5 ways to elevate your omnichannel marketing strategy

Customers no longer think in terms of isolated interactions—they view their relationship with a brand as a whole. And for businesses looking to drive growth, foster customer loyalty, and maintain a competitive edge, having a robust omnichannel marketing strategy is a must.

However, creating an effective omnichannel strategy is much more than simply being present on multiple platforms. It requires a deliberate, customer-centric approach that prioritizes seamless, contextually relevant experiences across all touch points. By deeply understanding customer preferences, behaviors, and needs, brands can build strategies that deliver tangible business results.

Explore why omnichannel marketing has become a necessity and what steps you need to take to build a strong omnichannel marketing strategy.

Why is omnichannel a necessity, not an option?

Did you know that omnichannel customers shop 1.7x more than single-channel shoppers? They also spend more, highlighting the power of a well-executed omnichannel strategy. As customer behaviors continue to evolve, brands that adopt an integrated, customer-first approach will stay ahead of the competition and drive greater engagement across every touch point.

Here are more reasons why an omnichannel marketing approach is necessary for enterprises.

Meet where your customers are

One of the primary reasons every marketing strategy needs to be omnichannel is that it allows brands to meet customers where they are. In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, customers expect brands to be available and accessible across various channels and devices.

They want to interact with companies seamlessly, whether browsing products on a website, engaging with social media content, opening an email, or visiting a physical store. As a result, omnichannel marketing strategy has become not just a nice-to-have but a critical necessity for brands looking to remain competitive and relevant.

Navigate the non-linear path to purchase

With so many different customer touch points and channels available, customers are no longer following a linear path to purchase. Instead, they’re engaging with brands across multiple channels, often simultaneously. By adopting an omnichannel approach, brands can ensure that they’re present and available wherever and whenever their customers choose to interact with them.

Create relevant, personalized experiences

Another key benefit of omnichannel marketing is that it enables brands to create more personalized and relevant omnichannel experiences for their customers. By collecting and analyzing data from multiple touch points, brands can gain a more complete and nuanced understanding of their customers’ preferences, behaviors, and needs.

This, in turn, allows them to tailor their messaging, content, and offerings to individual customers, creating a more engaging and effective marketing experience.

How to implement an omnichannel marketing strategy across your enterprise

To truly deliver on omnichannel marketing, you need to develop a comprehensive strategy that spans all key online and offline channels. This requires a deep understanding of customer behavior and preferences across each touch point as well as the ability to create personalized, seamless experiences that drive engagement and loyalty. Take a closer look at how you can implement an effective omnichannel strategy across some of the most critical channels.

1. Extend SEO capabilities beyond onsite optimization

SEO is crucial in driving online visibility and attracting customers to your website. In an omnichannel context, SEO should be approached with a consistent brand experience in mind. This means ensuring that all online content—from product descriptions to blog posts—should be optimized for relevant keywords aligned with your brand’s messaging.

You should also focus on building a strong backlink profile across different channels, including social media platforms and third-party websites. This not only boosts SEO performance but also helps to establish brand credibility and trust among your customer base.

Take Home Depot as an example. They effectively leverage SEO by incorporating detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, and how-to guides, all optimized for key search terms. By engaging customers on social media and collaborating with influencers, Home Depot not only drives traffic to its website but also enhances its in-store presence.

Optimize for local search and voice queries

For multi-location enterprises, local SEO is crucial. Accurate listings on platforms like Yelp, coupled with regular updates on store hours, new product offerings, and discounts, can significantly enhance local search rankings.

Furthermore, as voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant become increasingly popular, optimizing your omnichannel SEO strategy for voice search is no longer optional—it’s essential. By tailoring your content and keywords to the unique characteristics of voice search queries, you can tap into a growing audience of consumers who prefer to search by speaking rather than typing.

To optimize for voice search, start by focusing on long-tail, conversational keywords that mirror the way people naturally speak. For example, instead of targeting a keyword like “best running shoes,” you might target a phrase like “What are the best running shoes for flat feet?” or “Where can I find the most comfortable running shoes near me?”

Incorporating such long-tail keywords will give you an edge to improve your rankings in search engines as well as in business directories.

Leverage user-generated content for authentic, engaging SEO

Today’s consumers crave authenticity and social proof—and user-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful tools for delivering both.

Apart from social media UGC, one simple and effective way to enhance your brand’s SEO naturally is to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences, which then inspires customers to leave reviews on your website and other online platforms like Yelp. Not only do reviews provide valuable social proof and feedback for your brand, but they may also contain natural, long-tail keywords that can help improve your search rankings.

2. Create a complete experience from social “likes” to loyalty

Social media can be more than just a platform for engagement. It’s an opportunity to understand your customers’ pain points on a deeper level, build customer relationships, and foster loyalty. The key is to use each interaction, from likes to comments, as a stepping stone in a broader customer journey.

By shaping your social media strategy to move beyond customer engagement metrics and aligning it with omnichannel goals, you can turn a simple “like” into long-term brand loyalty. The secret is in blending your social touch points with real-world experiences. Here are different ways to apply an omnichannel approach to social media marketing.

Turn digital buzz into real-world experiences

One effective tactic is to use social media to showcase products and promotions in a way that drives both online and in-store traffic. Such cross-channel marketing can be used to promote in-store events, exclusive online sales, or new product launches across various social platforms that can translate to more foot traffic to your stores.

This is exactly what Converse did in their “Made By You” campaign. This campaign started by setting up art installations and murals in cities like New York, London, and Shanghai, allowing visitors to engage with custom Chuck Taylors in immersive environments.

.@chippercentral has a tough decision to make. #chucktaylor #ChuckII pic.twitter.com/7vFNx7fR76

— Converse (@Converse) July 31, 2015

To complement these offline experiences, the brand encouraged consumers to share their customized Chucks on social media using the #ChuckTaylor hashtag, creating a digital gallery of shared moments. This omnichannel marketing strategy blended real-world interactions with social media engagement, amplifying the brand’s reach while fostering a strong community connection.

You can create such digital buzz on various scales to generate interest around your product launches or discounts to build brand awareness and increase conversions.

Leverage social for cross-channel conversions

Another powerful way to integrate social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy is through influencer collaborations. By partnering with relevant and trusted influencers in your industry, you can tap into their engaged audiences and leverage the power of social proof to drive brand awareness, engagement, and sales.

A great example of this strategy is Gymshark’s influencer marketing campaign. The fitness apparel brand collaborated with a carefully curated group of fitness influencers and athletes to create authentic, engaging content that showcased their apparel in action.

One particularly effective omnichannel marketing campaign was Gymshark’s “66 Days | Change Your Life” challenge, encouraging followers to commit to a fitness routine for 66 days straight. Gymshark partnered with a variety of influencers to promote the challenge on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to participate in the challenge. These influencers created workout videos and motivational posts, all optimized for keywords related to fitness challenges and transformations.

By leveraging the reach and credibility of these influencers, Gymshark was able to drive significant traffic and engagement to its website as well as build a strong community of loyal customers who associated the brand with the transformative power of fitness.

Implementing such campaigns with consistent messaging can not only help enterprises increase online visibility and search rankings but can also cement their position in the industry.

3. Bring the online and offline worlds together with “phygital” experiences

Despite the rise of ecommerce and digital channels, physical stores remain a crucial touch point for many consumers, especially younger ones. In fact, according to McKinsey’s Omnichannel Compendium for Retailers, 81% of consumers aged 18 to 29 cited physical stores as their preferred shopping method despite being digital natives. This highlights the importance of bringing the online and offline worlds together through “phygital” experiences—blending the best physical and digital touch points to create a seamless and immersive customer journey.

At its core, the phygital approach recognizes that customers no longer distinguish between online and offline channels but expect a coherent and consistent experience across all touch points. By identifying the unique strengths of each channel and finding ways to integrate them to enhance the overall customer experience, brands can create a more memorable and impactful omnichannel marketing strategy.

One of the critical benefits of phygital experiences is that they allow brands to leverage the convenience and personalization of digital channels while still providing the tangibility and immediacy of physical touch points.

For example, a beauty brand can create a mobile app for virtual makeup try-ons to help them make the right product choices in their brick-and-mortar stores. Similarly, a home goods retailer can use digital displays for product reviews and recommendations, blending digital and physical elements to create an engaging shopping experience.

Creating such different phygital experiences can help erase the gap between physical and digital interactions and help customers seamlessly transition from one to the other.

How can you create phygital experiences?

To create successful phygital experiences, marketing teams must focus on providing value and convenience at every touch point, both online and offline. A customer-centric approach, paired with the smart use of technology, can bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds, which consumers expect.

For example, in the McKinsey Omnichannel Compendium, it’s noted that almost 22% of shoppers like to select items online and be directed to where they are in-store, and nearly 13% appreciate receiving store offers on their smartphones, linking the digital experience to their in-store visits. Understanding such customer preferences can help create seamless phygital interactions.

