There’s really nothing like good music. I put on my favorite Guns N’ Roses album the other day and got so wrapped up in how well the musicians worked together. I wasn’t bombarded with Slash’s guitar or the high hat on Steven Adler’s drum kit. Axl Rose’s voice didn’t stand out above the instruments. Everything perfectly blended together into one sweet child of mine musical experience.
That sense of balance is what omni channel networks are all about. If there’s one dominant channel or a network out of sync, even for a minute, you won’t get the same experience. Both digital and traditional marketers are becoming interested in multichannel campaign management. Ideas like the Internet of Things, where the pieces all talk to one another, are growing in popularity (and possibility!) too.
In eConsultancy.com’s January 2014 Quarterly Intelligence Briefing, it was found that 73% of companies say ensuring consistency of message across channels is “very important” for their clients over the next few years – the most common concern. Companies realize they can’t afford for their media not to complement itself. The modern customer just doesn’t have patience for competing messages.
Email service providers are a great example of the omni-channel networks trend. They have gone from just delivering email, to sharing SMS messages, social media posts, and more at the click of the mouse.
This omni-channel networks approach isn’t limited purely to the online arena, though. Far from it. In the retail market, all the different pieces of media a customer sees need to match up. The video walls on one side of a store need to showcase similar messaging to interactive product education kiosks on the other side. Digital directories need to sync with way-finding mobile apps to send relevant messages to mall customers. As we’ve talked about, keeping your messaging timely and relevantis so important, but it’s also vital that your updated information all blends together nicely.
Just like you don’t appreciate the art in a good song, customers don’t even realize the seamless integration of effective omni-channel networks. And making things easy for them is a surefire way to keep customers knocking on heaven’s your door.
What examples of really great omni-channel networks have you seen? Digital, traditional, or otherwise?