Episode 23: Omnichannel Content Strategy: Maximum Reach & Engagement in E-Commerce
Explore the essentials of omnichannel content strategy in this podcast episode, where we discuss how to create a seamless customer experience across multiple platforms, boost sales, and avoid common pitfalls in e-commerce.
“Omnichannel is all about creating demand and capturing demand across multiple layers, not just focusing on one platform.”
Objectives
In this episode, you will be able to:
Explore why a seamless, integrated content strategy across multiple platforms is crucial for engaging today’s consumers.
Discover effective techniques to ensure brand messaging stays cohesive across e-commerce, retail, social media, and more.
Identify key strategies to connect with customers at every touchpoint, from email marketing to in-store experiences.
Understand how omnichannel content can directly boost sales by reaching customers where they are most active and engaged.
Transcript
Robbie:
Tim, you’ve done it. You’ve mastered your e-commerce. You got to the top of the mountain. What do you do now?
Tim:
Uh, it feels good to be up here. But I think it’s time to add some other retailers that can cannibalize my sales and drop my newcomer store like a lead balloon.
Robbie:
I thought you were just going to go to Disneyworld.
Tim:
No, that’s too easy. That’s way too—it’s just too easy. Yeah, we’re gonna add a ton of resellers, and we’re going to ride this thing to something.
[Intro]
Robbie:
Hello everybody, this is Tim and Robbie with the Content, Community, and Commerce podcast. We talk about topics at the convergence of content, community, and commerce. Today, we’re going to talk about a topic that is top of mind for a lot of e-commerce businesses and a lot of general businesses. If you’re selling something somewhere, this is going to impact your strategy because it’s really top of mind for most manufacturers and really necessary for a lot of retailers too. So, what is it?
Tim:
Yeah, we’re going to look at omnichannel. And as we’re talking about it, I feel like if you look over the last five years or so, pre-COVID, omnichannel was kind of a thing. Then COVID hit, and it was all e-commerce-based. Everybody was laser-focused on that. Some omnichannel stores allowed for curbside pickup and stuff like that—trying to have partnerships there. But now, post-COVID, with retail really picking up and booming, a lot of e-commerce is looking at this as a way to get their product and brand out there further. But it is a tricky beast to handle.
Robbie:
I’ve talked about this in my classes too, because it’s a topic I really love. The barriers to entry for any new platform or new channel are just infinitely lower than they used to be in the past. During the pandemic, Heinz ketchup never had a direct-to-consumer presence, but they had a Shopify store spun up in three days at the beginning of the pandemic. If that had happened 10 years ago, it would have taken millions of dollars in servers, infrastructure, and front-end investment. But now, businesses can spin up a DTC channel in three days, which is kind of crazy. So, businesses suddenly have all these tools at their disposal. We work with a lot of businesses that started as businesses that sold to retailers and wholesalers, now moving into DTC. Some are expanding and growing in different channels.
Tim:
Yeah, there’s no one perfect route to it. Both paths can work, and with the Heinz example, they were the reverse: they were only retail, but now they sell direct-to-consumer. There’s no exact order, but there are ways to be more successful for long-term sustainability versus burning retailer relationships and cannibalizing DTC sales by racing to the bottom on platforms like Amazon.
Robbie:
So, there are a lot of considerations to take into account. You’ve mentioned some of the best ones, like profitability. All those channels eat up some of your margin. If you’re used to DTC margins, you’re going to lose some of that in the channel space. You don’t get to keep 100% of the money anymore. Platforms are like drug dealers—they want a cut. The first taste is kind of free, but the next one will cost you. You’re building your house on rented land, and while that can work, it can be more challenging because you don’t own those relationships.
Tim:
Yeah, so much to cover. We’re not going to do it all in one episode. But we’ll focus today on a strategy that crosses the SEO and email divide, something we’ve seen working really well.
Robbie:
And we want to touch on something that incorporates multiple layers—different channels that you could be using in this process. Having a holistic perspective here is important. Not just one thing will work; understanding this from a 10,000-foot view is crucial to optimizing your chance for success.
Tim:
You’ll give them a taste, but not the whole thing.
Robbie:
I’m the guy at the corner like, “Hey, we got marketing advice, marketing insights.” Marketing is sexy, right? We just lost all of our listeners.
Tim:
Maybe we have one left.
Robbie:
So, this is an idea we’ve used in different capacities with different clients. You have one client who is in the beverage space, we have a client in the beverage space, and we’re talking about recipes. Why are recipes unique?
