What’s the Difference Between Multichannel and Omnichannel?

Multichannel marketing is where you create content for lots of different channels (social media, email marketing, display adverts, blogging, etc.). The content is marketed to a lot of your customers at the same time. Within multichannel marketing, you can often find some retargeting or remarketing.

Retargeting is when a customer has visited your website and then goes to another website/social media channel. On the new site, they are provided with an advert that tries to bring them back to your website. This can use things like the Facebook Pixel.

Multichannel marketing is more focused on the content that is being produced by your marketing team. There is often very little focus on the customer or their journey, it is more about converting the customer on any particular piece of a marketing campaign.

Omnichannel marketing is more about the conversation that you have across your channels with the customer. The customer is supposed to feel that the conversation is moved from one platform to another. So they might talk to you on the phone about a product when they’re doing some research on the products you have on offer.

They might then inquire on your website chat function about a product and whether it is on offer at the moment or if it is available. Finally, they might make a sale over the telephone.

With omnichannel marketing, all of these interactions are counted as one long conversation with the data kept in a centrally kept file. The point is that you can see the previous interactions and build a more personalized service for the customer. For instance, you should see that the customer has inquired about a certain product before and then offer them that. They might have inquired about other products and you can use omnichannel to offer an upsell or cross-sell.

Omnichannel marketing is much more about the journey of the customer. It is more concerned about building a relationship with the customer and getting them to convert in the future. It can also be used within the post purchasing process.

Omnichannel marketing is there to help you make more money. Most brands that have used omnichannel marketing have seen revenues grow by about 9-10%. This can be a great benefit of using it. At the same time, retention rates and customer satisfaction rates are also improved with omnichannel marketing.