In the last two years, it now seems trivial to say, Covid has drastically changed people's social habits, as well as the way and the rules of digital communication. If once omnichannel was a secondary issue, today it becomes the central focus of communication strategies. In fact, the past two years have put a strain on companies and traders, who have had to review their business models by facilitating a shift of sales channels from offline to online. But how has Covid changed communication strategies?
A new digital strategy
Change the way you communicate: shoppers are much more demanding online and offline
The pandemic has created profound changes in online consumer behavior and retailers have seen an exponential growth in sales compared to physical stores. The boom in Ecommerce has transformed the shopping experience which, in a data-driven environment, increasingly requires greater attention to digital user involvement. In fact, lacking human contact, buyers have become much more receptive to the experience they experience when they buy something online, evaluating the purchase path and omnichannel offered by brands with much more careful eyes. On the same wave, offline retailers have made changes with the aim of improving the emotional experience and interaction with the customer in the store. Therefore, the need to place the user and their needs at the center of their digital strategy emerges in order to build a highly satisfactory and customizable customer journey.
Omnichannel transformation: what are the advantages for brands and companies?
The omnichannel model is the only one capable of guaranteeing unified management between offline and online contact points and delivering the seamless experience sought by users. Omnichannel, moreover, means knowing how to read data, evaluate it as a real business asset and know how to invest in technological resources useful for processing such data. In fact, as the Customer Experience Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano explains: "It is precisely in the difference between multichannel and omnichannel that the challenge of the relationship with the customer is played out." With this in mind, the use of artificial intelligence represents a resource to be exploited for the optimization of data management processes based on:
• Real-time data analysis,
• Improvement of the customer experience thanks to self-learning processes,
• Predictive analysis of user needs.
The hybrid model: the key to success after Covid
Organizing hybrid campaigns means combining online and offline communication channels, in a single narrative thread, in order to make the most of the synergy of these two components. Online has the undeniable power to expand the audience of spectators, in addition to the fact that it can facilitate and collect the data of the participants. Offline, in terms of events or retail, brings with it the value of human contact and face to face experience between potential buyer and seller. So how can we build hybrid models modeled on an omnichannel path for our customers? An example?
Lavazza, as told by Engage, was Planitum Partner of NITTO ATP in Turin from 14 to 21 November 2021, and on this occasion, to promote the event, it created a communication campaign that included the use of digital and external communication. In fact, the promotion involved the synergy between OOH (Out of home) and mobile. In order to increase the interaction rate, users had the opportunity to participate in a competition built with the aim of educating customers about some Lavazza products, and, on the drive to event side, thanks to the use of OOH, they were directed to the places of the Lavazza Experience. The experiment translated into more than satisfactory performances, compared to traditional campaigns, tracing the roadmap for other future campaigns in which online and offline synergy represents a winning combination.
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