Tim:
Why are we talking about recipes? Um, it’s one of those things where, once you hear it, it becomes so simple. And it’s like, why didn’t I think of this? So, obviously from the SEO standpoint, there’s always that goal of wanting to get more users to come to our site, and as a DTC or wholesale e-comm, that makes sense. Yeah, you want to rank for your product and get people coming in, and you want to find all the ways to capture that demand of search, whatever they’re searching around. So, one of the better ways to go about that is, well, why not rank around things that are going to allow somebody to use more of your product? And recipes are one of those. Like, okay, they may not be directly looking for our product, but if we rank for a recipe that has our product in it, then they’re potentially going to buy our product.
Tim:
So, on the on-page side of things, that allows your site to surface and be visible. But knowing that there’s more than just one position in Google for that recipe, then you turn to off-page SEO and it’s like, okay, who are the recipes that are currently ranking that could be using our product? Now we need to talk to those sites and figure out how we get our product used in already ranking existing recipes, or how we get the person that created that recipe to do a spinoff using our product. So, it basically becomes a variation of the recipe, and then we’re ranking in other places. So, we’ve now got this on-page and off-page strategy working together. The off-page is building demand and awareness for our product, which, in turn, if somebody sees it on a recipe site, they might click an affiliate link that could take them to our site, Amazon, Walmart, or any other wholesaler that offers those kinds of affiliate things. Or they might just go to their local grocery store and be like, “Oh, I really want to make this recipe, do they carry this here?” So, that’s a really, again, like…
Robbie:
Double-clicking on that, you’re finding places where people are already spending time and meeting the needs of that space. It’s creating demand, not just capturing it, which is nuanced but super important. The off-page aspect is really cool because it helps extend your visibility. That’s such a gangster idea.
Tim:
Yeah, it’s, again, like, it’s a strategy that can be used in many ways when it comes to any kind of product. But in this particular case, like if you’re in the food or beverage space, there’s so much search around generic recipes where, “Hey, our product’s going to enhance this,” or “Our product is going to bring a health benefit to it,” or “It works really well with this type of audience.” Getting into those preexisting results that are already there, you’ve just taken like 50% of your legwork out because by the time you rank for that and compete against all of these recipe sites, that’s going to take a while, and they already have this trusted existence out there. So, what you’re doing is essentially pushing up your brand volume. It’s basically brand marketing. People are now becoming aware, and they’re searching for X brand whenever they’re looking for the recipe. One in particular, in this space where I’ve been looking, is Topo Chico. The amount of recipes they’ve got themselves into—where it’s like two years ago, they weren’t really that big. They were just kind of surfacing as, you know, “the water.” And now, it’s like anything that requires sparkling water, they’ve wiggled their way into it, you know?
Robbie:
Topo Chico deserves it, it’s delicious. If they need help with email marketing, we’re here!
Tim:
They’ve earned their spot, but it shows the power of getting into recipes. You create brand awareness without needing to directly advertise.
Robbie:
Topo Chico for ranch water. Okay. I know a brand, there’s a brand called Ranch Water. Yeah, it is the most—it just really bad images to vote in your head when you think of ranch water. But again, like that’s a drink, a recipe for a drink that people look for and enjoy. So again, while it sounds disgusting and like drinking ranch, this is very middle-class fancy thing to it.
Tim:
Um, so as we look at that, it’s like, okay, they’ve got that particular slant on it, but what if we hijack that? And with this particular client, it’s like we bring a slightly different flavor to that where—we’re not a sparkling water brand, but we can play with it. There’s existing recipes that have that flavor that they offer. So again, not saying things because I don’t want to give away the secret sauce of who we’re doing this for, um, but again, it’s like leveraging things that exist and awareness and volume and stuff that’s out there, and it’s just like, how do we get in that? How do we get part of the action?
Robbie:
And then, so also like on the email side with even that with placement in relevant publications or relevant articles, that’s also really great social proof that like I know for email, like we’re definitely taking that and we’re using that. Oh yeah, featured in XYZ, featured in like *Better Homes & Gardens*, featured in like *Bon Appétit*, those are such strong social proof for brands.
Tim:
That it’s, it’s gold for both is the social proof there. And then Google has also like the contextual, like they can look and see like, oh, here’s all of this entity building that’s pointing backward. Like this is a legitimate brand coming. Like the signals like on both fronts are huge with that.
Robbie:
So again, there’s like this, and this is just from the SEO side. I think that’s why, like even just this example, like it’s just like, it’s good content that we want to be like producing that is going to add value beyond the transaction to our audience. And then that’s, we haven’t even really dived into like how we’re going to use it on our own brand site either.
