Jeffrey Lant’s “Rule of Seven” states that it takes at least 7 touchpoints across various channels to reach a prospect before they become a lead. And with all of the advertising messages out there on social media and digital marketing channels, sometimes it takes as many as 18-20 touch points.
In this post, we’ll outline how to create a clear omnichannel strategy that creates a seamless user experience across all of the various channels used to convert those prospects.
The key is in developing clear messaging and consistent language and formatting that allow your brand to remain consistent across all of the channels.
What is omnichannel marketing?
First, let’s take a step back and talk about omnichannel marketing. Traditional marketing channels included television, radio, and print. With the advent of the internet and the explosion of digital media consumption, new media marketing channels have expanded to include email, blogging, social media, display advertising, and pay-per-click advertising, among many others.
Fast forward: omnichannel marketing takes those channels and finds ways to make them work together. And whether sending an email or direct mail piece, broadcasting a television ad or radio ad, or tweeting something on social, the language and general look/feel of each message to remain relatively consistent across all channels. This helps reinforce the message as well, and enhances the likelihood of customer engagement. If your direct mail piece drives the user to a landing page on your website, but the CTA of the landing page is unclear or simply not what they were expecting to see, people will bounce.
Where to Start
Create a brand/style guide.Develop a strong brand message that you can stick to, and create rules that ensure everyone is using your logo and messaging in a clear and consistent way.Get started with these three great resources:
- HubSpot: 20 Stunning Examples of Brand Style Guides
- Creative Bloq: 13 Magically Meticulous Design Style Guides
- Code My Views: How to Build a Brand Bible & Visual Style Guide
Define your goals and strategies for each channel.
Each marketing channel serves a different purpose, so the goals and strategies you define for each will vary. What you do with Twitter or LinkedIn may be very different from what you do with print marketing, depending on who you are trying to reach and why you are trying to reach them. Social media, television, and radio are great for broadcasting generic marketing messages (“one-to-many”) while print, direct mail, and email marketing strategies are better suited for hyper-targeted, uniquely tailored messages (“one-to-one”). And not every channel works for every business: remember that you can’t be everything to everyone, or market to everyone on every platform. There simply isn’t enough time or resources to do so, and you should be following your audience anyway. What channels are they on? How do they use them? Keep this in mind as you’re developing your omnichannel strategy.
Develop your message(s).
Once you have a clear idea of the overall voice/style you should be writing in, you can begin to develop your message. Your message should be flexible enough to work across various channels which are structured differently to reach different audiences, so the way you frame your message for Twitter or LinkedIn may be different from the way you frame it for print, but be conscious of the fact that the overall look, feel, and voice of the message should remain consistent, even when the application of the message may be tailored a different way.
Use channels to drive behavior on other channels.
You can use the different marketing channels to drive people to another – for example, you can use direct mail to drive people to a website landing page or email marketing to drive people to a blog post or social media account.
Don’t forget the call to action!
If you are using one channel to drive traffic to another, make sure it’s clear why you are sending them there and what you want them to do when they get there.
Key Takeaway
The most important thing to remember about kickstarting your next omnichannel marketing campaign is to develop clear messaging and consistent language and formatting that allow your brand to remain consistent across all of the channels.
