Omnichannel marketing has become a popular marketing keyword in the past couple of years - but what does it actually mean and should you care as a small business owner?
This week on the S.O.B. (Small Owned Business) Marketing podcast, Vivian and I are discussing what an omnichannel marketing strategy is and how it can help small businesses. We define this customer-centric marketing strategy, talk about the many benefits implementing this strategy can bring (like customer loyalty and retention), and we of course provide you with actionable steps to start your omnichannel marketing journey.
Marketing HOT TAKE of the week: Knowing and understanding your target audience is THE most important step to a building a solid small business. Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments!
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Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to our Marketing Cult! Please Leave Us a Review
03:28 Understanding Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
09:12 The Importance of Customer Experience
18:40 Implementing an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
26:58 TLDL; Omnichannel Marketing for Small Businesses
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๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐:
What Is Customer Journey and Why It Matters For Your Small Business: https://youtu.be/s2T4hgxjWuk
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*Intro* Chelsea: Hey everyone and welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast. Where we celebrate to S.O.B. you are, and if you haven't figured it out yet - we mean Small Owned Business, we don't mean S.O.B...
Vivian: Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea: Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, and promoting your business. And then what doesn't really work.
Vivian: And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
*Beginning of Episode*
Vivian: Welcome back you little SOBs, you little rascals, you small-owned businesses. We're here for another episode of the SOB Marketing Podcast. Hey, you guys, friendly reminder, if you have listened to this podcast for more than one or two episodes, what are you doing? You better hit that subscribe button because we want you to know every time we drop a new episode. If you haven't left us a review, please do so. We're also taking voice notes. If you go to sobmarketing.com and go to the contact us page, all you have to do is scroll down to the bottom, hit start recording and literally just start talking into your phone and send us a voice note. We want to play those here on the podcast. So if you have any marketing grievances, any marketing wins, if you have any customers behaving badly stories.
Chelsea: I'd love to hear that.
Vivian: We want to hear those too, but go send us a voice note and we're more than happy to change your voice if you guys want to remain anonymous too. So just let us know in the note if that's something you want. Chelsea, what are we talking about today? Wait, didn't I forget though? Do you want to tell them about the buy us a coffee? Buy me a coffee.
Chelsea: Buy me a coffee. Cause I need to be more caffeinated. If you enjoy this podcast and you want us to continue to create this podcast and show up every week with new information, new marketing information, then go over to buymeacoffee.com/sobmarketing and you can, you're never going to believe this, buy us a coffee.
Vivian: So coffees are metaphors. They cost $5. You can buy us as many as you'd like or just buy us one and you can leave a note in there or record a video message. It's just a way for you to be able to help the marketing resource that you guys are listening to every week.
Chelsea: Yeah, it seriously does help. Podcasting is hard. Okay, let's move on. Did you mention the TLDL?
Vivian: I did not.
Chelsea: Okay, also something we do a little different on this podcast, TLDL chapter. At the end of this conversation, there is a chapter, too long didn't listen. I'm going to give you a brief summary of the topic that we talk about today, just in case you're pressed for time and you don't have time to listen to the entire conversation. But, but, but, when you get the chance, you're going to go back and listen to the entire conversation. Vivian, what are we talking about today?
Vivian: Today, we are talking about the tried and true omni-channel marketing.
Chelsea: I don't know why I feel the need to like spread my arms. Well, I guess omni means all, right?
Vivian: It does. Yes. Now, if this is the first time you are hearing this term, you definitely want to tune into this entire episode because we're going to talk about exactly what it is and why it's important to small businesses. I had a video on YouTube years ago. This was actually one of the more popular ones because I think a lot of people, there's just a lot of misunderstanding about what omni-channel marketing is. Like, how do I even go about doing it or what all does it entail? So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Chelsea: Absolutely. Omni-channel is one of those things, omni-channel marketing is one of those things where it sounds really complicated. When we explain it, it'll make so much more sense.
Vivian: You're going to be like, what? That's it. That's what it is.
Chelsea: Exactly. Before we get started, Vivian, we have the marketing hot take.
Vivian: Awesome. I love it.
Chelsea: My marketing hot take for this week is, you know, I don't know if you're going to agree with me or not.
Vivian: I probably am not.
Chelsea: Okay. Didn't even say it yet. The most important thing you can do in marketing is know your target audience. I feel like everything comes down to how well you know your consumers and what your consumers want.
Vivian: I agree with you on this hot take, but I'm a little concerned that you think I don't agree with that. I wouldn't agree with you. Like, what did you think I was going to think the most important thing to marketing was?
Chelsea: I don't know, but you never agree with me.
Vivian: Yeah. I do agree that knowing your target audience is the most important thing because...
Chelsea: I actually did think, I did have an idea of something that you could maybe think was more important.
Vivian: Okay.
Chelsea: Which was knowing your small business.
Vivian: Yeah. The thing about a small business is, it's a hobby unless you know your target audience enough to actually sell. Right? I think that's the difference between having a legitimate small business and having a hobby. An expensive hobby.
If you know your target audience really well, that's what legitimizes your idea or your product or your service. It's of service to somebody else or it's of value to somebody else. Otherwise, you're not bringing revenue in if you don't know your target audience enough to be able to move the product, move the service.
Chelsea: Okay. I'm so glad we're on the same page. Vivian, are we ready to talk about omni-channel marketing then?
Vivian: Yeah, let's do it.
Chelsea: You know me, I like to start with definitions. So omni-channel marketing definition. I have an actual definition, but I also wrote "all the channels".
Vivian: Everything. All the channels.
Chelsea: All the things. But the actual definition is "this marketing strategy is customer-centric and integrates all marketing channels, both online and offline, to create a single cohesive and consistent marketing experience".
Vivian: Yeah, maybe I should have doneโฆ
Chelsea: I'm sorry. Not marketing experience, customer experience. That's important. It's a single cohesive and consistent customer experience.
Vivian: So maybe I should have done the hot take because I'm about to say something that a lot of you may find a little jolting. In 2025, going into 2026, there is not a world where you cannot have an omni-channel marketing strategy.
Chelsea: Oh, you should have done the hot take.
Vivian: Yeah. You just can't. You can't do it anymore because everything is so integrated and today's customers are, we're a little spoiled when it comes to stuff. So the thing is, to think that you can only pick one channel and I mean, maybe you could and just work the heck out of that and then make that super successful. But I'm going to stand by what I said. I think that in today's day and age, as a small business owner, you have to have an omni-channel marketing strategy. Now, let me remind you guys, we had talked about marketing channels at one point, there are a total of 15 of them. That includes like Chelsea said in the definition, online and offline. That includes things like guerrilla marketing, no relation to the chimpanzees. That's also, it has to do with like press releases and all this stuff.
If there are a total of 15 of them, digital ads, everything, an omnichannel strategy doesn't mean they have to incorporate all of them. It means that you incorporate enough of them across the board.
Chelsea: I think it's you incorporate all of the ones you're using.
Vivian: Yes. Or all of the ones that your target audience likes or that are important to your target audience.
Chelsea: Love that. Before we go any further, let's clearly talk about what does that definition mean? What does the definition of omnichannel mean? You know, the single cohesive, consistent customer experience. That's a tongue twister.
Vivian: I was going to say. I thought you were going to break out in rhyme.
Chelsea: It means that no matter where your potential customer is, no matter where they're learning about you or interacting with your small business, they need to be having the same positive experience across the board. Whether they're interacting with you on social media, whether they're discovering your storefront for the first time, their experience is your top priority and their experience needs to be consistent.
Vivian: Yes, online and offline. All of that. I think one of the restaurants that probably does this well is Chick-fil-A. When you go through their drive-through, their drive-through is super efficient. Yeah. It has two lanes. They have people that are outside taking the order to help get the orders in quicker. They navigate, they go pick up the order. It's never, you're never waiting super long for it. The other part is when you download their app. They have an app that makes it super easy to order. You could get food delivered to you or you could drive, pick it up, whatever it is, catering, all of that stuff. It's consistent. The same experience you're having through the app or online is the same experience that you're having in the actual storefront in the restaurant. It's efficient. It's clean. The interface is clean. Everything is super, I don't know, it's just fast.
Chelsea: A little side tangent. Yo, Chick-fil-A, why are you so expensive?
Vivian: Well, I think that's partially to blame, Tim, Chelsea's boyfriend, actually orders quite a bit of food in one sitting.
Vivian: Well, he usually gets a meal and then he gets an extra sandwich and then he usually gets chicken nuggets.
Vivian: That's a lot.
Chelsea: Then I get a meal.
Vivian: Yeah. So that's why. Usually if I go through, I get a little like chicken...
Chelsea: A little chicken? You have enough chickens.
Vivian: I know I do have chickens. I don't need a little chicken. I have enough baby chicks. I get a kid's meal. That's what I meant.
Chelsea: You're so cute.
Vivian: Because it's just enough food for what I'm hankering for.
Chelsea: Anyways, so we talked about what the definition means. Let's talk about how it's different specifically from multi-channel marketing.
Vivian: Yeah, this is a big shift you guys, especially, all my fellow marketers out there, small business owners that maybe have been in the game for some time. Remember, we used to always talk about multi-channel marketing. So omni-channel is not the same as multi-channel.
Chelsea: Yeah. Multi-channel is about, because it's still a thing, getting your small business out there. Just getting it out there and casting a wide net. So you're just trying to shout your name out there. That's fine. It works. Omni-channel marketing, like you said, it's where everyone needs to focus on.
I think specifically because omnichannel focuses on your consumer. Multi-channel marketing focuses on your business.
Vivian: Right, and that's a very big, I know you're probably thinking, yeah, but how big of a distinction is that? It's huge. Because with omnichannel, like Chelsea was saying earlier about creating consistency in the experience throughout all of the marketing channels that you're using. If you have a particular mission or vision for your business and you're integrating that into all the facets of channels that you're using, it does affect the way that your customer is moving through that customer journey.
Chelsea: Yes, absolutely. We recently talked about customer journey. I'll add a link in the description. I'll add the thumbnail. That's the word I'm looking for. I'll add a thumbnail so you can see the podcast episode. Go listen to that episode. Customer journey. Very important. Customer journey and omni-channel marketing is so important because personalization in this day and age is so important.
Vivian: It's everything.
Chelsea: I can't remember if... Full disclosure, we usually record two episodes at a time. So I can't remember if we talked about it in this episode or the episode that we just recorded. But you mentioned that as consumers, we are spoiled. That's true.
Vivian: I think I mention that in every episode, to be honest.
Chelsea: I mean, honestly, probably. As consumers, we are spoiled and if as a business you are not giving your consumer that spoiled personalized experience, they can get that experience from your competitor.
Vivian: Yeah, at this point, let's turn it from using the word spoiled into something that's a little, well, think of it this way. What ends up happening is if the norm is now personalization and everything I'm doing online, every experience I'm having with the business now, even Walmart, can I tell you they, to the point where they're recommending products based off of other things you bought, I'm able to get my receipts texted to me instead of having to carry around a receipt. What becomes the norm if you're not doing it, if you're not doing that personalization, then it becomes a nuisance. Then you become the small business that does it the quote unquote old school way and it's more of a nuisance and a hassle. Therefore I'm rather going to go with this business who makes it easier for me. Right. I think that's where we have to get out of that. Like Chelsea said, personalization is so big that we have to start shifting our mindset to say, omni-channel is the way to go because, whereas multi-channel is exactly what you're saying. I always have to imagine something in my head. Graphically, for multi-channel, your business is in the center. From there, all these prongs come out of there. So then the prong of press releases, the prong of your website or your Google listings, all of that stuff. Your business is at the center, you're sending information out, and like you said, the focus is to promote your products and services.
