Adapted from the master's thesis of Xavier Champoux, with modifications by Bofu.
Introduction
In modern marketing, it is essential to deeply understand the customer journey and ensure that any strategy is aligned with the company’s business objectives. Today, the buying journey is no longer linear: customers interact with a brand across multiple channels, both online and offline. This is called an omnichannel approach. This article explains in simple terms how this approach can not only improve the performance of your marketing strategy, but also maximize your return on investment (ROI).
Understanding Business Goals: The Key to Any Good Strategy
Before defining an effective marketing strategy, it is crucial to clearly identify business objectives. Do you want to increase your online sales, strengthen your brand awareness, or increase the loyalty of your existing customers? Based on these priorities, it becomes easier to align marketing actions with the real needs of the company.
For example, if the goal is to increase sales, advertising campaigns and conversion efforts will be prioritized. If the goal is to build customer loyalty, the focus will be on retention, personalization, and improving the user experience. Clearly defining these goals helps optimize each marketing investment.
The omnichannel customer journey: how does it work?
Today, consumers interact with brands across multiple touchpoints: an Instagram post, a promotional email, a Google search, or even a store visit. This path isn’t always linear. They might see an ad online and then decide to visit your physical store, or vice versa. Which makes tracking this omnichannel journey essential to measure and understand the true impact of each interaction.
However, tracking and analyzing such a journey can be complex. Data from different sources (online ads, social networks, physical sales, etc.) must be aggregated to provide a clear and consistent view of what each touchpoint brings to the conversion. This vision allows to better identify the channels and actions that deserve to be prioritized.
Aligning Marketing Channels with Business Goals
Each communication channel plays a different role in achieving your business goals. For example, if the goal is to build brand awareness, channels like social media advertising and awareness campaigns will be at the center of the strategy. To generate direct conversions, channels like email marketing, retargeting, or Google Ads will be more effective.
It is crucial to assess the impact of each channel and touchpoint to understand what role they play in the purchasing journey. This helps optimize advertising investments and maximize returns by identifying the best performing channels.
Choosing the right attribution model
A major challenge in omnichannel marketing is attribution—determining which touchpoint had the greatest impact on a customer’s purchasing decision. There are several attribution models, each with its own advantages depending on the type of customer journey. Some models give all credit to the first touchpoint, while others distribute the impact across all interactions.
The choice of attribution model depends on the company's business objectives and the complexity of the customer journey. It is often necessary to test several approaches to find the one that best reflects the reality of your audience and your marketing actions.
Key Metrics to Monitor Depending on Your Business Type
To assess the effectiveness of an omnichannel strategy, it is crucial to track the right metrics based on the type of business. Whether you are a service, retail or eCommerce company, each business model has specific indicators that will help you better understand your performance and adjust your strategy.
1. Service companies
In service businesses, the main goal is often lead generation and converting prospects into customers. Here are the metrics to monitor:
- Cost per lead (CPL) : Measures how much you spend to obtain a qualified prospect (lead). A controlled CPL means your marketing campaigns are cost-effective and efficient.
- Lead Conversion Rate : This is the percentage of qualified leads that become customers. This rate helps measure the effectiveness of your sales and follow-up process.
- Sales cycle length : The time it takes to convert a prospect into a customer, from the first interaction to the signing of the contract. The shorter this time, the more efficient your process is.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) : The total value a customer brings to your business over the entire duration of the relationship. This metric is essential for assessing long-term profitability.
- Customer Retention Rate : This rate indicates how many customers remain loyal to your service after their first conversion. A good retention rate indicates that your customer loyalty and experience efforts are paying off.
2. Retail businesses
For retail businesses, whether physical stores or online sales, the goal is to optimize sales and improve the customer experience. Here are the metrics to monitor:
- In-store and online conversion rates : Measure how many visitors become buyers, whether on your website or in your physical stores. This is a key indicator of touchpoint performance and the fluidity of the purchasing journey.
- Average Transaction Value : This metric measures the average amount spent by each customer. An increase in this metric means you are successfully maximizing sales per customer.
- Purchase Frequency : How often your customers return to purchase from your stores or website. A high frequency indicates that your loyalty efforts are working.
- Return Rate : The percentage of products returned compared to sales. This rate gives you insight into customer satisfaction with your products and the quality of the customer experience.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (NPS) : The Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures the likelihood that a customer will recommend your store or product to others. It is a key indicator for assessing the quality of the customer experience and loyalty.
3. eCommerce Companies
In eCommerce, the goal is to optimize online sales while maximizing the effectiveness of conversion and retention campaigns. Here are the metrics to monitor:
- Website Conversion Rate : The percentage of visitors who make a purchase. A high conversion rate indicates that your digital marketing, UX design, and product listing optimization efforts are effective.
- Average Basket Size : The average amount spent per transaction. Increasing the average basket size through cross-selling or promotions can have a direct impact on profitability.
