How to Set Up and Succeed With Omnichannel Marketing Automation

Imagine trying to have a conversation with someone who’s constantly switching between a dozen different languages. 

This is the reality brands face today as they try to connect with customers across many channels. From social media and websites to emails and mobile apps, digital marketing is more fragmented than ever.

This fragmentation poses significant challenges for brands and marketers, who must maintain consistent and effective communication. 

The complexity of managing these interactions often leads to missed opportunities and makes it harder to capture and grow market share. However, the effort is well worth it: marketers using three or more channels in a campaign earned a 494% higher order rate than marketers using a single channel.

To cut through the noise and keep your audience engaged, you must adopt strategies that seamlessly integrate different channels into a unified customer experience. This is where omnichannel marketing automation becomes a game-changer, streamlining efforts with a cohesive message across all touchpoints.

What is Omnichannel Marketing Automation?

Omnichannel marketing automation is the strategic use of tools and technologies to manage and execute marketing campaigns across various channels, so every interaction with the audience is consistent and personalized. 

Unlike multi-channel marketing, which may involve using different channels independently, or integrated marketing, which focuses on coordinating messages across channels, omnichannel marketing takes a more unified approach. It integrates all channels into a single, cohesive strategy, allowing for a seamless customer experience.

In an omnichannel strategy, channels like email, websites, social media, SMS, mobile apps, and search engines are all interconnected. This interconnectedness means customers can start their journey on one platform, like receiving a promotional email, and continue it seamlessly on another, like clicking a link to a mobile app. The goal is to provide a fluid and consistent experience, regardless of where the interaction occurs.

A key aspect of omnichannel marketing automation is programmatic advertising, which leverages data and automated systems to deliver targeted ads across various digital platforms. This allows you to personalize marketing messages and make them relevant and timely. For example, a programmatic ad might display a product a customer recently viewed on a website, increasing the likelihood of conversion by aligning with their interests and behaviours.

With an omnichannel approach, you can create a more cohesive and engaging customer experience, ultimately leading to stronger relationships and better marketing outcomes.

Benefits of Using Omnichannel Marketing Automation

Omnichannel marketing automation offers numerous benefits for both companies and their customers. 

A major advantage for businesses is the significant increase in efficiency. Automating repetitive tasks and centralizing campaign management saves time and resources, allowing marketing teams to concentrate on strategic and creative tasks. This automation also enables companies to scale, manage, and execute campaigns across multiple channels without increasing workload.

Another benefit is the flexibility in campaign management. Omnichannel tools allow marketers to swiftly adapt to changing market conditions, test various strategies, and optimize campaigns in real time. This flexibility boosts the effectiveness of your marketing and maximizes return on investment (ROI).

The most significant advantages of omnichannel marketing automation are customer-facing: 

• Delivering consistent and personalized messages across all channels improves the customer experience. 
• Personalization makes communications relevant to each individual, increasing engagement and satisfaction. 
• A seamless experience across touchpoints, such as transitioning from a promotional email to a mobile app without disruption, fosters stronger relationships and brand loyalty.

In addition, omnichannel automation provides more visibility into channel performance. Marketers can easily track and analyze the effectiveness of different channels, leading to more informed decision-making.

How to Implement an Omnichannel Marketing Automation Strategy

Many marketing teams operate in silos, with digital marketing, marketing operations, and event strategy each managed separately, often leading to a lack of coordination. 

For instance, while LinkedIn is effective for quick video conversions and demo requests, it’s not ideal for lengthy content like a 30-page guide. To bridge these gaps, you should employ a more comprehensive strategy.

Here’s an example:

• Begin by developing all the content, such as reports and guides, well in advance. 
• Then, host a webinar featuring experts who authored the guide, offering attendees exclusive insights. 
• Follow up by sending out the guide with key takeaways and a playbook for implementation. 
• To extend engagement, organize an in-person event, like a dinner in New York City, where these experts can discuss the guide’s findings in depth.

As part of this strategy, you can create a series of supporting content highlighting key statistics and insights from the guide, such as teaser videos, digital ads, and social media posts. This can include snippets for digital out-of-home advertising and connected TV. The aim is to create a cohesive, multi-step campaign centred around a core piece of content, such as a guide or report, which can be promoted across various channels to drive engagement and inbound leads.

Here’s a quick step-by-step framework that you can follow:

1. Define goals: Outline what you aim to achieve with your omnichannel marketing, such as increasing brand awareness, driving conversions, or improving customer retention. 
2. Centralize data: Integrate data from various sources, like CRM systems and social media platforms, to create a unified customer profile. Centralized data is essential for delivering personalized and consistent messaging across all channels.
3. Choose the right platform: Choose a marketing automation platform that supports omnichannel capabilities, including campaign management, robust analytics, and seamless integration with existing tools. Look for features that enhance personalization, data integration, and workflow automation.
4. Develop content: Craft content that resonates with your audience across the different channels. Messaging should be consistent and optimized for each platform—brief, engaging videos for social media and detailed guides for email campaigns.
5. Measure and optimize: Regularly monitor campaign performance through analytics and customer feedback. Track key metrics like engagement rates, conversion rates, and ROI to refine and optimize your strategy.