Omnichannel replaces your business in the center with the customer. All those prongs go out. What you're forced to think about is how are they seamlessly moving through all of my business stuff?
*S.O.B. Community Ad*
Vivian: This episode of the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is brought to you by the S.O.B. Community. If you are a small business owner that is neglecting your marketing and you feel like you've wasted time and money on marketing help that didn't deliver. Or if you're just craving support from people who actually get what it's like to run and promote a small business, then our membership community is for you. Visit skool.com/sob to sign up today to get instant access and weekly support. That's S-K-O-O-L dot com slash sob.
*End of S.O.B. Community Ad*
Chelsea: Vivian, let me put this into perspective of some tangible, well, not necessarily tangible, but some key keywords, key phrases of ways that omnichannel marketing can help small businesses. Okay, it can help increase customer loyalty. It can help with brand recall and it can help with customer retention.
Vivian: I love that. Yes. I mean, I do think kind of like what we were just saying, that customer retention is huge because if someone finds it a little bit of a hassle through their journey with your business, they're not going to come back.
Chelsea: No, exactly, exactly, and that means if they're enjoying the experience with your small business, if it's consistent throughout, you're going to have better conversion rates too.
Vivian: Awesome. Increase sales.
Chelsea: Yes, increase sales. That's the important thing here.
Let's talk about where to start. You're a small business owner. You're like, fine, Vivian and Chelsea. We get it. We'll focus on omnichannel marketing. We'll create a strategy. How do we do it? Where do we start?
Vivian: First, list all of your customer touch points. All right. So what I would do right now is as your business is today, look at it and list out all the touch points.
Chelsea: I'm looking at it. It's like a magnifying glass.
Vivian: There you go. Yeah. So are you online? Do you have a website? Right. Do you have a storefront? Do you have an app? Where are all the places that people can find you and then list them out. Keep it very, very simple.
Chelsea: Love that. Okay. From there, y'all, you're never going to believe what I'm going to say. You're going to map out your customer journey.
Vivian: Oh my goodness.
Chelsea: I know. So you're definitely going to want to listen to that episode, but you're going to want to map out that customer journey for each of your touch points. I know that sounds like a lot. For this to be successful though, you need to really understand what your consumers are going through when they're interacting with your business. When you map out those journeys for all of those touch points, you're looking for anywhere that you can improve your customer's experience. You're looking for bottlenecks or for places where your branding might be lacking. You're looking for those places where your small business might be dropping the ball, you know?
Vivian: Yeah, and so what this kind of looks like, think of it this way, pretend for every touch point that you're a customer that's never heard or potential customer, okay? Because you haven't purchased. You've never heard of this business, you're being introduced to it. All right, let's say one of your touch points is, I don't know, print ads through a particular magazine. When you're looking at the print ad, what is the call to action on that ad? Is the call to action then leading them to actually picking up the phone and calling you? If it's picking up the phone and calling you, call the number. What is their experience? Does a receptionist answer? Does the answering machine kick in? Do you have a phone tree map where it's like, press this for this or this for that? Go through this because that's where you are going to find bottlenecks, right? Or you're going to say, it doesn't really tell people what we do or it doesn't, we can word that a little better. Or let's say the same print ad, instead on that ad, let's say you have a QR code and it takes them to a very specific landing page. They scan the code, it takes them to a landing page. What is the call to action on that landing page? Is it a form that they fill out for an appointment request? Is it a thing that lets them book their hair appointment? How easy is it for them to get from point A to point B? Are you missing a step in there? Do they maybe need information about your pricing and services before they book the appointment. These are all things you want to lay eyes on so that you know exactly what that journey is for the person that potentially has never heard about your business.
Chelsea: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the examples, Vivian. Yeah, love that. Your next step is going to be to know your audience. I know we say this every episode. We talked about this at the beginning of the episode. It's so very important. I want to talk about looking at your data.
Vivian: Data or data? Both.
