Omnichannel vs Multi-Channel Marketing: What’s better for my brand?

In today’s world, it’s become a no-brainer that if you are a D2C ECommerce brand, you need to reach out to your existing & potential new customers via notifications like SMS, Email, and WhatsApp, and not just through Ads on Google, Instagram or Facebook when they browse the internet.

To meet the above need, there are solutions like MoEngage, Contlo, WebEngage, etc. that help send notifications via SMS, Email & WhatsApp, all through the same flow/journey.
They help consolidate your marketing strategy on one platform and make it easier for you to manage all three channels from a single tool.

But the question here is: Is this optimal?

Truth be told, it is NOT. But why?

Why does a single-focused tool work better for WhatsApp?

An omnichannel tool would treat all your campaigns the same. A cut-copy-paste system that’d simply carry forward the same messaging that is used in emails and SMS. This approach throws away the key benefit of WhatsApp – personalized conversational interactions.

Because they lack –

1. The intelligence to hold a conversation. No Artificial Intelligence(AI) bot.
2. A platform where the brand’s agents can converse back on the received replies.

These shortcomings won’t hurt you on SMS & Email as they serve the purpose of simply broadcasting your set message to everyone all the same. But using WhatsApp to send generic broadcasts that are not personalized, close-ended, and don’t initiate a conversation will instead make you lose your customers on WhatsApp.

Why? Because Whatsapp has grown from a place where you interact just with friends to a place where players from every industry like Swiggy, HDFC Bank, Redbus, Myntra, Ajio, and the plethora of D2C brands are sending promotional messages.

With so many brands competing for valuable space within their customer’s DMs, a single tool is necessary to maximize ROI from WhatsApp.

Learn to segment customers for WhatsApp

As you read above, if your brand continues sending generic promotional messages, you will see your read rates fall down, and your customers will either opt-out or mark it as spam. Eventually, not only your revenues through WhatsApp will fall, but you will kill the golden goose, all for short-term gains.

“Given these problems, what’s the way out? Are you suggesting that I stop sending promotional messages on WhatsApp and lose millions every month?”

Not really.

Adopt a multi-channel marketing strategy. Use SMS & Email the way you do.
On WhatsApp let us suggest what should be done.

Divide your customers into three levels of attachment with your brand, & send communication based on that.

Level 1: Newbies – Just became your customers or have high intent to become one.

For the ones who just became your customers, start only with transactional flows which reach out to the end customer only for sharing important order related information & collecting feedback.

For those who reached the last stage of purchase but didn’t make payment, reach out with a message that makes them feel that they are not being forced to purchase. Give them the means to interact with you and resolve their doubts.

[Omnichannel tools cannot run Conversational flows. They can neither answer “When will my order be delivered”, nor answer product related queries].

Level 2: Happy customers – The ones who have shared good feedback.

To the people who have become your customers and have shared good feedback, reach out to upsell. After they’ve finished your products, reach out to re-order.

[Omnichannel tools cannot collect feedback on chat, and cannot sell on chat by showing products & directly giving customers a checkout link. They lack intelligence].

Level-3: Brand worshippers – Loyalists who are ready to experiment.

To the people who buy often from you, reach out to them for new product launches. Get them interested by showing your new launch in the chat itself. Run pre-launch product surveys among them, collect feedback and get them interested in your products early-on.

[Omnichannel players cannot run conversational broadcasts which can record responses or start a conversation based on received replies].

That’s all. Not too difficult, right?

Remember it’s not just the quantity of communication that matters on WhatsApp. It’s the quality of communication too. LimeChat can help you maintain that quality, Omnichannel marketing tools cannot.

Level up your marketing. Book a demo today!