Last month we shared our thoughts on 5 ways your business can benefit from omnichannel marketing, where we discussed the best practices you should follow to fully capitalize on today's "everywhere, always-on" messaging:

• Meet customers' needs everywhere and every way they shop
• Make shopping easy
• Give your shoppers the gift of time
• Save your customers money when they need it most
• Don’t just drive sales, create loyal shoppers

This month we're focusing on how to ensure you're always making the most of your omnichannel dollars, by using data to constantly review, analyze and improve your program’s effectiveness. If it sounds like a lot of work, don't worry. First, the dramatic results are worth a little effort. Second, almost all of that work can be automated using AI and machine learning.

Omnichannel measurement is now one of your most powerful tools

Omnichannel marketing changed everything — giving retailers and brands the opportunity to engage and motivate existing and new shoppers online, in-store, on mobile — everywhere — 24/7/365. However, in the past, these types of sweeping campaigns had one shortfall — they made it much more difficult to attribute sales to any single channel. Was everything working? Were only some touchpoints driving sales? Were you spending money in the right place at the right time? The more "omni" marketing campaigns became, the tougher it was to dissect and analyze results. Today — with the right data — accurate, granular, omnichannel attribution is finally available to retailers and their CPG partners. And it's changing everything.

Better omnichannel attribution leads to a stronger retailer/brand relationship

Retailers and brands want to see positive results from every marketing, media, and promotional dollar being spent. And, even more than that, they both want to see WHY those dollars are getting results. Omnichannel attribution not only gives retailers and their CPG partners the ability to see exactly what's working and what isn't — it gives them the tools they need to continuously improve the effectiveness of their omnichannel campaigns. Imagine being able to see, almost instantly, that tactic X isn’t working — and then, just as quickly, switching to tactic Y. You'll both have immediate — and long-lasting — confidence that the dollars you're spending are a smart investment.

You can put omnichannel attribution, and marketing, on autopilot

The combination of rich data, artificial intelligence and machine learning now allows for continuous, automated optimization. Think about that. When something in your omnichannel marketing campaign isn’t working effectively, it can correct itself in the blink of an eye. No spreadsheets. No meetings to talk about the spreadsheets. No waiting until next month — or next quarter — to react and shift strategies. Instead, attributed sales data is continuously collected, analyzed in milliseconds, and adjustments are automatically made on the fly. The learning, and reaction to that learning, is happening almost instantaneously.

It's not magic. Just magical.

Learn more about how Inmar is helping retailers develop and execute their omni-channel initiatives through Inmar's Retail Cloud, powered by the ShopperSync™ CDP platform.