building a great omni channel strategy

While the average reader casually switches from paper, to app, to Facebook, to website throughout the day, many publishers still approach these channels as different silos. But a well-wrought omnichannel content strategy relies not only on the strengths of each separate channel. It also seeks to create maximal synergy between them. This will allow you to serve and reach your audience in the best possible way and create richer experiences and bigger impact. What's more, an omnichannel presence provides you with multiple places to get in touch with, and reach new, readers. And having a great omnichannel content strategy even beats cookies.

When getting started with an omnichannel strategy, there are a couple things to keep in mind:

1. Don't treat every channel as a traffic driver for your website. Focus on creating value everywhere.
2. Choose your channels wisely. Where is your target audience active?
3. Every channel has its own identity. Create content formats to match.

The right approach for every channel

An omnichannel strategy benefits from powerful formats and improves along with the frequency of your posts on the different channels. The most effective approach is to map out your knowledge of each channel and actively learn from everything that happens there. Treating your social channels like islands is likely to counteract your efforts and not yield the expected results. The trick is to create multiple forms for your stories, optimised for each channel.

Ideally, you would appoint channel experts in your organisation. Their specialised knowledge will help you discover what does and does not work, and how to capitalise on that.

Your audience at the centre

The most defining factor in an omnichannel approach is your online audience. Your reader expects a relevant, enriching and valuable relationship with you as a brand and your content. On every channel! And it wants a seamless and consistent brand experience across these channels. But that doesn’t mean you can simply copy-paste your output. It's important to create channel-specific content. Why? Well, YouTube is not tv. It’s consumed in a completely different way. Likewise, you can't create a tv-item from a Facebook video and an online article is not suited to be posted on LinkedIn. The formats you choose should align with the needs and biorhythm of your audience.

The right format and function on every channel

Every channel has a distinct identity and function that fulfils a different need for your audience. It's these needs that direct them to a specific channel. They visit with a certain expectation of what they're going to get in terms of information or function. Do they want to be entertained, or informed in a more formal way? Is it going to be a quick visit, or do they have more time to spare? It's necessary to consider these factors when deciding what's the best destination for the story you want to publish and what format serves the audience best.

It requires you to develop a strategy and tactics that make use of the right metrics and insights, and then create translations for each channel you want to publish on. If you need inspiration to cover a story from a different angle, the user needs approach may be interesting to dive into.

You'll find that every channel has its optimum format. One that correlates to the needs and expectations of the people visiting that channel. Your website is great for both short updates and longer informative pieces. Facebook is for informal, snackable entertainment, short fun videos or images. YouTube is very suitable for longer videos, animations and tutorials. Instagram is very visual, and TikTok is usually fun. Dive into the specifics for every channel to find out how to use it best.

Keep in mind though - just because the channel exists, doesn't mean you need to be on it. It all depend on your target audience.

Timing is important for content publication

Another way to increase your posts' performance is to keep an eye on when your audience is online. Should you be posting during working hours, or are evenings better? Combine the timing of your posts with format, too. What would your visitors be most interested in first thing in the morning, before work? And what would they like to see at night, after a long day?

Spread your serious and more fun posts out over the course of the day to see what works best. Smartocto Realtime's Impact Radar is a perfect tool to determine if your activities coincided with those our your readers.

The ultimate goal

Ultimately, what you really want your public to do is to cross-navigate these channels to where you want them. For commercial businesses this is likely to be an online shop or subscription. Public institutions will find value in reach, impact and engagement, and deeper, complex metrics such as time spent on page, attention time, public value, loyalty (returning visitors) and so on.

An example of using multiple channels in this way could be to reach a larger audience on Instagram (in short-form) and lead these readers to a longread on the website or in the app, or invite them to participate in a discussion on Facebook. In this way, the channels can consciously be used to make the most out of that contact with the readers.

Single source of data

If you want synergy on all channels, you also want synergy in their data. A single source of data simply is a requirement for omnichannel marketing: all data synchronised in a central system, available on all channels, and at all touchpoints of the customer journey.

That's why smartocto connects to the right data sources (of your choice), and follows your stories across every platform. This is a great help with the evaluation of the performance of the formats and channels you're experimenting with. Our Big screen gives a clear overview of the performance of your stories in real time, so you can tweak here and there to create even more impact. And our notifications, which are a great help to get from data to action, give you tips and suggestions to boost story performance across all channels.

Find out how this works

We're happy to give you a demo of our Impact Rader, Big Screen, story reports and more. Request your live demo through the link below: