Omnichannel vs multichannel marketing: Choose the right approach

Highlights

You’ll learn about the key differences between multichannel and omnichannel strategies:

• Customer experience

• Omnichannel: Seamlessly integrates channels for consistent experiences
• Multichannel: Channels operate independently, creating disconnected experiences

• Integration

• Omnichannel: Unified data aligns all channels
• Multichannel: Data remains siloed with little coordination

• Focus

• Omnichannel: Enhances customer loyalty by supporting their whole journey
• Multichannel: Drives engagement on specific platforms
  

During an orchestra performance, musicians perform their separate songs without any coordination. A beautiful solo from the violinist appears as the flutist maintains their own rhythm and the percussionist continues dominating their performance. Each performance is acceptable only if it's a solo because their collective performance is a total disaster. Compare that to a properly coordinated orchestra, where musicians work together. That’s the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing. 

In multichannel, each channel operates independently. But omnichannel integrates them together to create a seamless, memorable customer experience. As your customers are not using a single touchpoint or channel to interact, you need a comprehensive marketing strategy that engages customers across your website, social media, e-commerce or mobile app. 

Discovering the omnichannel vs multichannel marketing helps you choose one that’s best for your business.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing delivers seamless, consistent and quality customer experiences across every digital touchpoint. Whether customers interact with a brand through websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, emails, physical stores or digital kiosks, they receive seamless and interconnected experiences. Customers can begin from where they left their previous interaction. 

Rather than treating every channel as a separate entity, it aligns all interactions to create unified experiences. It’s a customer-focused strategy that helps you place products and services naturally in the customer journey. The marketing strategy integrates the following customer-facing channels:

• E-commerce
• Website
• Mobile App
• Social media
• In-store
• Email
• SMS

Examples of omnichannel

An omnichannel approach might start by sending customers a personalized recommendation email featuring a pair of sneakers they’ve been eyeing. Your tracking parameters show they click the email but don’t complete the purchase. Since you have their email address and know they’re subscribed to your SMS updates, your marketing automation software triggers a follow-up text a few days later with a friendly reminder about the sneakers, along with a link to a blog post about styling tips for them. 

A week later, when the customer is browsing their social media, they see a retargeting ad showcasing the sneakers paired with a limited-time free shipping offer. Such consistent, cross-channel engagement encourages them to revisit your website. They are now bundled with a 10% one-time discount. This means that with an omnichannel approach, customers can move between any number of channels. 

How does omnichannel marketing work?

Omnichannel marketing collects data from websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, in-store visits and emails. It centralizes the information inside CRM or similar systems to build an ideal customer profile. Analyzing the data lets you create customer journey maps, which reveal their interactions and identify customer engagement opportunities. You can deliver customized content, offers and structured experiences across interconnected channels, ensuring consistent messaging. 

Through marketing automation tools, you can trigger real-time interactions, remind customers about abandoned carts and provide personalized advertising based on their behavior. Customers receive improved strategies from an iterative feedback process that helps you meet their preferences. Your business develops stronger customer relationships and engagement levels, leading to higher conversion results.

Benefits of omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel might sound challenging at first, but it helps your brand stay at the top of the minds of your customers. It benefits you in the following ways:

Encourages conversion

Personalized offerings provided at the right time increase the likelihood of purchase. Moreover, integrating marketing channels gives you the freedom to complete their purchase from any platform they like. For instance, customers who abandon their shopping carts receive personalized messages with time-sensitive discounts during a follow-up. Your conversion rate increases when you send time-sensitive content that matches individual customer needs.

Unifies brand experience

90% of your customers expect a consistent brand experience across all their channels, and 89% are likely to switch brands when they don’t receive such experiences. So, you must ensure that all your promotions and content are the same. For instance, all your digital channels should show the 10% discount mentioned in your PPC ads. Why? The practice builds trust and minimizes confusion so customers don't hesitate to purchase from your brand.

Builds trust and loyalty

Customers prefer brands that deliver enjoyable and consistent customer experiences. Under omnichannel marketing, your customers can experience smooth and consistent journeys. For example, in your loyalty programmes, ensure customers can redeem them across every channel. Frustration seeps in when customer have to wait for an in-store visit to redeem their points. Omnichannel strategies build trust, create stronger emotional bonds and increase customer lifetime value. 

