"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” There's some dispute over the source for that quote – some say it was Albert Einstein – but I wholeheartedly agree. As a data and marketing leader for over 25 years, I can tell you this: No two businesses are precisely the same. So why continue to resort to a one-size-fits-all omnichannel strategy – and expect different results every time?

In this data-driven age, every marketer needs to continuously look at and listen to the data and act accordingly. Begin by building each campaign around an ideal customer profile (ICP). You can determine your ICP by researching current and past customers, analyzing their profiles, and identifying common characteristics around industries, company size, decision-maker titles, and other factors. Diving into this data will allow you to uncover the people who are most likely to want or need what you have to offer.

For acquisition campaigns aimed at landing new customers, you will also need a customized roadmap for audience building, data sources, and media activation. More often than not, that roadmap is different every time, but it will always map to your ICP. (Our team has several innovative ideas about how to do that.)

To select the channels that best reach your target audiences, turn to specialized expertise that you can trust. And when it comes to omnichannel, remember that every campaign doesn't necessarily require visibility on every channel. Pick and choose and mix and match what will work best for your goals, your client, and your budget. More isn't always the answer.

Last but not least, creative should be designed in alignment with all other campaign elements – never in a silo.

If you're looking for some inspiration, here are three very different ways our team rocked omnichannel to deliver stellar results to clients:

• Finding Opportunities for a Dental Service Organization - Recently, a leading dental service organization (DSO) turned to OMI with a campaign goal to find three dental practices interested in selling their businesses. We used our specialized healthcare database to assemble a target audience of dental practices that exhibited the characteristics of the ideal seller, then crafted an omnichannel campaign strategy anchored by display ads and email. The results are even better than expected, with the campaign series identifying seven practices interested in selling.

• Boosting Email Acquisition Campaign Deliverability for a Telecom Provider - In another example, a telecom provider came to us after having already determined that email was, by far, their best-performing channel. They were looking for a solution to improve cold email delivery rates and prospect conversions for acquisition campaigns. OMI presented the concept of "warming up" the email contacts by sending the first "cold" email through our email platform, which is specifically designed for acquisition email. The campaign significantly improved deliverability and achieved an ROI of 25 to 1!

• Piloting a Consumer-Focused Campaign - When a leading consumer-focused company asked OMI to pilot a new customer acquisition campaign, through research and analysis our team determined that targeting consumers, sole proprietorships, and businesses with 1-4 employees represented the optimal audience. OMI's B2C data was leveraged through our data partner's identity graph, allowing us to zero in on the specialized audience we had defined. We combined email and programmatic to offer a one-two "punch" for our omnichannel strategy: We used triggered email sends for those who engaged with the display ad and, conversely, used triggered programmatic ads for those who engaged with our emails. This campaign is just getting started with the outcome undetermined, but the results are looking positive.

In summary, while one size doesn't fit all, all successful campaigns have a few things in common, such as careful and strategic audience building and clean, accurate data for reaching that audience effectively. Our recent blog offers a checklist of three essential steps every omnichannel campaign must take to succeed – check it out!

Get in touch with our team for a consultation on improving your omnichannel strategy. We look forward to talking with you!