How to Create an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy with PIM

Omnichannel vs multi channel marketing

Many people use the terms multichannel and omnichannel interchangeably. However, there are some key differences between the two. Multichannel marketing means companies are interacting with customers across many channels.

With multichannel marketing, different experiences get created for different marketing channels. For example, a fashion brand might promote a specific message in a store and another message in an email campaign.

Omnichannel marketing consists of creating a unified experience across all channels and tying together every touchpoint. So, whether a consumer is shopping through a mobile app, on a website, or in a physical store, the process is integrated. Remember, convenience is key in eCommerce and customers want to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

To craft a solid omnichannel marketing campaign, you need to carefully analyze your customer data and create a customer journey map.

Firstly, you need to understand which channels they’re using the most and what their behavior is on those channels. Then, you can create personalized experiences that are guaranteed to boost customer engagement.

Omnichannel Strategy: Essentials

• Define your target audience – Do you understand your customers’ preferences? Tailor your marketing efforts to their behavior.
• Create a responsive website – Is your website mobile and user-friendly? You have to offer a seamless shopping experience across devices.
• Content marketing – Are you creating compelling and informative content? This should include blog posts and videos. Remember, this will depend on your target audience.
• Be active on social media – Do you have a strong presence across social media? Use social media to share promotions and leverage user-generated content.
• Offline integration – Are you offline and online channels connected? Offer in-store pickup and promote online discounts in your brick-and-mortar stores.
• Influencer marketing – Are you collaborating with influencers and industry experts? Connect with industry tastemakers to promote your brand and products.

What touchpoints are consumers using during the buying process?

Consumers research products across multiple touchpoints. Therefore, it’s important to consider all the platforms they’ll be looking at. This will help identify how to create a unified user experience. Here are some of the touchpoints a buyer may go through before making a decision include:

• Social media
• Word of mouth
• Testimonials
• Product video reviews
• Catalogs
• TV adverts

How does PIM help with omnichannel marketing?

At the heart of creating a consistent buying experience across every single channel is product data. Consumers need super detailed product information and high-quality digital assets to make informed buying decisions.

But, if you’re managing tons of different products, you’ll also be dealing with large volumes of very complex data. Add to that the complexity of also having to enrich the data and distribute it across all your channels. Enter Product Information Management (PIM) solutions!

Data silo removal

You may have previously relied on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions or spreadsheets to store and manage your product data. But in such a fast-paced environment and a demand for seamless digital experiences, these systems aren’t always fit-for-purpose. They’re clunky, time-consuming, and very labor-intensive. Not ideal when you’re dealing with lots of data!

PIM removes data silos and gives you a central hub where you can gather, store, enrich and publish all data. This in turn enables you to create a golden record for your product data. Moreover, you’ll have full visibility over the quality and completeness of your product information. This will be key when you’re working across multiple sales channels.

Creating efficient, consistent workflows

A common omnichannel challenge is being able to consistently present accurate and up-to-date product information internally and externally. Developing clear communication across departments will speed up the enrichment process. In turn, you’ll know you’re delivering a consistent message to your customers.

To create a successful omnichannel strategy, you need to have efficient processes in place. In other words, you need to find an efficient way of sharing information with the relevant departments, as well as your customers. For instance, your customer service team will need access to product data to better serve your customers if they have queries. Likewise, you could create workflows to power a live chat with your product data to further improve the online experience.

By establishing effective workflows internally, you’ll be much better placed to supply accurate product data across every channel. Overall, this will help you build customer loyalty by creating a customer journey that’s seamless from start to finish.

Generate rich product experiences across all channels

Compelling product stories are vital when you want your customers to build a rapport with your brand and products. The more information they have about a product, the more likely they are to convert from browser to buyer.

A big omnichannel challenge is being able to tell these stories across all touchpoints. An online consumer lacks the tangible context of buying a product from a physical store. So, how do you create an integrated shopping experience?

A PIM platform helps to create a highly contextualized buying experience. This is done by incorporating digital assets such as images, videos, or animation such as creative GIFs. The good news is that you can manage these rich forms of media with Digital Asset Management (DAM).

Say a customer was browsing online for a pair of shoes and they wanted to know how the product looked up close. Including a 360-degree view on the product page to highlight the shoes in more detail replicates an in-store experience. Although the consumer hasn’t been able to physically touch the shoes, they have more context. Offering these sorts of features not only improves the customer experience, it’ll also positively impact your conversion rates.

Build brand consistency with digital assets

DAM makes it easy to build brand consistency as it provides you with a full view of all your digital assets in one place. This visibility enables you to easily identify any inconsistencies and rectify them. This will mean customers have a consistent shopping experience regardless of the channels they’re shopping on.

Imagine a sportswear company is planning a complete rebrand with its logo, promotional materials, and content messaging. Instead of wasting time looking for new assets from different sources, the marketing team can quickly access everything they need from the DAM. As a result, the sports brand will be able to roll out its rebrand across all platforms in an efficient manner.

Start your omnichannel marketing strategy

As consumer demands grow, and shopping habits constantly evolve, you’ll do well to take a more customer-centric approach to your eCommerce strategy. By nailing your omnichannel campaigns, you can create totally seamless customer experiences. Overall, this will promote better conversion rates and higher revenues.

This will be underpinned by having consistent product data and high-quality digital assets across all channels and customer touchpoints. Having streamlined processes, and a central hub to work from will make achieving this super easy and straightforward. As the old saying goes, consistency is the key to success, and PIM will help you get there!