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. In this blog post, I’d like to provide you some statistics to help you build a business case for an omni-channel strategy at your organization.

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) 
• 65% of marketers use two or more media channels in their marketing campaigns while 44% of marketers use three or more. (DMA Response Rate Report)
• Over 90% of marketers struggle to seamlessly connect more than three channels on the buyer journey. (Gartner Research)

The types of channels and tactics matter to be able to interact successfully with your customers and prospects:

• Good old-fashioned trade shows remain the top source for B2B lead generation, with 77% of marketers saying they generate a significant quantity of leads, and 82% saying they generate high-quality leads. (MediaPost)
• According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 Benchmark report, events are cited as the most effective content distribution channel at 75%, followed by webinars at 66% (Content Marketing Institute)
• Also according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 Benchmark report, LinkedIn is the most effective social media channel for content distribution at 94%, followed both by Twitter at 87% and Facebook at 84%. (Content Marketing Institute)

Organizations want to conduct omni-channel campaigns, but have trouble. Those who are successfully implementing omni-channel are seeing results and have a competitive advantage:

• 46% of organizations currently deliver poor customer experiences that end up in cart abandonment. (Multichannel Digital Marketing Report 2015)
• 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 2015)
• 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)

Buyers (both B2B and B2C) expect a seamless online buying experience, regardless of the channel:

• 98% of Americans switch between devices in the same day. (Google Research)
• The number of B2B buyers who will complete at least half of their work-related purchases online will nearly double to 56% by 2017 (Forrester)
• 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).
• 90% of customers expect consistent interactions across channels (SDL).
• omni-channel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel (Google).
• 61% of customers have not been able to easily switch from one channel to another when interacting with customer service (Aspect).
• 49% of b2b buyers prefer work-related purchases on B2C website (Accenture)
• 52% of consumers polled like it when customer service is personalized to them and their interests. (Opinium Research LLP, Ovum)

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 omn-ichannel 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 and a 13% annual (2015: 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!