The heart of both of these concepts seems to be quite similar, so we will define both terms first.
Multichannel Marketing
It represents the ability to communicate with potential customers on different platforms individually. This means that multichannel marketing focuses on individual parts of the omnichannel marketing and the communication channel can be advertisement in prints, promotional events, retail activity, test products package, website.
Most companies rely mainly on multichannel marketing, in order to increase their sales as quickly as possible. They have separated departments of social media marketing and e-mail marketing that work to achieve individual goals.
Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel Marketing focuses on customer action as one comprehensive and consistent experience that takes place on multiple channels at the same time. By the time the customer arrives at the point of purchase, he goes through various channels in order to learn as much as possible about a product.
At first glance, it may seem that there is only a slight difference between them and the aim of both approaches is to communicate with customers through a wide range of channels of communication. However, these marketing approaches go strategically in two different ways.
In order to better explain and approximate the uniqueness of multichannel and omnichannel marketing strategies, we will focus on three key differences.
- Channel vs. customer
The multichannel strategy focuses only on getting the "word" as fast as possible to the customer through the maximum number of individual communication channels. Companies using a multi-channel strategy mostly use social media and email as a form of communication.
Omnichannel strategy is holistic. It is based on the use of all channels at the same time, each channel being interconnected so customers have a complete shopping experience. This is the so-called "webbuilding". Emphasis is placed on building a stronger relationship between consumers and the company / brand / e-shop.
In fact, companies with a well-established omnichannel strategy achieve a 91% higher year-o year increase in client-to-customer growth compared to companies that do not use the omnichannel strategy.
- Consistency vs. Individuality
The multichannel approach focuses on an individual strategy for each communication channel. The marketing message mediated through individual communication channels may not be consistent.
On the other hand, the omnichannel approach seeks consistency. The same marketing messages are disseminated to the customer via each communication channel. This means that companies must maintain a consistent image across all platforms and channels of communication.
- Optimization
Optimization is a key point for omnichannel strategy. It simply does not work without it. Omnichannel marketing is therefore about feeling more effective and optimizing the use of each communication channel so that the customer is given a specific and consistent experience.
Before you begin to guess, first determine clearly what you want to optimize what you want to focus on what you want to reach by optimization. Do not limit yourself and try to think even to the future during the planning phase.
