of an Omni-Channel experience here.

How to implement Omni-Channel Marketing into your strategy

• Create a customer profile

Consolidating a customer profile can be a challenge, as customers are constantly interacting with a slew of different channels. By creating a broad and complete picture of your consumers, you can create a better overall customer experience. This can be done using collected data and applying it to your strategy. This article discusses how you can come up ahead of the competition by succeeding at cross-channel marketing.

• Interact on preferred channels

Consumers are moving back and forth on devices and platforms just for a single transaction. Be sure to keep all lines of communication open for a seamless experience. This includes, but is not limited to social media, email support, video chat, web chatbots, texting, and calling.

• Use aggregated data

Compiling data is already important, but in order to use omni-channel marketing, data is everything. From creating your customer profile to understanding how to adapt to market changes and adding platforms, data will help you gain insight into how to make your marketing strategy work for you.

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Marketing Tool: Chatbots

80% of marketers are expected to be using chatbots by 2020. Personalized marketing is becoming an expectation for consumers, and chatbots are another tool to bring personalization to your audience. It is certainly fair to say that not every company will need a chatbot, and that some customers will not utilize or like the option of using a chatbot, but for ever-evolving times, it is important to understand this trend as it is, as it can be, and to fully acknowledge the pros and cons of using chatbots within a marketing strategy.

What is a Chatbot?

NBC defines a chatbot simply as: “simple artificial intelligence systems that you interact with via text. Those interactions can be straightforward, like asking a bot to give you a weather report, or more complex, like having one troubleshoot a problem with your internet service.”

How do Chatbots work?

A chatbot responds to a message just as a customer support employee would, but is available at all times. Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa are all examples of widely used chatbots. Chatbots are programmed with specifically coded responses to questions or can be built with AI and can, therefore, expand their knowledge base with machine learning.  When your customer asks a question or interacts with your bot, the responses that it gives are modeled to act like a real human response. Sometimes, a question will be impossible for the bot to answer, either because it has no prior experience with that question or because it is phrased in a way too complicated for the bot to understand. If that is holding you back, there are ways to program your bot to have prompts that might be able to get the bot and your customers back on track.

Why use a Chatbot for marketing?

Chatbots do more than just answering questions, they can also effectively drive engagement, make sales and nurture leads. Because chatbots built to use AI can learn, they can also remember details and have a more personalized and human interaction with your customers, something that is important as “nine out of ten consumers say personalization has an impact on their buying decisions, “ says research from LeadsCon. The evolution of social media and technology has played into the need to utilize big data in order to provide a more targeted and engaging approach to customer support and marketing.  Check out Hubspot’s list of seven brands using chatbots and get inspired!

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Black Friday 2017 Predictions

With only a few weeks until Thanksgiving on November 23rd, savvy shoppers are ramping up to this year’s Black Friday deals and sales. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become some of the biggest shopping days of the year, and sales keep getting bigger and bigger. In the past, sales have started on Thanksgiving and gone into Black Friday proper and the weekend and Monday following the holiday (Cyber Monday), but in recent years, retailers have begun their sales earlier and earlier, sometimes having promotions all month long. Look for these trends this November!

Spending

According to predictions by the National Retail Federation, Holiday sales (retail sales between November and December) will grow by up to 4% from last year, up to a $682 billion dollar amount. PwC’s holiday outlook data suggests that the average holiday spend for 83% of US consumers is expected to be $1,189.

Top Stores

DealNews.com suggests keeping an eye on sales at Kohl’s (where your savings will largely be in Kohl’s Cash), Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon this year, however, the best places to make your purchases will depend on what your items of interest are and will also be largely based upon price point. Forbes has a list of where to look for tablets and laptops this year, which can be found here.  If you are interested in Apple Products, online retailers will likely have better discounts on Apple products than the Apple Store itself.  Last year, Apple’s Black Friday deal included a gift card with the purchase of older product models at an undiscounted rate, and that is expected to continue this year, hinging on whether Apple even decides to participate in Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

Top Deals

Video game bundles for the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are rumored to be heavily discounted this year, as well as many smartphones including the newest iPhones (8, 8 Plus and X), the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 and the Google Pixel 2. Discounted prices for 4K TVs and 4K media players are also expected.

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Types of Feedback You Should Be Asking Your Customers

Asking your customers for feedback can be a pretty difficult operation, but it’s well worth your time. Of course, not all of the info you’re going to get is going to be useful immediately. But it can help you spot trends and patterns, and then you can start working your way up from there.

