August 16, 2024 • 7 min read

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Marketing: Which to Use for Your Financial Marketing Strategy

In marketing, the channels you use to reach your target customers – such as social media, out-of-home (OOH) ads, and more – have a massive impact on the efficacy of any given marketing campaign. After all, your media needs to reach your intended audience for it to have any impact.

Most modern marketing strategies involve leveraging several channels simultaneously. Both omnichannel and multichannel marketing campaigns use multifaceted approaches to connect with as many target consumers as possible. However, it can be difficult for financial services companies offering complex products and long-term services to know which approach is best.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing, as well as determine which your brand should focus on.

What is multichannel marketing?

At its simplest, multichannel marketing uses several channels to advertise something specific to the same group of people. The goal is to maximize conversions and/or boost your brand’s reach using a variety of channels and tactics, not to ensure a consistent or progressive experience for prospects. Each marketing channel is developed to carry a customer through initial contact to conversion independently from other channels in your overall strategy.

For instance, say that your company offers popular financial services, like loans and savings accounts, to working professionals and growing families. You decide to target growing families in a new marketing campaign. With a multichannel marketing strategy, you might position media across several key channels, like:

Ads for your financial company on social media
Billboards around certain neighborhoods in your city
Direct mail ads sent to mailboxes near your bank/loan office
By advertising across several channels instead of just one, you can have a broader impact in the local market and reach many more people than you would otherwise.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is exactly what it sounds like: an approach that involves unifying or integrating all of the marketing channels used by your brand into a single, holistic experience while accounting for each customer touchpoint.

For instance, imagine that your local financial loan office advertises with OOH media, social media, television, email, and direct mail channels. With omnichannel marketing, each channel contributes to a complete and consistent customer journey. Furthermore, every brand interaction is at least somewhat responsive to the previous interactions that the customer has had, such as visiting a brand’s website, making a previous purchase, or contacting customer service.

Here’s a more specific omnichannel marketing example:

A potential customer for your financial services company receives a direct mail piece about your loan office – this is their first interaction with your brand.
They visit your website and sign up for updates about new loan offers after a brief chat with a customer service agent.
Later, they receive a retargeting email referencing their previous explorations.
If they become a customer, they receive special offers and deals via email and social ads that are tailored to their needs, current products, and survey responses.

Omnichannel marketing lasts longer and prioritizes consistency across all branded content.

Comparing multichannel vs. omnichannel financial marketing

You can think of the distinct focuses of omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing as:

Multichannel marketing is conversion-focused
Omnichannel marketing is customer-focused

Both approaches are effective when their strengths are leveraged strategically. Additionally, both multichannel and omnichannel financial marketing strategies can use the same kinds of ads, media, and placements depending on brand goals. They also both require brands to fully understand their customers and their likely journeys from start to finish.

Key differences between omnichannel vs. multichannel financial marketing strategies

Omnichannel and multichannel marketing are potent methods for achieving specific marketing goals. However, these approaches have several differences, particularly in the financial industry.

Focuses and marketing goals

Financial brand multichannel and omnichannel marketing first differ in terms of their priorities. Compared to using omnichannel marketing, taking a multichannel marketing approach is more focused on selling products, driving sign-ups, or achieving other specific conversions (depending on the brand and its offerings). It can also be used to bolster brand awareness simply by spreading media across several channels at the same time.

For example, a financial brand might use a multichannel marketing campaign to convince its target audience to take out a loan to buy a house, pay down debt, or something else.

In contrast, omnichannel marketing prioritizes relationship-building with prospects and ensuring a consistent, enjoyable experience at every possible customer touchpoint along their journey. Furthermore, the different channels in an omnichannel marketing campaign work in conjunction with each other – as opposed to siloed or separately – to satisfy customer needs, build trust, or achieve some other goal.

A financial services company might use omnichannel marketing to draw in new long-term account holders. That omnichannel marketing campaign could use emotion, history, or other factors to resonate with target consumers, even if a single ad or media piece doesn’t result in a conversion just yet.

Targeting

Multichannel marketing utilizes much broader targeting compared to omnichannel marketing. Since the goal is to convince prospects to convert, multichannel marketing campaigns may use broad tactics to get as many new customers as possible, like producing lots of direct mail pieces or banner ads announcing new loan offers.

Omnichannel marketing usually involves more direct targeting. With analytics tools and tracking techniques, target audience members are monitored at every stage of the customer journey. That often means financial services brands can gather additional data on prospects, which may help them understand their target audiences at deeper levels or achieve conversions later.

Level of personalization

Because omnichannel marketing is often more targeted, it’s also able to achieve a higher level of personalization compared to multichannel marketing.

A well-designed omnichannel marketing campaign will enable a brand to show attention to detail or focus on a prospect. For example, an omnichannel campaign for a local bank might use personalized emails and unique sales or deals, especially for longtime account holders. That kind of approach could help keep a customer’s business, cement the relationship, and more.

A multichannel marketing strategy for a financial services company won’t use personalized media or communications in this way. Instead, it should focus on highlighting the advantages or benefits of the financial products on display (e.g., the stellar rates or low fees for new checking accounts). Multichannel marketing media is informational and “salesy” compared to omnichannel media.

Regulations and compliance

Omnichannel marketing’s higher targeting and data collection necessarily means financial companies must be careful about regulations and data law compliance. When you collect data on prospects or current customers, that data needs to be carefully organized and protected, and your marketing campaign must include disclosures about data tracking, options for customers to opt in or out of certain actions, etc.

This isn’t to say that multichannel marketing doesn’t require any regulation concerns, of course! Smart marketing in the financial sector means always being careful about what you say or promise. Still, any omnichannel financial services marketing strategy should include a healthy amount of triple-checking for regulatory compliance.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing: Which one should you use?

So, is omnichannel or multichannel marketing ideal for financial services brands? In our opinion, the best plan is to use both.

Multichannel financial marketing is great for brand awareness, announcing a new product, and driving sales or conversions. Meanwhile, omnichannel financial marketing can be effective at building long-term relationships between financial services companies and their customers.

In many cases, it’s smart to use omnichannel and multichannel marketing at the same time. An omnichannel campaign can run across all your brand’s channels, drawing in new customers and solidifying your connections to your existing customer base. Simultaneously, multichannel marketing efforts could draw specific attention to new service offerings, helping your finance company grow and maintain its market share.

Elevating your financial services marketing strategy

Overall, both omnichannel and multichannel marketing should be used wisely and strategically to maximize the impact of your media. This unified approach can increase the effectiveness of your financial brand’s marketing strategy – which is why it’s always a good idea to connect with marketing professionals.

Infinity’s strategic experts and analytics specialists have extensive experience assisting brands in the financial services sector. By combining that experience and our powerful tools, we can create comprehensive customer journeys, craft effective multichannel and omnichannel marketing strategies, and elevate your marketing. Get in touch today to see how we can help!