- Cart abandonment rate : The percentage of visitors who add items to their cart without completing the purchase. A high rate is often a sign that there are obstacles in the checkout process or that shipping costs are unclear.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) : The average cost to acquire a customer through your advertising or organic campaigns. This metric helps you understand the effectiveness of your paid marketing efforts.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) : Measures how much you earn for every dollar you invest in advertising. It’s a great metric to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns and adjust your budgets.
Crucial Steps to Start an Omnichannel Strategy
- Audit and analyze existing channels : Analyze your current channels to identify which ones are performing well and which ones need optimization. This will allow you to focus your efforts on the most profitable channels.
- Define priority touchpoints : Once your channels have been audited, identify the key touchpoints that have the most impact on your conversions. By optimizing these points, you increase your chances of success at every stage of the customer journey.
Tools and technologies for a successful omnichannel strategy
The key to a successful omnichannel strategy is using the right tools to collect, analyze, and interpret data from different channels. These technologies allow you to track the customer journey, properly attribute conversions, and optimize your campaigns. Here are the main tools to consider for implementing an effective omnichannel strategy:
1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google Analytics 4 is the go-to tool for analyzing user behavior on your website. It tracks user interactions throughout their journey, from first visit to conversion. GA4 provides a unified view of data from multiple platforms and channels, which is essential for understanding an omnichannel journey. Additionally, its ability to track custom events and conversions makes it an essential tool for deep-dive analysis of touchpoints.
2. Google Search Console (GSC)
Google Search Console is a must-have tool to monitor and improve your site’s presence in Google search results. It allows you to identify the best performing search queries and analyze how users find your site via organic search. For an omnichannel strategy, GSC is crucial to understand the role of organic search in your customer journey and optimize your SEO.
3. Google Ads + Pixel
Google Ads is one of the most powerful advertising platforms to reach your customers at different stages of the purchase journey. With conversion tracking via the Google Ads Pixel , you can accurately attribute the results of your ad campaigns. This helps you understand which campaign type (search, display, video) has the most impact on conversion and at what point in the journey.
4. Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Google Tag Manager is a tag management tool that simplifies tracking events and conversions on your site. By centralizing all tags (Google Ads, GA4, Facebook pixels, etc.) in GTM, you can easily manage and adjust the tracking of your users’ interactions. This helps ensure accurate data collection, which is essential for a cohesive omnichannel strategy.
5. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
A CRM is essential for managing customer relationships and tracking all interactions across your different channels, whether online or offline. It centralizes all customer information, which helps to better understand the omnichannel journey and personalize marketing actions based on your customers’ preferences and behaviors. Integrating a CRM with your marketing tools (like Google Ads or GA4) allows you to have a complete view of the customer experience.
6. Facebook Business Manager + Pixel
Facebook Business Manager is the central platform for managing your Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns. With the Facebook Pixel , you can track what visitors do on your site after they click on an ad on Facebook or Instagram. This allows you to optimize your campaigns and improve the relevance of your ads based on user behaviors, while tracking the omnichannel impact of your advertising efforts on conversions.
7. LinkedIn Insight Tag
The LinkedIn Insight Tag works similarly to tracking pixels on other platforms. It tracks conversions on your website after a user clicks on a LinkedIn ad. This allows you to measure the effectiveness of your LinkedIn campaigns and analyze how users interact with your site after viewing your professional ads.
8. Website Conversions
Conversion tracking is essential for understanding user behavior and attributing results to specific touchpoints. Whether you’re using GA4, Facebook Pixel, or LinkedIn Insight Tag, it’s crucial to properly set up your conversion goals for each channel. This helps you measure the impact of your omnichannel campaigns on your site’s overall conversion rate.
9. Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps you better understand user behavior on your site through heatmaps and session recordings. This tool helps you visualize how your visitors interact with your site and identify potential roadblocks in their journey. As a complement to GA4, Clarity gives you a deeper view of the user experience and helps you improve the performance of your key pages.
10. Google Looker Studio Dashboard
Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) is a custom reporting and dashboarding tool that lets you visualize all your marketing data in one place. By connecting your data from Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sources, you can track the effectiveness of your omnichannel campaigns in real time. Looker Studio makes it easy to analyze overall performance and help you make informed decisions based on consolidated data.
Anticipating the future of omnichannel marketing
The rules of the game are changing rapidly. For example, the imminent disappearance of third-party cookies will disrupt the way customer data is collected and used. It is therefore crucial to prepare for these changes and adapt your strategy accordingly. Working with solutions that rely on first-party data is becoming increasingly important.
At the same time, factors such as the speed of your website, the quality of the user experience, and the frequency of your ads are often underestimated elements, but which can have a significant impact on the success of your omnichannel campaigns.
Conclusion: The omnichannel approach, key to your success
Omnichannel marketing is a real asset to reach your customers at every stage of their journey, at the right time and on the right channel. By aligning your marketing actions with your business objectives, you can not only maximize your performance, but also deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience.
To succeed with this approach, it is important to understand your priorities, track the right metrics, use the right tools, and anticipate future trends. By mastering these elements, you will be able to maximize your return on investment and build a sustainable and effective marketing strategy.
If you would like to learn more about how to implement an omnichannel strategy or have any questions about the steps to take, please do not hesitate to contact us.