Think of implementing this strategy as a journey through different phases. Start with a single channel to test and refine your approach (Foundational Phase), then expand to multiple channels, iterating on your strategy based on what works (Advanced Phase). Finally, aim for a fully integrated, omnichannel approach where all channels work together seamlessly (State of the Art Phase). This phased approach allows for gradual improvement and scalability, so your marketing efforts are efficient and effective.

Choosing an Omnichannel Marketing Automation Platform

Selecting the right omnichannel marketing automation platform is crucial for the success of your strategy. Your martech and adtech stacks may already have some automation features but lack other capabilities.

Here are key qualities you should evaluate when choosing software for this purpose:

Comprehensive channel support	The platform should manage and integrate various channels like email, social media, SMS, and mobile apps to provide a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints.
Data integration and centralization	Choose a platform with robust data integration to centralize customer data, creating unified profiles necessary for personalized marketing.
Automation and workflow management	Look for strong automation features like campaign workflows, segmentation, and triggered responses to streamline operations and reduce manual effort.
Personalization and AI capabilities	Select a platform that uses AI and machine learning to analyze data and deliver personalized experiences. Features like predictive analytics and dynamic content improve personalization.
Analytics and reporting	Pick a platform that offers comprehensive analytics and reporting tools, including real-time insights and customizable dashboards, to measure campaign effectiveness and support data-driven decisions.
Scalability and flexibility	The platform should be scalable and flexible, allowing you to add new features, channels, and integrations as your business grows.
User-friendly interface and support	A platform with an intuitive interface and robust support and training resources will help your team adopt and use it effectively.
Security and compliance	Prioritize platforms with strong security features and compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR or CCPA, ensuring customer data protection.

How Data and AI Are Enhancing Omnichannel Marketing

Data and AI are revolutionizing omnichannel marketing, enabling more precise personalization and predictive insights. You can aggregate customer data across various channels to create comprehensive customer profiles that inform your marketing strategies.

AI technologies like machine learning algorithms analyze this data to predict customer behaviour, preferences, and purchase intent. This allows marketers to deliver highly targeted content and offers, increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Moreover, AI-driven tools can automate and optimize various aspects of the marketing process, from segmenting audiences to dynamically adjusting campaigns based on real-time data. This not only improves efficiency but also makes your marketing efforts more relevant and effective.

Omnichannel Marketing Automation Examples

You need an omnichannel strategy because you need to be where your customers are, and automation will allow you to scale. 

However, starting with a manual process to test concepts, iterate, and refine your approach is perfectly acceptable. Once you’ve established what works, you can introduce automation to improve efficiency and scale your efforts.

For example, in one of my previous roles, we aimed to secure a large tech company as a client. Initially, our attempts to connect with the CMO were unsuccessful. From social media, I found he had a passion for BMWs. So, I arranged a unique event: a personalized invitation to the CMO for an exclusive experience at a BMW racetrack, along with other CMOs. This included a behind-the-scenes tour and the opportunity to race cars, which immediately caught the CMO’s attention and secured his engagement.

After the success of this manually executed event, we saw the potential to scale such personalized engagements using automation. We analyzed data from social media and other sources to identify the interests and preferences of key decision-makers. This information was used to create tailored experiences and targeted communications, supported by automated systems such as landing pages and lead forms.

This example illustrates omnichannel marketing automation’s “crawl, walk, run” approach. Starting with manual processes helps validate concepts and that they resonate with the target audience. Once proven, these processes can be automated to increase efficiency and reach, ensuring that the outcome—a meaningful connection and engagement with the audience—is consistently achieved. The focus should always be on the strategy’s effectiveness, with automation as a tool to scale successful initiatives.

Pitfalls to Avoid in Omnichannel Marketing Automation

While implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy can be highly beneficial, it’s crucial to avoid common pitfalls that can derail your efforts. 

Don’t overcomplicate the process. Keep your approach focused and manageable, avoiding the temptation to do too much at once. Instead, prioritize tasks and tackle immediate issues while keeping future scalability in mind.

As companies grow, they often customize their CRM systems extensively. While customization can be good, it can also lead to problems when new systems or increased scale don’t integrate smoothly with the existing setup. This can result in significant time and resource expenditures to realign systems. It’s wise to plan for future needs without overcommitting to solutions that may not fit in the long term.

Another common pitfall is over-investing in software tools without fully utilizing them. Many companies buy more licenses than they need, often influenced by vendors offering all-in packages. This leads to unnecessary costs and underused tools. Before purchasing, check that you have a clear plan for using the software effectively and that it aligns with your needs.

In conclusion, maintaining a balanced approach is key to successful omnichannel marketing automation. Focus on immediate needs while planning for future growth, choose the right tools, use them effectively, and avoid overcomplicating your processes. Doing so can create a cohesive and scalable strategy that enhances customer engagement and drives business success.

Did you know that you can run your omnichannel marketing campaigns with StackAdapt? Request a demo today to find out how.