Originally posted in 2017, last updated in 2020.
In a previous blog post, we defined omni-channel marketing as a strategy and multi-channel marketing as a tactic. Omni-channel must be a top-down initiative across your entire organization, so you need buy-in from leadership.
Here, I’d like to provide you some statistics to help you build a business case for an omni-channel strategy at your organization.
(Want more great content? Try our Blog or Resources hub!)
It takes more than a single interaction to engage a customer – in fact, it takes several:
- Campaigns integrating 4 or more digital channels will outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300%. (Gartner Research)
- The three most common lead generation strategies are email marketing, event marketing, and content marketing (DM News)
- Users often take dozens, if not hundreds, of digital touchpoints on their journey (Think With Google)
- Only 48% of respondents craft content based on specific stages of their buyer’s journey (Content Marketing Institute)
- 70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy (Altimeter, via Venture Harbor)
- Respondents with 7+ marketing channels in their mix are 26% more likely to say it’s producing good or very good results (PFL)
Many organizations want to conduct omni-channel campaigns, but have trouble executing. Did you know that per Invesp, more marketers have adopted multi-channel marketing strategies to stay on top of market tends than because of the ROI of their campaigns?
Those who are successfully implementing omni-channel see results and have a competitive advantage:
- 46% of organizations currently deliver poor customer experiences that end up in cart abandonment. (Multichannel Digital Marketing Report)
- Only 14% of organizations say they are currently running coordinated marketing campaigns across all channels. (CMO by Adobe)
- 51% of marketers can’t react to new channels, devices, trends or competitors using their current tech. (Multichannel Digital Marketing Report)
- 55% of companies have no cross-channel strategy in place (The CMO Club)
- 64% of marketers cite lack of resources and investment as their top barrier to omni-channel marketing (The CMO Club).
- More than half of organizations say that “non-integrated tech platforms” are the single biggest barrier to running more integrated marketing activities. (CMO by Adobe, Three Issues Hindering Progress In Multichannel Marketing)
Related: Our four-part series on Lessons in Customer Experience
Buyers (both B2B and B2C) expect a seamless online buying experience, regardless of the channel:
- Omni-channel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel (IDC ,via Think With Google).
- 98% of Americans switch between devices in the same day. (Google Research)
- Only 45% of #B2B marketers achieve the goal to build subscribed audiences. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 45% of brick-and-mortar buyers check online reviews before buying (BazaarVoice)
- 78% of B2B customers (and 83% of consumers) say fulfillment options – such as next-day delivery – are important or very important. (The Future of Commerce)
- 71% of shoppers who use smartphones for research in-store say that it’s become an important part of the experience. (Google).
- 61% of customers have not been able to easily switch from one channel to another when interacting with customer service (Aspect).
- 52% of consumers polled like it when customer service is personalized to them and their interests. (Opinium Research LLP, Ovum)
If you want to build a personal, frictionless experience for your customers, look at our Marketing Operations consulting.
Marketing leadership is obsessed with customer engagement.
Showcase to your marketing leaders that this is a hot topic among their peers:
- 86% of senior-level marketers agree that it’s important to create a cohesive customer journey across all touchpoints and channels.” (The State of Marketing Leadership – Salesforce + LinkedIn)
- 81% percent of CxOs anticipate more digital interaction with customers by 2020, and 66% expect more focus on customers as individuals. (Silverpop)
Omni-channel marketing impacts customer engagement:
- Companies with extremely strong omni-channel customer engagement see a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue, compared to 3.4% for weak omni-channel companies. Similarly, strong omni-channel companies see a 7.5% year-over-year decrease in cost per contact, compared to a 0.2% year-over-year decrease for weak companies. (Aberdeen Group)
- Businesses that successfully employ a consistent cross-channel marketing strategy enjoy a 14.6% year-over-year increase in annual revenue (Omer Minkara: Customer Engagement: From Interactions to Relationships)
- 50% of multi-channel marketers say they “usually” or “always” hit their financial targets. (CMO by Adobe, Three Issues Hindering Progress In Multichannel Marketing)
I hope that this list of statistics is useful to helping build the business case for omni-channel at your organization!
So, what now?
- Read up on becoming more customer centric in your marketing
- Listen to more on how to map your buyer’s journey
- Dive into something of interest on our resources hub
- Learn about our inbound marketing consulting or ask us a question!