Robbie:
And I know like, like we do this for a client on the email space where we’re like, we’re creating new, like new, like recipes that we want to make sure are contextual for the time of the year, like around, like think Cinco de Mayo, like having something for around that time, coming up for the holidays, like things that are going to be contextually relevant during the holidays. Like we want to make sure they’re placed in the right timing. So, like contextual relevance is helpful there. But like introducing these for email gives us a really great way for people to use the product a lot more. And so for our own DTC channels, like we’re using that there. And then going one layer beyond that too is like, we’re also distributing that to a wholesale list too, because those wholesalers, if they can understand, “Hey, I may use this, like I may give this to the people purchasing it, but also like I may recommend this,” and we have a client who’s in the coffee space too. This also works in that regard too, it’s like, “Hey, if other cafes or other baristas who may be reading this or other coffee buyers who may be reading this, like they can introduce them like that at their own shop too, they can again use to sell more coffee and sell more volume.” Yeah, through their in. So, there’s lots of different nuances and layers to it that are really kind of cool.
Tim:
Yeah, it’s, and again, like this is just one example, but if you kind of strip back what it is, you’re essentially, there’s three parts of like how you’re going about this. Like there’s, we’re building our house, we’re creating things that are assets that live on our website that’s going to capture demand in a broader sense than what the brand does, and it’s showing people how to use the product. But we’re also looking for those that already exist in those lanes where we can get them. So, we’re capturing demand outside of our website and building that brand awareness and use case. And then you’re using all of that to essentially then get these people to use more of your product. So again, for any businesses, like how do we make people want to use more of our product? It’s like, if it’s not a recipe, like what is that thing that exists or that could exist that you’ve just to create and get others on board with creating that drives more interest and demand for what you’re doing?
Robbie:
Yeah, like for, like a children’s toy brand that we work with, like it’s building guides. It’s like guides to use the product.
Tim:
Here’s how to build a life-sized car using…
Robbie:
So, like, but it’s, again, this can be used, it doesn’t have to just be like this replenishable product like water, soda water, coffee, it can work across a lot of different layers. And then even going into like the marketplace channel layer. I know we talked about that being like a really kind of like tricky channel, and that’s like, again, that drug dealer analogy of like first taste is free, next one’s going to cost you. Because again, if you’re on those marketplace channels, like Amazon, you don’t own that audience—Amazon owns that audience, you’re renting it. You’re also paying a fee to acquire that audience, but also like if Amazon wants to introduce their own version of their soda water, they can totally crush you at any time. This is a way to bring somebody from an Amazon purchase back to your site because you can offer those recipes. Like those were value-add, doesn’t violate any terms for Amazon, this is like how to better use that product. This is like, I guess everybody’s gotten the add of like, like the leaflet of like register your product or like do this, do this. This is just a way to get them back to this, back to your site where you possibly capture that email, capture that relationship, and bring them from a rented channel to an owned channel.
Tim:
It’s, and again, Amazon is, it’s a necessary evil at times, where it’s like you need to bring it in to be part of your strategy. Not everybody, but a lot of people, if you’re wanting to get into omnichannel, like that is the very obvious next, like, let’s get in there. Because that, I guess like the level or the threshold to get in, it’s not high. But once you’re in there, and if you grow and grow exponentially in that channel, and that’s where it gets really scary because it does have that ability to cannibalize sales in many other places. And as quick as you got on there, they can just flip it off. Like if their algorithm decides to do something, they can just turn your business overnight into zero. So, like having that thing that, again, without crossing like Amazon’s rules, but something like a recipe where it’s like, “Here’s, you know, discover 10 great ways to use our product.” Well, now we’re bringing them in. We’re giving them a recipe, even put a recipe card in with the thing, and at the bottom, like, “Here’s a QR to more recipes that we offer,” something to bring them across. Um, it just protects, protects the eggs a little more—they’re not all in one basket.
Robbie:
Yeah, and you’re doing it. You’re doing a good job of that. And you’re being smart about using that as an acquisition channel in a lot of ways, which is, again, something we need to do. And also like, I know we’re, again, going to be coming up on like —like, we’ve kind of like almost stripped this bare, but there’s probably ways that we can use this across that to where we can think strategically about how we can use this to maintain relationships or expand relationships too. And I think like this is, for email side from a DTC side too, this is also something that doesn’t, this is content you can share and distribute without offering a discount or incentive. It’s not going to frustrate your, like, if you sell to retailers, you’re not going to frustrate your retail channel partners because you’re discounting all the time and you’re offering it at a really steep discount.
Tim:
You’re encouraging people to buy more of your product, and you know…
Robbie:
They could give that to, they can give that to the people that are purchasing in their stores, or that’s a great resource and content ammunition for them to sell more.
Tim:
Yeah, it’s like you have it on there, and if you want to keep retailers happy, like, include your product locator in your email, or whenever somebody gets into the site, like having an obvious button to a product locator. So, that way, if somebody wants to buy from you, they can, or they can jump onto the product locator page or the website and find, “Oh great, there’s this store two miles down the road from where I’m at, and I can, whenever I’m passing by later.” So that way, again, for retailers, you’re showing like, “Hey, we’re giving you love, we’re sharing where people can find you in your stores.”
