Omnichannel eCommerce Marketing Strategies: 8 Ideas To Create The Perfect Customer Journey

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #1] Be Global, But Act Local With Localized Content (Marketing) Strategy

If your eCommerce site serves and ships internationally, this one is for you. There no better way to increase local visitors’ confidence than having your website to be served in their local language and currency.

Let’s be honest, nobody likes to feel like an alien on their home turf.

However, if you want your visitors to experience a complete omnichannel experience, your website needs to be more than a simple translated version of your English-version site hosted in a separate country-specific directory (i.e. /es/ for Spanish’ version). Your visitors should feel local even if they’re interacting with a global company.

Nike is a great example of a company that does international omnichannel marketing right (as they should be with all that money in the bank!).

Here’s a comparison of what their Australia and Spain sites look like:

Not only the language is different, but the content is also different.

We all know how important customer reviews are. Now, imagine this:

People from Spain reading reviews from other Spanish-speaking people. People from France reading reviews from other French-speaking people. If that didn’t boost conversions, I don’t know what will.

Here’s an example of how Nike (yes, again!) display customer reviews based on their localized content.

You can (and should) do more than language and currency conversions. In fact, localization should also happen OUTSIDE of your website; your social media profiles, for example.

Adidas is a great example of this. If you go to their Adidas Indonesia Instagram profile, you’ll see not only the typical Adidas rock-stars, like Lionel Messi and Karlie Kloss but also the local influencers (and it’s in their local language too, which is a big plus!).

Here are a few ideas to localize your content marketing other than the ones we have mentioned above:

• Integrate or collaborate with local companies,
• Create local advertising (i.e. display ads, print ads, video ads, etc.) that appeals to locals,
• “Hijack” local news and trends,
• Choose local buyers’ preferred payment methods.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #2] Don’t Let Your Mobile Site be the Achilles Heel

Omnichannel marketing is being driven, in large part, by mobile devices.

There’s only one problem…

The vast majority of mobile sites still lag behind the bigger, bulkier desktop ones. Which completely undermines any omnichannel marketing effort.

57% of users will not recommend a company to a friend if a mobile site is not designed well, and 40% of users will go to a competitor’s site if they have a bad mobile experience.

That starts with layout and hierarchy. Because on tiny screens, the important stuff needs to be front-and-center, with secondary elements collapsed underneath. (In nerdy web dev terminology, mobile-first responsive sites are built on a ‘grid system’ that allows for easy expansion and collapsing depending on screen size.)

Here’s an example of mobile-first design compared to the larger desktop version:

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Screen size isn’t your only limitation, however.

Limited processing power is a big one. Because it gives way to a silent, deadly killer that many don’t like to talk about: speed.

For example, Google just recently announced new benchmarks for mobile page speed.

Their study showed that the average mobile landing page takes 22 seconds to load.

You already know off that’s slow. Like, snail-paced slow.

But here’s the really bad news.

“The probability of someone bouncing from your site increases by 113% if it takes seven seconds to load.”

Kinsta’s own Page Speed guide found similar results, with “74% of would abandon mobile sites that don’t load within 5 seconds.”

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Smaller screens, limited processing power, and shoddy connections can spell disaster for over-bloated websites and CMS’.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #3] Shoppable, User-Generated Feeds

Looking for social hacks?

Look no further than Walls Need Love, who’s able to generate 94% of its social traffic from Pinterest alone with a three-pronged approach:

1. They partner with bloggers to help them create content and take amazing photos
2. They use those photos for basic, organic social promotion to test, and see which perform best.
3. Then they take the best performers of the bunch and use Promoted Pins and Buyable Pins to scale results

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Social commerce companies like BazaarVoice and Yotpo are also helping companies curate user-generated content, that can then be redistributed back to Instagram, Pinterest, and more.

For example, companies can create browsable galleries, uploading photos from all different users to show site visitors real people using the product and promotes conversions; capitalizing on Instagram’s 5X growth rate in usage over any other social platform.

