6 Powerful Case Studies of Businesses Using Omni-Channel Marketing to Its Full Potential

Marketing today has taken on a completely new form than that of any time in history. It’s an incredible opportunity that has never been seen before – the chance for businesses, even small ones, to get their names out on a global scale in front of a target audience of billions of people.

Because of this new field that commerce is playing out on, it’s crucial that anyone marketing their product get in the game the right way with players who know what they are doing. That’s why so many businesses are turning to companies that provide omni-channel services for all of their advertising needs.

What is Omni-Channel Marketing?

Marketing can take many approaches. There are social media targeting techniques, email advertising, and even the old-fashioned flyers in your mailbox form. But not every approach works for every potential client, and what works for Person X may not work for Person Q. Instead, for your business to excel and reach as wide of an audience as possible, you have to take an omni-channel approach.

Omni-channel means that your approach to sales comes in multiple ways funneled directly to each customer with an integrated experience that appears to be individual to them and their needs. These approaches combine mobile marketing, social media campaigns, websites, and more to create a seamless experience that works together for an omni-channel marketing technique that appears fluid and natural.

Through omni-channel marketing, your business needs are combined to one platform that delivers all of your messages, follows through with your goals and objectives, and keeps your brand consistent throughout every aspect of your interaction with your customers. It also easily lets you see all of your data and information in one place.

This incredible marketing technique is so innovative, time-saving, and money-making that thousands of the biggest companies are now using it as their main form of advertising. Here are 6 powerful case studies of businesses that use omni-channel marketing to its fullest.

Businesses That Use Omni-Channel Marketing

E-commerce customers today use different channels to do a multitude of things: gather product information, check out brands, compare prices, ask for help, and make purchases. But they all have one thing in common: they have been conditioned to expect ease of use as part of their customer experience, and when they don’t have that seamless interaction, they turn to someone else for their needs.

Not only do these customers want a seamless transaction, but more and more they expect businesses to be smart about their offerings and give the buyer a personalized experience. They’ll take the time at the beginning of their shopping to help a company understand what they are looking for so the rest of their experiences can be more streamlined and simplified.

These e-commerce customers make up an astounding percentage of purchasing statistics: 40% of people in the United States say that they buy items online at least monthly, and 20% say they shop online multiple times per week. Mobile e-commerce spending in the United States alone has topped the billion-dollar mark annually and continues to increase. Companies who don’t adapt to this changing trend are going to get left behind.

Businesses that are implementing an Omni Channel strategy in their approach to marketing are often simple to spot. Their websites are interactive and seamless and their brand is clearly defined no matter where you explore on their site. In fact, these businesses are usually analyzed for their expertise and other companies try to emulate parts of their approach, but without an omni-channel marketing strategy, they usually fall short of the full experience.

Here are six of the pioneers and leaders in omni-channel marketing.

1. Disney – Disney is one of the biggest companies in the world. Disney Land, Disney World, Disney Productions – they all share a similar experience when you visit their sites. Whatever you want to do, from planning a trip to watching advertisements for their upcoming or existing movies, you are going to have the ease of knowing what to expect.

In fact, for people looking to plan a trip to Disney (to and from anywhere in the world), it is possible to secure your tickets, choose and pay for your meals, book your Disney hotel, and even order your Magic Bands. Magic Bands are now an all-inclusive ticket, hotel room key, food ordering tool, credit card device, and photo storage location. There’s really nothing like it anywhere else.

2. Bank of America – As the name implies, this bank is found throughout the country and is used as a leader in the banking industry, so they have to be on the forefront of technology when it comes to how people interact with their money.

Bank of America has created an omni-channel experience in which customers can deposit their checks via their digital devices, pay bills at the touch of a button, and schedule banking appointments through mobile and desktop apps.

3. Virgin Atlantic – Virgin Atlantic is a worldwide airline founded by Richard Branson of Virgin Records. Branson opened up his airline in 1984 and never looked back, always on the forefront of innovations that made Virgin Atlantic better in value and better in quality.

Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to offer business class passengers individual TVs, and other airlines quickly followed suit. They then launched the Upper-Class Suite, which was the longest flatbed seat in business class. The Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow Airport in 2006 provided airline guests with a cocktail bar, a hair salon, a spa, and much more – and all of these ideas were then followed by other airlines.

It’s no wonder then that Virgin Atlantic has pioneered the way for an omni-channel marketing experience. Booking a flight, waiting for your plane, and your airline experience are all seamlessly integrated together when you use Virgin Atlantic.

4. Neiman Marcus – Leading the way in the luxury retail industry, Neiman Marcus’s omni-channel strategy actually got them in the spotlight in 2017 for the IRT Retailer Innovation Award in Customer Engagement. This is largely due to their concern that they need to speak to the customer’s identity above all else.

Their omni-channel experience becomes more personalized the more often a user interacts with the site. The website remembers personal preferences to make it easier for the customer the next time they visit, uses geolocation to keep the customer updated on local offerings and happenings, and directly targets individual email marketing campaigns based on each person’s interests.

5. Starbucks – Yet another industry mogul using omni-channel marketing to make a killing is Starbucks. From the rewards card they use that lets you load and reload it to make purchases to ordering online and storing your favorite preferences, the Starbucks experience is geared towards making your order as streamlined and simple as possible.

Their approach combines the three customer touchpoints of physical brick-and-mortar locations, their digital app, and their website. All three of these touchpoints are connected through their loyalty card, but the digital app is the prized part of Starbuck’s omni-channel success. Not only can customers order and pay by their app, but they can choose their location, check wait times, and get directions to their chosen store.

6. Crate and Barrel – The homeware store that others in the industry follow has an incredible experience for customers both on their sites and in their actual stores. Customers can use tablets as they shop, scanning the barcodes of products to learn more information, adding items to their wish lists, and even ordering the item in different colors right then and there.

Additionally, customers can add items to their shopping list and checkout with a salesperson who will collect everything for them – no shopping carts with broken wheels to push around the store!

Items placed on wish lists help Crate and Barrel send specifically targeted ads to each customer to remind them of products they were interested in. And this innovative technique works, as sales reports from Crate and Barrel, showed a 10% jump in revenue since this omni-channel experience was implemented.

Is Your Business Ready for the Omni-Channel Level of Success?

Not every company is Disney and Starbucks level huge, but even the smallest of companies can use an omni-channel experience to attract and retain customers to their products. With this marketing technology, everything you need to be successful is in one platform and each step is guided for you so you know what you are doing throughout the entire process.

Digital purchases are a trillion-dollar industry today, and this number is projected to rise over the next decade exponentially. This means that not only are you missing out if you are not marketing, but you have a lot of competition of people in your field who are taking advantage of the amazing opportunity we are afforded today.

When you are ready to take your marketing to the next level and create a seamless, streamlined experience for you and you