Optimizes customer journey

Companies using omnichannel marketing minimize platform barriers, allowing customers to move between different systems. A customer starts their buying process by viewing an item in the mobile application, then completes the purchase through the desktop. When you focus on simplicity, you make the customer journey more enjoyable and convenient.

Provides better brand recognition

Through omnichannel marketing, you build better brand recognition. How? You provide uniform experiences that meet your customers' needs. Customer loyalty grows when you offer a smooth shopping experience on your website. This starts from the first visit and goes to the final purchase. Giving a great experience leads to good word-of-mouth. This results in repeat business and stronger connections with the brand.

Cons of omnichannel marketing

Measuring the right KPIs

Your omnichannel marketing success evaluation requires analyzing the right data and tracking the KPIs. The analysis of success during the entire customer journey remains a difficult task. When you fail, you cannot identify which parts of the strategy are drawing customers and which are causing customers to churn. You also struggle to discover which digital channel is most effective. 

Data management challenges

With data coming in from multiple sources, managing and analyzing the data is cumbersome, especially in the absence of a CDP. You also require strong data governance frameworks to ensure accuracy, use and privacy. 

Complexity in integration

Operating multiple channels demands complex technical integration when using a traditional CMS like WordPress. A headless CMS ensures seamless data flow and uniformity across platforms. 

Higher implementation costs

An omnichannel marketing strategy needs investment in technology, tools and infrastructure. Small to medium-sized businesses cannot afford such a high cost.

What is multichannel marketing?

Multichannel marketing is a process of creating and distributing marketing content across multiple individual channels to reach your customers, increase sales and drive engagement. As channels are not integrated, they often result in disconnected and inconsistent experiences. 

Example of multichannel marketing

An outdoor gear brand uses multiple channels to connect with customers wherever they like to shop. A sleek landing page on their website acted as the campaign’s home base, while personalized emails kept their loyal customers in the loop with discount codes and curated product picks. Instagram and Facebook posts brought the campaign to life with stunning outdoor visuals. 

Google Ads and YouTube videos caught the attention of people searching for the perfect gear. In their physical stores, signs promoted the sale with QR codes offering easy access to online discounts. They also used their mobile app to send friendly reminders with exclusive app-only deals. To top it all off, the company partnered with outdoor influencers and local events. The company leveraged each channel’s strengths to create a consistent buzz and made it easy for customers to join in on the sale wherever they were.

Benefits of multichannel marketing

Simplify the customer journey

Every marketer knows the need to reduce the time between their marketing message and their purchasing decision. Delaying the purchase process after customers see marketing messages increases the likelihood that they will never purchase. Multichannel marketing lets you establish connections on each customer's preferred channels and provide clear, direct links to your products or services. 

Extends your audience reach

Every platform has its unique audience and every platform is perfect for certain circumstances. For instance, social media is fantastic for engaging younger customers, while email can be more effective for loyal ones who prefer direct updates. A multichannel approach ensures you’re tapping into these diverse groups and taking advantage of different platforms' positive features while negating situations where they fall short. 

Ensures successful retargeting campaigns

Not all customers purchase during their first interaction. This is where retargeting steps in, and multichannel marketing makes it even more effective. After someone visits your site without purchasing, your retargeting ads on Facebook or customized email messages will help them complete their purchase. Each marketing channel helps you maintain customer visibility through non-salesy product reminders.

Cons of multichannel marketing

Increased complexity

Using multiple channels can be tricky to handle. Each platform needs its strategy, and alternating between them can feel chaotic. Without proper planning, you risk straining your resources.

Higher costs

It’s not affordable to run campaigns on several platforms. Your costs quickly add up when you spend money on hiring specialists. If you’re not careful, costs can quickly go out of control.

Mixed messaging

With so many channels, it’s easy for your message to get inconsistent. One platform might sound formal, while another feels too casual. This can confuse customers and weaken your brand.

Difficulty in tracking performance

Finding out what’s working across multiple platforms can be a headache. Each uses different metrics, making it hard to connect the dots. Without solid tracking tools, you depend more on guesswork and less on data. 

Omnichannel vs multichannel marketing

Key differences between omnichannel vs multichannel marketing are:

How does a headless CMS support omnichannel and multichannel strategies?

A headless CMS helps you fulfill the demands of your omnichannel and multichannel marketing. Here’s how a headless CMS like Contentstack supports both marketing strategies:

Flexibility to deliver across platforms

A headless architecture separates the content layer from the presentation layer, making your digital platform flexible. You create content once and distribute it across various channels. Businesses following omnichannel methods gain great value from the headless CMS flexibility because it lets them present a single message to customers on their digital touchpoints without any platform-specific design limits.