Turning this Instagram photos into shoppable content makes the buying process even more personalized and seamless. Users can click on the shoppable photo tag of the item, which will take them to an in-app product description page, giving them the prompt to “Shop Now.”

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Services like  help make a company’s Instagram shoppable.

Users can click the company’s Like2Buy link, which will take them to a replica of your Instagram feed. They can then click on the specific photo they were interested in, which will pull up prices and links to the products. In addition to paid tools, brands can also integrate sales links back to their website in their Instagram bios and captions.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #4] Discounts Aren’t Dead, Either. Use Them Effectively

Coupons are often what convinces the customer to ultimately buy, according to a study commissioned by RetailMeNot: Almost 80% of those surveyed said that that digital coupons “close the deal” for them when undecided on a purchase. Here are a few discount/offer ideas that are more than your typical “20% discount for all products” offer.

• Multi-buy offers: Multi-buy offers give customers multiple products for a price that together is less than if purchased separately. This is a good way to sell less popular, more-expensive products at full price by putting them together with a discounted popular item.

• Volume-based discounts: With volume discounts, shoppers receive additional percentages or amounts off when buying a certain threshold of product. For instance, if you spend $100, you get 10% off your purchase, but if you spend 150, you get 15% off. This “buy more, save more” model prompt more movement of the product at a lower price per piece.
• Gift with a purchase: Sometimes if a buyer is on the fence about a product, a free gift can be the tipping point to make them purchase. Even better if the gift is something that the buyer wants AND promotes the brand. Like a free t-shirt with the company logo on it.

• BOGO: Buy one get one free (or buy one get one at a certain percentage off), or BOGO, works by raising the prices of purchasing a single item when it means that purchasing multiple is a better deal. When a customer can pay almost the same price for two items as they would have for just one, it’s hard for them to say no. Retailers make up what they are selling in volume what they lose in margin.

With 85% of consumers looking for coupons before even visiting a retailer, there’s no denying ‘em.

Coredna provides our clients the opportunity to use discounts and vouchers for these coupon scenarios and many others by setting up a series of rules and actions that integrate into the retailer’s website and are automatically applied at checkout.

Each discount gets a name and description and can be set up as coupons (which are not automatic but activated through a customer-inputted coupon code).

For a discount to apply for the shopper, all pre-set conditions must be met. These can include the price, item quantity, or the date of purchase.

Then, you can decide what action should be taken, based on the discount, like percentage off, which items the discount applies to, how it impacts the shipping rate, etc.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #5] Incentive MOAR UGC with Contests

Contests can generate UGC into free promotion and endorsements, especially when votes are required as contest participants will share their content.

UCG provides the added bonus of brand new and fresh content, which also appeases the SEO gods.

Lay’s has become famous for this with their “Do Us a Flavor” contest, offering $1M to the user with the best chip name. Ever tried Lay’s Pickles and Ice Cream? Of course not — that entry did not win.

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Another idea is to hold a UGC contest in which users get to create product videos and descriptions. Customers are a brand’s biggest asset, and their reviews and real-life use of the products matter. And, according to Octoly, user-generated videos on YouTube are viewed 10 times morethan videos created directly by the brand.

Nextel’s 2013 video campaign asked users to create snippets of “one minute of courage,” and showcased UGC of people doing wild and crazy things to promote Nextel’s “if you’re unhappy with something, change it.”

The result? 7 million views on YouTube. Not bad.

Contests increase visibility, promote engagement, and bring traffic to brands. There are many tools out there to help companies create effective contests.

• Gleam works with brands to produce viral competitions and manages responses.
• KingSumo manages viral giveaways to promote email growth.
• Rafflecopter runs giveaways without IT or coding experience required.
• Coredna encourages UGC for contest and competition promotion.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #6] Craft A Recognizable Brand Voice

The team at Frank Body (my favorite eCommerce company; purely from a marketing angle ;)) started their product promotions entirely over social media.

Now shipping their product to more than 149 countries, the company has expanded to include a brick and mortar presence to round out the full omnichannel experience.

