Recommended Approach

An omnichannel content strategy approach requires a great deal of planning and patience.

Business Justification

Before you consider implementing an omnichannel strategy, you must determine if such a strategy is right for your company. That is:

• Will it help meet business goals?
• Will it have a sufficient return on investment?
• Are you (and others) able to contribute your time and resources to this effort?
• Is your entire organization ready to take on this effort?

Content Design

To create content for the omnichannel experience often requires a rethinking of content production, internal operations and systems. You will need to:

• Integrate information across all channels, including:
  • Inventory of products
  • User profile, or anything known about the user
  • Analytics
• Focus on your story and balance content between channels
• Structure content so that is can be created once and published to multiple channels

Implementation

Implementation involves content creation, system coordination and careful management. It requires that you:

• Create an incremental roadmap and rollout strategy
• Define your metrics and make sure measurement mechanisms are cross-channel
• Start small, focusing on one aspect of your business (example: one product line)

Evaluation & Optimization

Once omnichannel is implemented, you will need to identify both successes and areas for improvement.

• Review analytics monthly. At the three month mark take a close look at content performance.
• To understand analytics in detail (for example, why isn’t certain content performing as expected), initiate user testing and research.
• Evolve the consumer relationship, for example:
  • Optimized customer support
  • In-store personalization
  • Re-engagement based on new products, services, etc.

Photo: Chevrolet Corvette displayed at the GM Motorama Show Car. 1953.