The marketing landscape is in rapid flux. Marketing professionals continually struggle to produce content that resonates with their audiences. Case in point: according to CMO Council, only 12% of marketers believe they have “high-performance” content marketing engines. In order to keep pace with today’s rapidly changing marketing environment, marketers must transition from a multi-channel to an omni-channel approach.
For marketing neophytes, the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel marketing may seem subtle. For astute marketing professionals, however, the difference is stark. A multi-channel approach focuses on interacting with customers via multiple platforms (social media, company web pages, and email, for example). Every channel is separate, operating independently from the others. The objective of the multi-channel approach is one of casting the widest net and getting in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Because channels are not integrated and messaging is inconsistent, customers are not afforded a seamless experience. The inconsistent messaging often comes across as impersonal.
While an omni-channel approach also involves interacting with prospects and customers via multiple platforms, it focuses on creating an integrated purchase experience. Omni-channel marketers ensure customers are privy to consistent experiences and messaging, regardless of what platform is used.
For example, if a customer initiates a purchase process on his/her laptop and then resumes the transaction at a later point while on his/her mobile device, the process is streamlined in the sense that the mobile device is able to pick up from where the customer left off. It’s all about ensuring the purchase process is as seamless and frictionless as possible.
According to Google Research, 98% of Americans switch between devices on any given day. Given that today’s buyers leverage multiple devices and channels throughout their buying journey, an integrated omni-channel experience is essential.
Gartner Research found that marketing campaigns that integrate four or more channels outperform campaigns that involve only one or two channels by 300%. Not only does an omni-channel approach ensure a better customer experience, it also affords marketers a 360-degree view of customers across all touchpoints, in turn allowing them to determine the relative effectiveness of each one.
While most marketing professionals recognize the importance of an omni-channel marketing approach, they tend to struggle with effective implementation. Very few are able to successfully determine which customers to target, which channels to leverage, and which messages to use. According to Gartner research, more than 90% of marketers struggle to effectively connect more than three different channels.
Enlyft allows marketing professionals to unlock the full potential of omni-channel marketing. By understanding every customer’s digital footprint (e.g., website visits, white-paper download history, webinar attendance history), Enlyft can determine each customer’s preferred touchpoint and which specific channels are best suited for reaching each customer. It can also suggest which specific customers should be targeted, as well as which specific messages are best suited for each customer.
By providing Enlyft with a set of example account wins and losses, Enlyft’s machine learning algorithms will determine which accounts (among millions of potential ones) are most similar to your past wins — across thousands of attributes. Each account is assigned a specific buying propensity score based on how strong a fit they are for your product or service.
In order to optimize marketing content to each target account, you can also provide Enlyft with the set of times when the content was displayed to each target account, as well as whether the content had a positive, neutral, or negative effect on each account. Enlyft’s algorithms and models will analyze the results using thousands of attributes and determine which content has the highest likelihood of resonating with each target account and at which specific times.
Timing effectiveness differs according to each channel.
According to research by HubSpot, the best time to send an email during the business week is 11AM. On the other hand, the best times to post on LinkedIn are 7-8AM, 12PM, and 5-6PM. While this research is informative, it does not take into account each specific customer’s preferences.
Enlyft allows you to target each account with relevant content at exactly the right times, in turn increasing their engagement levels and conversion potentials.
Aspect Software found that businesses that implement an omni-channel marketing strategy achieve 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates compared to business that do not. With Enlyft, marketing professionals are able to effectively implement an omni-channel marketing strategy that results in a seamless experience for customers.