Frank Body knew this expansion was critical, and they now work with retailers who are known for highly-curated offerings, along with companies that have become the go-to places for finding new and quality brands.

The beauty product company set themselves apart by bucking the trend of corporate language and scientific jargon to talk about the product.

Instead, they created the character “frank” to engage with their audience in a relatable, direct way.

Frank is cheeky and, well, frank. And that voice and style are present in every aspect of the company’s branding.

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Frank’s voice is part of what differentiates the company from the saturated beauty business.

Focusing on how you talk to customers helps build loyalty and brand recognition over and above your well-designed logo. As Ann Handley asks, “If the label fell off, would people know it was you?”

Handley suggests considering brand voice at all corners of their reach, not just the flashy homepage and social channels. Error pages, the About Us section, the FAQ Page — all in play. She suggests honing that voice with a deep dive into what makes the company unique:

• What makes the product special?
• What’s unique about the way you do business?
• What’s the culture like?

Brand voice is how company communicates with customers and should remain constant across all platforms, collateral, and physical locations.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #7] Create a Movement by Standing Up for Something

Purpose-driven companies are on the rise.

And they’re also moving the economic needle as creation frequently comes from the want to give back to improve other’s lives.

These companies appeal to the heart and goodwill of the consumer, and then reap the rewards:

• 47% of customers buy at least monthly from brands that support a cause, and
• 72% would recommend the brand or product over one that doesn’t support a cause.

Toms has set the standard for creating a movement on a global stage.

Giving a pair of shoes to a child in need with every purchase of shoes by a customer has resulted in more than ten million shoes given out worldwide.

Toms’ former Chief Digital Officer, Zita Cassizzi, says their popularity and success comes in part by connecting with the customer. “These customers are expecting for you to be where they are, the moment that they want [to engage]. They’re expecting this connection from you right away.”

Toms engages with its customers in a variety of ways from many different touch points, but ultimately doesn’t spend much of its budget on traditional marketing, realizing that their target demographic wants digital. 83% of their customers have smartphones, and 75% make daily posts on social.

“They’re leading this omnichannel and omni-connected world. They’re 82 million strong, between 18-to-24, and we know them well because they really have spread [information] about TOMS with a word-of-mouth [effort].”

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Brands can emulate the social movement model but should make sure the movement still aligns with the current business goals.

Ogilvy analyzed multiple examples of social movements by brands and companies to see what works. There are a variety of key steps to take to build an effective social movement campaign, but most movements of these kinds succeed under the assumption of four similar tenants:

1. One, focused purpose,
2. An authentic mission,
3. Low barriers to entry, and
4. A commitment to cultivate growth.

[Omnichannel Marketing Strategy #8] Create Product Category-Level Buying Guides

Create even more fresh content with buying guides that can be segmented and broken down into seasonal and customer-based info.

Seasonal buying guides, as opposed to less-frequent, long blog-styles posts will bring customers back more often to see what is new and available. Making these guides seasonal gives even more incentive for the customer to buy. And these lead magnet-esque buying guides take away stress from consumers; perfect for loyal customers to feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about the product.

Buying guides can also be broken down by personality (gifts for different types of dads, for example), and can feature a collaboration with an opinion leader (like “Jenna’s Picks”).

They can also be a great opportunity for the upsell: by showing items that complement each other, it can be hard to pick just one.

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Conclusion

Omnichannel marketing isn’t a tactic.

It’s not even a tip or a trend. It’s an evolution.

It’s the coming together of many different factors (like mobile and social) to advance the way consumers expect to shop.

But omnichannel marketing isn’t necessarily easy to execute, either. It requires increased coordination and streamlining of services.

That extra work, though, ultimately pays off. It provides a better experience for consumers.

And, best of all, more opportunities for growth for retailers.

Companies are no longer bound to just retail or constricted to open and close times of their brick and mortar locations.

Instead, today, eCommerce companies can reach more people, faster, and easier than ever before.