It’s no longer debatable that omni-channel marketing is a powerful strategy for marketers interested in optimizing the customer journey. There are many different approaches to omni-channel, and the benefits go beyond marketing. However, first impressions typically matter most when it comes to offering a positive, personalized customer journey, and that’s why marketers tend to benefit so significantly from omni-channel. There are also tons of examples of how omni-channel marketing is already being used. Not every strategy is going to completely help solve what your business needs, either. By looking at these five use-cases of effective omni-channel marketing in action, you can pick and choose what might work and what won’t so you can start optimizing your own marketing strategy to meet the demands of today’s consumer.
The Disney Magic Band is a wearable device for guests who can use it as a hotel key, as a device for storing pictures, as a FastPass for rides, and as a way to even order food, making the entire Disney experience seamless. This is one of the best examples of omni-channel marketing. One of the many features the Magic Band has is giving people estimated wait times for rides. This helps customers take advantage of the limited time they have at Disney parks. When combined with a fast past, guests can determine which rides are worth waiting for, which attractions to see in between, and where to stop for food. The entire experience is personalized to the guest’s liking. Personalized experiences are what omni-channel marketing is all about. Instead of waiting online for potentially hours on end, customers can walk around the park to visit attractions and make purchases. If they want to spend the night at a Disney resort, they can do it right from their band instead of trying to do it through their phone. Over the phone is a great way in theory, but service and wifi are always questionable depending on the provider. This eliminates any potential hold-ups that might leave guests second-guessing their purchases. The Disney Magic Band has been used since 2014. According to Statista, Magic Kingdom attendance went from 18.59 million in 2013 to 20.49 million in 2015. Now, attendance numbers are around 20.4 million. It wouldn’t be right to attribute this increase in attendance with only the Magic Band, but when people are able to navigate the parks easier, spend less time waiting on lines, avoid crowds, and book hotels and restaurant reservations easier, the overall experience is going to increase. The fact that Disney released the Magic Band 2.0 suggests that it’s here to stay, that its implementation was an overall success, and there’s still tons of room left for improvements.
Why Omni-channel Marketing?
We’ve written about omni-channel in the past, but back when it was becoming a major trend and not necessarily the standard. However, omni-channel is more than just a fad that your business has the option of looking past -- even if you’ve been around for a while now. People are looking for personalized customer experiences, and they’re starting to differentiate businesses from the experience they receive versus the products they sell. Let’s look at some statistics that back this up because this is a serious game-changer in the business world. Customers have more power than ever before, so we need to really hammer down the point that your marketing strategy has to reflect these changes.- 86% of shoppers are regularly channel-hopping across at least two channels (CommerceHub).
- 73% of consumers shop on more than one channel (Harvard Business Review).
- Companies with omni-channel customer engagement strategies retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to customer retention rate of 33% for companies with weak omni-channel customer engagement (Invesp).
- 25% of buyers have made an online purchase in a physical store (BigCommerce).
- 87% of customers think brands need to put more effort into providing a seamless experience (Zendesk).
- 90% of customers expect consistent interactions across channels (SDL).