The Skai 5: Five Questions with Tinuiti’s Nicole Ciccone on Omnichannel Marketing

Over the last decade, digital marketers shifted away from multichannel marketing— campaigns with two or more channels with the same goal to cross-channel marketing, where channels assist each other in driving conversion activity.

As we look ahead, omnichannel marketing will be the new goalpost. 

In this approach, all channels are planned, executed, measured, and optimized in coordination with each other. After all, consumers don’t see the brand-customer relationship via individual channels or campaigns, but rather engage brands in a single, ongoing “conversation” through all of their touchpoints. We know that advertising channels interact and influence each other—but doing it correctly for maximum impact requires integrated and sophisticated coordination.

One of the biggest complexities of the omnichannel approach is that channels must be de-siloed. These silos exist across brand teams, agencies, budgets, vendors, partners, and technologies. This is why omnichannel will start in the pockets of practitioners who intrinsically know there’s value in blurring these lines. Once trailblazers are able to prove the value of omnichannel’s disruption, they’ll be able to continue into additional untapped areas. 

With the rise in digital spending and the increased competitive pressure stemming from an economic downturn, the stakes are higher now than ever. Marketers who can master the omnichannel approach may find it a market advantage to be successful. 

In the following interview, we will discuss the omnichannel topic with an expert from Tinuiti.

Five Questions with Nicole Ciccone

Tinuiti is the largest independent performance marketing firm across Streaming TV and the Triopoly of Google, Meta, and Amazon, with more than $3 billion in digital media under management and over 1,200 employees.

Nicole Ciccone is a Senior Strategist on the Shoppable Media team at Tinuiti. She has built her career working at various digital marketing agencies and currently leads Tinuiti’s largest retail account. 

What’s Tinuiti’s key differentiator, and how does your role fit into that vision?

Tinuiti’s key differentiator is the value in our people. We prioritize employees’ well-being with competitive compensation, mental health benefits, and an unbeatable culture. 

While it sounds nice, these benefits carry over into our service. It’s not just a job we show up to every day for a paycheck. We’re our client’s number one fans and genuinely care about their success. 

How do you define “omnichannel,” and what are the benefits for brands that take this approach in their marketing?

Omnichannel is streamlining the customer journey across touchpoints and channels. It’s having a clear vision for the brand, ensuring every output fits the vision, and assessing internal communication paths across teams, so everyone is aligned. Finally, it’s about knowing your audience, what makes them tick, and what they need from you to be loyal customers.

Especially now more than ever, with economic pressures building from a difficult pandemic, brands that can adjust to the shifts in how your customers interact with your business are sure to see success. This includes seamlessly integrating your brand, messaging, and online to offline journey. Consumer buying behavior has changed drastically, and brands need to be prepared to handle these quick shifts, not just on a website homepage but also through mobile sites/apps, email communications, in-store messaging, digital marketing efforts, and more. 

Maybe your brand has historically been heavily brick-and-mortar, but as more people stayed home, were you prepared to offer curbside pickup options? Or perhaps your customers have become increasingly concerned about product sustainability and ethics, but did you cater your messaging to highlight the business efforts toward sustainability? 

Brands that focus on an omnichannel approach are ready to give their target customer precisely what they need with clear messaging and easy access points to make purchasing decisions simple and painless. 

What are some of the challenges to an omnichannel marketing approach?

There are always potential challenges or roadblocks with an omnichannel marketing approach, and ultimately, we are only as strong as our “weakest link” whether an outdated mobile app or an understaffed creative team. 

A top challenge that businesses commonly face is internal communication challenges. All internal teams should talk to one another or can also be solved with roles that help bridge the team gap. Ideally, each team should understand the other team’s roles and responsibilities and how their work affects other channels. 

A lack of understanding of the target customer could cause challenges. Brands often think they have a vivid vision of their target customer, but this could have changed over time. Without a clear vision, this is a sure-fire way to send mixed messages to customers and affect the customer journey. Therefore, it’s essential to have processes in place to keep a pulse on your target customer. 

How does marketing measurement change when one evolves from siloed channels?

In an ideal world, marketing measurement would shift with an omnichannel approach in a way that makes sense for your business to track critical touchpoints along the customer journey. For example, a marketing measurement approach that prioritizes ROI across all touchpoints will likely reduce investment in upper funnel initiatives. 

In contrast, an approach that prioritizes unique visitors or customer engagement at the right touchpoints will help target the right customers and ultimately push them through the marketing funnel to purchase. 

What is the role of marketing technology in omnichannel?

Marketing technology is the key to a successful omnichannel approach. Whether using a technology that provides insight into your target customer, streamlines ad messaging, or houses first-party audience data, leveraging technology will help with an omnichannel approach and encourage efficiency and growth across the business. 

Want to learn more? Join us for Tinuiti’s 2022 Playbook for Q4 and Holiday Success to learn everything you need to know, from Retail Media planning and holistic Marketplace operations to using Influencer, Affiliate, and Lifecycle Marketing to reach and activate your ideal customers. This is one of our biggest events of the year – you won’t want to miss it.

Skai’s omnichannel marketing platform

Skai empowers the world’s leading brands and agencies across industries to manage omnichannel digital marketing campaigns. Our omnichannel marketing platform includes solutions for retail media, paid search, paid social, and app marketing. We’ll keep you at the forefront of the digital evolution with data and insights, marketing execution, and measurement tools that work together to drive powerful brand growth.

For more information or to see our innovation for yourself, we invite you to schedule a brief demo today!

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