• Omnichannel: Omnichannel delivers standard promotional content across your e-commerce site, mobile app, store kiosks and Instagram ads without requiring separate content creation for each platform.

• Multichannel: A company personalizing messages for different platforms can produce webpage content you can use as a snippet in your YouTube video material.

Case study: How does MTR mobile deliver an enhanced omnichannel experience with Contentstack?

Over the past decade, the MTR mobile app has evolved from a transit tool into a lifestyle platform, uniting Hong Kong’s daily rail passengers with shopping and lifestyle experiences. They merged two loyalty programs into the unified MTR Points program and used Microsoft Azure and Contentstack’s headless CMS. MTR delivers personalized, scalable and omnichannel content across mobile, website, kiosks and digital panels. This delivered content updates, enhanced user engagement and the ability to handle surges in demand, ensuring a high-performing app and customer-centric solution for millions of daily users.

Read the complete case study here.

Content reuse and scalability

With a centralized repository, a headless CMS helps you reuse content. But how does a CMS achieve this goal? A headless CMS stores raw data independent from any styling, making it scalable and adaptable across various platforms. 

• Omnichannel: Brands can maintain consistency in messaging regardless of the platform they use. A product description created once can be reused across a website, app and newsletter while adjusting automatically to meet the requirements of each platform.
• Multichannel: Businesses can repurpose content selectively and focus on specific platform needs, such as creating a more visual layout for social media versus text-heavy formats for whitepapers.

API-driven architecture

A headless CMS operates through APIs to reach multiple front-ends. A content distribution system powered by APIs helps you connect to multiple tools and workflows.

• Omnichannel: APIs enable your business to connect different systems, including CRMs, personalization platforms and analytics tools. The API structure guarantees customers get consistent customer experiences that include personalized product recommendations on all interfaces where they interact.
• Multichannel: APIs allow you to deliver customized versions of content for various platforms. The same product launch gets a detailed presentation on web landing pages but shows simplified content through social media carousel displays.

Consistency in user experience

A headless CMS provides its users with the ability to maintain consistent messaging across platforms. It facilitates omnichannel marketing since it delivers consistent, superior experiences across various platforms.

• Omnichannel: A customer who starts a purchase process on mobile can complete it offline on desktop since their information will automatically be saved. This consistency builds trust and keeps things simple for customers.
• Multichannel: While consistency isn’t as critical here, a headless CMS still ensures that your content on one platform doesn’t feel disconnected from your overall brand voice.

Personalization and data-driven decisions

Web personalization is a must-have for making customers feel seen and valued. A headless CMS functions along with customer data tools that provide customized content and offerings. 

• Omnichannel: The omnichannel strategy produces dedicated messaging for various channels. Your customers who see sunglasses on your website will find ads showing them in their email and on Instagram.
• Multichannel: You must study each platform separately to achieve maximum efficiency under multichannel marketing. For example, your social media engagement metrics present information that may vary from the traffic analytics gathered from your blog.

Built for the future

The headless CMS adapts to new technologies. Whether your audience starts connecting through virtual reality, wearable tech or any other platform, you can meet them there.

• Omnichannel: You bring the same great experience wherever your customers go next, whether it’s an AR shopping app or a futuristic chatbot.
• Multichannel: It’s easy to experiment with new platforms without disrupting the rest of your strategy.

FAQs

What is an example of multichannel marketing?

A retailer uses social media for promotional posts and sends email news with discounts, along with printing in-store discount flyers.

What is an example of omnichannel marketing?

A retailer allows customers to purchase online and pick up in-store. The company integrates loyalty rewards across both platforms.

What is the difference between omnichannel and multichannel marketing?

Multichannel strategy works with independent customer touchpoints, and omnichannel integrates separate channels to create an uninterrupted, cohesive experience.

Learn more

A multichannel marketing approach is practical to begin with. However, omnichannel marketing offers truly remarkable customer experiences. The difference between these models provides you with the ability to select the one that produces maximum results. Every digital marketing operation needs a headless CMS to achieve its success. The adoption of a headless CMS enables your organization to achieve exceptional results on all channels through agile and scalable operations. Talk to us to understand how Contentstack can help your marketing efforts.