Chelsea: It's both. Data or data. Real short story. Tim, in high school, used to work at Dairy Queen. They had like a pecan blizzard, right? Tim would say pecan, the opposite way of whoever was ordering it. So if you said pe-khan, he would say pee-can. If you said pee-can, he would say pe-khan.
Vivian: That's so funny. He's a little rascal.
Chelsea: He sure is. Look at your data and or data. Yes, you need to know your customer's preferences, but also looking at your data and looking at the data that you have available is going to help you be able to make tweaks to your strategy.
Vivian: Yeah. Well, case in point, let's use one of the examples I had said. Let's say one of the ways that you're routing all of this interest to your small business is for them to pick up the phone and actually call you. If you're using any phone provider, you should be able to A, see how many calls are coming in and B, see how many calls are being dropped as in like someone hangs up, right?
These could be indications that something you're doing is not working correctly or it's off putting to someone. Same thing with a landing page. If you are steering people towards a particular landing page, the things I would go in and look at the analytics, the data points would be, how long are people spending on that landing page? You can actually see how many minutes. How many people, what's the bounce rate? If they're going there and then immediately like coming off, that's telling you it's not hitting homes, you can improve that landing page. All of that information could help to complete the picture, but those first two steps are extremely important, but they're not going to give you the full picture. You have to have that data to kind of back it up to let you know like, hey, yeah, your guts telling you the right thing. This particular landing page isn't working.
Chelsea: Yes, absolutely. I do have an example I also want to bring up with the phone calls. You can see how many calls are being made. If it's an appointment, see how many appointments are being made versus how many calls are being made. Because that's interesting too. Because if it's not matching up, what's going on? Why are they calling but not making an appointment, you know?
Vivian: Right, right. It could be someone that you've hired that's not doing a good job. It could be a lot of different things. But I do think what I love about this discussion in general when it comes to omnichannel marketing is it's extremely important. It's going to become even more important because one of the things that we can't get away from is people are finding out about your business from all over the place. Okay, so now the onus is on you to be sure that those areas, interactions, those experiences are solid because it does lend to your brand. Your brand name, your brand reputation. You just want to be sure that on all cylinders, you're firing off and you're doing the right thing and that you're providing them a really good experience.
Chelsea: Yeah. You want consistency for your brand as well.
Vivian: Absolutely, and if you think about it, this shift in going from multi-channel experience where the center is your business to now replacing your business with the customer, right, in the center to make it omni-channel marketing, that in itself is going to equate to more sales. Right? Because you're speaking to that person. You're concerning yourself with the entire experience that they're having. There is no way that you doing this is not going to convert into higher revenues.
Chelsea: Vivian, are we ready for the TLDL?
Vivian: I think we are.
Chelsea: So if you skipped ahead, this is the Too Long Didn't Listen chapter. Go ahead and listen to this brief summary that I'm going to give you but when you get the chance go back and listen to this entire conversation because that's where the good stuff is. So today we talked about omnichannel marketing strategy, which is a customer-centric strategy where we focus on the customer and looking at all of the marketing channels, both online and offline, and creating a single cohesive, consistent customer experience.
This matters because with a omnichannel marketing strategy, you can build customer loyalty, brand recall, and customer retention, and you're probably going to get better conversion rates. So if you're considering focusing on a omni-channel marketing strategy, then you want to list out all your customer touch points, map out your customer journey for all of these touch points. I know, I know. Look at your data and better understand your customers, your target audience.
Thank you for listening today. If you enjoy this conversation, send this episode to a fellow small business owner that you think will enjoy this conversation and think about, I don't know, sending me a coffee.
Vivian: Caffeinate the girl.
Chelsea: Caffeinate me. It's a great idea. But seriously, it helps us run this podcast. So if you want more episodes like this where we talk about marketing strategies that can help your small business grow, pretty please consider sending us a coffee and leaving a review and subscribing or following whatever it is on whatever platform you're on. You know what? Do me a favor and go be the best S.O.B. you can be.