Here are some key omnichannel strategies to elevate phygital experiences:

• Integrate mobile apps and in-store experiences: Use mobile apps to enhance the in-store shopping experience, such as providing product information, personalized recommendations, push notifications with geo-targeted offers, and mobile checkout.
• Leverage digital displays and interactive technologies: Use digital displays, touchscreens, and other interactive technologies to create more engaging and immersive in-store experiences.
• Create hybrid events and experiences: Combine online and offline elements to create unique and memorable experiences, such as virtual product launches or live-streamed in-store events.
• Personalize in-store experiences with customer data: Use customer data from online interactions to personalize in-store experiences. For instance, equip sales associates with tablets that display customer profiles, purchase histories, and preferences, enabling them to offer tailored recommendations and personalized service.
• Offer in-store digital assistance: Implement in-store kiosks or tablets where customers can access additional product information, check stock availability, or place orders for items unavailable on the shelves.

As you create phygital experiences, ensure proper tracking is in place to attribute your online efforts to offline conversions. You can use tools like Yelp Store Visits to track your store walk-ins and connect them back to your particular marketing efforts.

4. Create a cohesive retargeting strategy with emails and ads

One of the best ways to retarget your interested leads is through a mix of emails and paid ads. Both channels are incredibly useful for turning passive interest into active engagement by reinforcing your brand message and offerings across multiple touch points.

This strategy isn’t just about pushing products. It’s about building trust and delivering value. The more consistent and personalized the experience, the more you strengthen your brand’s presence, whether they’re passively browsing or actively engaging.

Make sure to segment your customers based on their personas to create different customer journey maps to help offer relevant messages based on their interests. Here are two simple ways to include an omnichannel approach with retargeting.

Transform email engagement into personalized ad experiences

One innovative approach is using your email engagement data to power paid ads. By integrating email marketing platforms with ad channels, you can target each lead with personalized ads that reflect their individual interests.

For example, if a customer frequently opens emails about outdoor gear but hasn’t purchased it, you can use this behavior to trigger highly relevant Facebook ads with personalized product suggestions. Show them curated items from that specific category, adding an exclusive offer to pique their interest further.

You can even extend this campaign to make your ads dynamic based on email interactions. If a lead opens an email about a new product but doesn’t take action, follow it up with a retargeting ad focusing on the product’s key benefits, perhaps offering a time-sensitive discount or customer testimonials. This creates a continuous loop of engagement across various channels, making the experience seamless and tailored to the buyer’s journey.

Turn ad clicks into email conversions

On the flip side, paid ads can also be used to grow your email list and convert ad clickers into subscribers. If someone clicks on an ad but doesn’t convert, offer them an incentive via a follow-up email to re-engage. For instance, you can target visitors who clicked through to your site with ads encouraging them to sign up for exclusive early-bird offers or access to members-only content.

This works especially well when you combine the retargeting process with sequential ads—starting with a general offer and following up with more personalized, time-sensitive ones based on prior interactions. This not only drives traffic back to your site but also nurtures leads through email, positioning your brand as one that cares about individualized customer experiences.

5. Attribute accurately to optimize omnichannel performance

One of the biggest challenges in an omnichannel marketing strategy is accurately attributing conversions and revenue to specific touch points and channels. Without a clear understanding of which channels and tactics drive results, optimizing your omnichannel strategy and allocating budget and resources effectively can be challenging.

To address this challenge, many brands are turning to advanced attribution models—such as custom multi-touch attribution (MTA) and data-driven or algorithmic attribution—that use machine learning and data analytics to provide a more holistic and accurate picture of the customer journey. Such attribution models go beyond simple last-touch or first-touch attribution by assigning fractional credit to each touch point based on its relative influence on the final conversion.

Investing in such attribution tools and regularly analyzing the multichannel marketing data can give you valuable insights into the complex interplay between channels and touch points—and how they contribute to overall marketing success. For example, MTA can help brands identify key conversion paths and understand how touch points—such as display ads, email campaigns, and social media posts—work together to drive conversions and revenue.

Armed with these insights, you can make data-driven decisions about optimizing your multichannel strategy and choosing the channels that maximize your investment. This may involve adjusting budget allocations to prioritize high-performing channels, refining targeting and messaging strategies to better resonate with your target audiences, or experimenting with new tactics and channels to drive incremental growth and increase customer retention.

Bring your omnichannel strategy full circle

Omnichannel success isn’t just about offering multiple touch points. It’s about creating a cohesive journey that connects every experience your customers have with your brand. Seamless shopping, personalized engagements, and building a dynamic ecosystem are all these elements that work together to form a complete, interconnected strategy.

When you align your efforts across channels, you bring the customer experience full circle—turning fragmented interactions into a unified, value-driven relationship that leads to more customers and better retention.

With this foundation in place, discover strategies for driving in-store visits to your multi-location business.