When it comes to customer feedback, it’s a bit difficult to establish clear types. The same goes for any type of feedback, i.e. Twitter comments, for that matter. In education, there are basically three types: negative, positive, and constructive. These types are designed to help teachers improve their students’ work. For the sake of argument, I’m going to be using these labels as well. When it comes to digital marketing, it’s best if we add two other, overarching categories, namely formal and informal.

Formal feedback would be the kind you ask for directly with surveys and questionnaires. Informal feedback is gathered from observation (looking at comments), shares and other interactions your clients have with your brand online.

Let’s break down the first three categories: positive, constructive and negative.

Regarding positive feedback, first thing’s first, you should never ask for it. You can encourage your customers to leave positive feedback, but they shouldn’t feel forced to do so. Banning, or deleting negative comments can really damage your brand’s image.

That being said, there are ways you can encourage your customers to leave positive feedback. It’s probably fairly obvious why you would want it. For one, it gives you some insight as to what areas are really showing results. Knowing what works can help you decide either to invest more effort into that one thing that works or perhaps leave it on auto-pilot for a while, and focus on other things that might need your attention.

Positive feedback via social media is also one of the best ways to boost the image of your brand. Users often times trust other users’ opinions about a business. According to a 2015 survey, 92% of consumers check Internet surveys. And 68% of them claim positive reviews make them trust a business.

Obviously, a large number of positive reviews are going to bode well for you. Though you should always make sure they’re balanced out. Too many too positive reviews are going to raise flags.

To encourage your customers to leave positive reviews or comments, you should always make it clear that you appreciate their insights.

You can do this simply by thanking them for a good review, and liking the post. Other users might feel encouraged to do the same, if they see you are responsive, and interested in what your customers have to say.

Remember that social media is first and foremost a social space, and as such, it’s going to have its own code of proper conduct. Always follow social media etiquette rules, otherwise your good intentions might not come through.

Negative feedback might be harder to swallow, but it can be much more useful in the long run. Negative feedback is going to crop up, whether you want it or not. But, again, you shouldn’t censor it. On the contrary, you should use it to your advantage. The trick is to turn from simple criticism to actionable feedback.

So, if your customers are complaining on your website’s comments section or any social media platform, ask them to provide you with details about their experience and why they were unsatisfied. You can propose solutions to their problems and see if they meet your customer’s demands.

That way you’re basically getting two birds with one stone. You’ve successfully handled negative feedback, and you’ve gained some insight. A well-handled possible PR nightmare can boost your image just as much as a steady flow of positive reviews, if not more so.

Last, but not least, there’s constructive feedback.

You may be thinking that all feedback is constructive, as long as it’s actionable. And to some extent, that’s true. But there is a slight difference between this type and the previous two. More specifically, while positive and negative feedback refer to something you’ve done in the past, constructive one refers to things you might do in the future.

Obviously, there can be a positive or negative spin to this type. Positive constructive feedback would be advice and what you should do in the future, and conversely negative would be about what you shouldn’t do. This is where the second two categories, formal and informal, come into play. Both negative and positive feedback can be turned into constructive feedback. Ultimately, this is the type you’re looking for, because it’s going to help you prepare for the future. You can plan out your strategy based on your own assessment of positive and negative past reactions.

If you’re going by the formal route, you can simply ask your customers to give you suggestions. The way in which you design the questionnaire can have a major impact on its efficiency. You might feel tempted to phrase your questions in such a way as to receive only praise, but that’s not going to help. Instead, mix them up a little, and encourage your customers to critique your business as well. Providing them with an ample comment section is going to give them a chance to offer suggestions.

Also, make sure your questions are clear and to the point, so your customers know what you’re looking for. Otherwise, they’ll feel like they’ve wasted their time. And you won’t get the info you need. On an informal level, the best thing you can do is to start a conversation and keep it going.

The great thing about informal feedback is that you can really get a chance to see your customers in their natural environment. The insights you gain this way can be more objective than those obtained via formal methods. There are a lot of things that can skew the way in which your customers respond.

But it with informal feedback, there’s nothing pressuring your customers to respond one way or the other. They’re just doing what comes naturally. It can be more time consuming to get actionable insights this way, partly because it takes a lot of time to collect enough data, and partly because it’s going to take a while until you analyze and distill it.

In the end, the best way to gather useful feedback from your customers is to use a combination of all of these possible types.

Each has their own strengths, and weak points. But collecting data should be a constant, on-going process, so you’re going to have plenty of time to figure out what works best.

And keep in mind that feedback is not just about you getting information from your customers. You should use these interactions as a means of forming a bond with your clients, and really giving your brand a human face.

And make sure you’re always up to date on what your competitors are doing. Internet savvy customers are going to spot marketing tricks as soon as they become widespread, so you should always try to stay ahead of the game.

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