Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Marketing

Thanks to the progression of social media and technology, there are more channels and avenues to reach customers than ever before. Whether it’s a new campaign or re-targeting effort, today’s businesses can maximize the opportunity to approach customers from multiple angles and channels – increasing brand awareness, engagement and overall effectiveness. So, when it comes to your marketing approach, is omnichannel or multichannel best?

You can present either a unified message with one specific, targeted approach across multiple channels or a diverse, but well-orchestrated set of perspectives that deliver multiple messages across multiple channels. Modern marketing enables you to truly define the customer experience.

What is Multichannel and Omnichannel Marketing?

With most customers navigating the Internet across multiple devices, there is an increasing amount of ways that they can connect with your business or brand. Utilizing these many forms of communication is vital to gaining and maintaining an audience in any market. Should your outreach include an independent approach like multichannel marketing or an integrated approach like omnichannel marketing?

• Utilizing a multichannel approach, you blend multiple channels to deliver multiple messages, with each channel acting as its own marketing funnel. It provides a non-integrated experience, separate from other channels, with marketing efforts unique to that channel.
• An omnichannel approach delivers the same message across multiple channels for a consistent and unified customer journey. It provides an integrated experience, with a multi-pronged game plan that includes many cohesive avenues.

Using the marketing channels presented by the many modern devices and avenues of information is an absolute necessity, but which approach is most effective for your business or brand? First, let’s discuss why they’re both effective ways to improve marketing.

The Similarities of Omnichannel and Multichannel Marketing

Today’s customers, as well as entirely new audiences, can be easily reached by targeted messages and outreach efforts that encompass multiple channels. Gone are the days of one and done when it comes to reaching a customer. The main benefit of multichannel and omnichannel communication is that they both utilize a strategy that is presented on many fronts – utilizing multiple channels to reach a target audience. For example, the on-app or social media experience can be just as key as on your website.

Optimizing every approach and experience from a marketing standpoint is a crucial aspect of implementing one of the above stratagems for success, especially when customer data provides the insights to create precise, targeted outreach. There’s no guesswork – you know where and how to best reach your target audience. Bottom line: With multichannel and omnichannel, you target users via multiple channels to build brand awareness and get your message across in a strategic way.

However, some differences define the customer experience and the customers themselves. When weighing the benefits and differences between omnichannel and multichannel marketing, take a closer look to ensure that your brand or your business is going down the wisest path.

A Key Difference in the Message Delivery

Approaching audiences from across many devices and media is a must for any modern marketing strategy. It’s the way that the approach is organized that determines its effectiveness, and therein lies the difference between multichannel and omnichannel communication.

Multichannel Marketing – Unique, Independent, Channel-Focused

Multichannel reaches across all channels: social media, apps, website, paid advertising and more. However, each avenue features a unique outreach that is completely independent of the others. Instead of one targeted approach, each channel has its own message. All channels are built to point toward a “vacuum” with its own separate strategy to consider. The multichannel approach is channel-focused, but can sometimes inadvertently deliver an inconsistent message in the long run, as messages and outreach overlap with each other.

Omnichannel Strategy – Cohesive, Connected, Integrated

Omnichannel also reaches across the same number of channels; the difference is in the message that’s delivered. An omnichannel approach delivers a cohesive, connected strategy that creates a personalized message, but across multiple devices. Using consistency and integration across all channels helps a customer navigate the consumer experience from every approach. Instead of reaching out with unique messages across every device, the omnichannel strategy helps to unify a customer base while still maintaining outreach to all new audiences and prospects.

Why is Omnichannel the Best Strategy?

Omnichannel marketing is more than just an effective approach; it’s a successful way of optimizing your entire customer experience. While the conglomerate of multichannel marketing can be appealing, customers are becoming increasingly reliant and appreciative of a seamless experience that matches them with the right brand, product and message. Multichannel strategies can also be effective but lack the cohesiveness and consistency that savvy customers have come to expect. An optimized omnichannel experience pushes messages through multiple channels in a thoughtful and meaningful way, creating a single conversation.

Create Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Today!

By utilizing the information and preferences saved across every avenue, omnichannel marketing helps to deliver that same, preferred experience on every channel. With a unified and consistent message across all channels, the omnichannel approach ultimately provides the optimal experience for your business, brand and customers – the ultimate goal of any marketer.

To effectively optimize your print and mail with a uniquely designed omnichannel marketing strategy, contact FSSI at 714.436.3300 today.