Robbie:
Yeah, and then also like another way, and I know I don’t want to like again push too hard on this—if somebody purchases, again going into it, like I don’t want to sound like a one-trick pony on the email side. If somebody purchases in that category or from that, or like a flavor or an option, or variant of a product, this is such an easy opportunity for a post-purchase sequence that it doesn’t even—like, “Hey, if they purchase this product, you can line up contextually like recipes for that specific variant or that specific flavor.” And suddenly that is so sexy inside your post-purchase automation because you can be like, “Oh, I just purchased like orange flavor, this is a recipe we recommend for people that enjoy the orange flavor. Oh yeah, here’s three other recipes for that.” And you have those that build up over time, and that just gives you a really great way to like make sure you can onboard in a post-purchase sequence that has a really nice smooth feel to it, but also a really great customer experience.
Tim:
Yeah, and again, it’s not salesy, like it’s just—it’s a really tasteful way to follow up and have these touch points with somebody. So again, it’s one of those simple things, when you hear it, you’re like, “Oh, totally makes sense.” But the actual doing it—there’s so many brands that don’t. It’s like, they just move on and they follow up with you a couple of weeks later like, “Time to buy some more,” versus like, “Hey, now you’ve got this, here’s a few ways you can use it.”
Robbie:
They want to go straight for the used car sales mentality, as opposed to like the nuance, like, “Hey, I want to give somebody the best experience, this is an experience I’d want to have if I’m purchasing a product.” This is again like one content example of something really kind of touching across all those different omnichannel channels. Yeah, and doing it in a way that’s like tasteful and strategic at each one of those touch points, which makes it kind of fun and basically kind of exciting. We didn’t even talk about social, which would be like an easy place to share.
Tim:
Like I said on the front end, there’s literally—this is one strategy within a whole bigger ecosystem. I’m only touching like two marketing channels using this. There are so many other ones, like you’ve mentioned, like you’ve got your social, there’s things you can be doing with paid. Like you can go really wide in how you play with this one. But with omnichannel, we probably need to come back and do like running a couple more—a few more podcasts, like a few more strategies within it. And there’s lots that you could do, but, you know, if we were to try and tie like this concept up and create some key takeaways, like what would you say is the first one?
Robbie:
Know what you’re doing, and like where in your strategy you’re creating demand and where you’re capturing demand. I think it’s a really nuanced understanding of what’s creating demand, as in like, what’s helping somebody who wasn’t aware of your product to suddenly be aware of your product or service, and bringing people into that fold. Like that is a really kind of nuanced understanding of marketing that I don’t think a lot of people get, but where that fits into these two is going to kind of dictate what channel you may be using them for and also what to prioritize. If you have a lot of demand for your product, then you’re great. If you don’t have as much demand, like that’s where you need to think through where that fits into the hierarchy.
Tim:
Yeah, and also just the number of channels. It’s like if you don’t have enough demand for all these channels, well then you’re not going to last very long. It’s like that balance of creating and capturing, like knowing where you fall in the pendulum is really important with that. Alright, so that kind of ties into the next one, which is like don’t be too dependent on one channel. So, if you’re going omnichannel, you truly have to go omnichannel. It’s like you can’t just put all of your eggs in Amazon. You can’t just focus solely on your e-com, or here’s these all their retail outlets that we’re going to just do. You have to be spreading the love across all of them. You might have some that are more primary, and then some that are more on the back burner, but you don’t want to be too dependent on one. You want to be building them all up. And then I think ultimately that fallback is always making sure, like, whatever you’re doing is coming back some way that you can own that. So, on your own website, and even if it’s not to drive those direct-to-consumer sales, still having the emails or whatever those touchpoints are so that if anything did ever happen—if Amazon dropped off or if another wholesaler stopped selling your product—you’re not hosed. You’ve got the ability to continue that lifeline to that customer from your site.
Robbie:
Yeah, I think that’s—and that kind of leads into the last one. I think, like, I originally had “platforms are drug dealers,” but I’m changing this up. I’m changing this up for us. It’s using the whole buffalo. It’s understanding how to use that content and maximize what you’re doing across those channels where you’re not reinventing the wheel. You can use this in so many different ways. And that’s like really the exotic thought exercise, like how to do that well really kind of benefits any marketer taking that on.
Tim:
I love it, man. Well, hey, if anybody’s got any other crazy strategies, we’d love to hear them. And if you try this one, let us know. We’d be happy to give some other insights if it’s of interest.
Robbie:
Yeah, smash that five-star review—or at least three and a half stars, or maybe three.
Tim:
Somewhere in there.
[Outro]
