Key Points

  • Defining an Omnichannel Strategy: An omnichannel strategy is a content monetization approach that creates a seamless experience across multiple channels, such as websites, email lists, social media platforms, and even a physical store, if applicable.
  • The Importance for Web Publishers: Implementing an omnichannel strategy is crucial for expanding your audience reach, enhancing overall customer experience, and protecting your business and revenue stream.
  • Content Strategy Development: Building an effective omnichannel monetization strategy requires careful planning, including understanding your readers' journey, developing a unified content strategy with consistent branding, and leveraging analytics to constantly adapt to your customer journey.

Who doesn’t love a good bread sandwich?

You know, a sandwich that’s just bread. No condiments. No cold cuts. No cheese. Just two slices of Wonderbread with a slice of Wonderbread in the middle.

… Any takers?

Didn’t think so.

We probably don’t need to explain why the only ones in line for a bread sandwich are a family of ducks. But we will. And we’ll also tell you how it relates to your website’s monetization strategy.

It’s simple: bread is a critical ingredient for any delicious sandwich. You can’t make a sandwich without it. But that doesn’t mean it should be the only ingredient in your recipe.

The same goes for your monetization strategy. It doesn’t matter how baked-to-perfection your website or application is. If you only publish on one channel, you’re limiting your ability to drive increased traffic, user or customer engagement, and hopefully, brand loyalty.

In this article, we’re talking about building a successful omnichannel strategy for content monetization. What is it? Why is it important? And how can you build the most effective one for steadily increasing revenue?

Put down the bread knife and keep reading.

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What is an Omnichannel Strategy?

Italian meatballs, peanut butter and jelly, hummus, and honey mustard. A sandwich that combined everyone’s favorite ingredients would probably be disgusting. 

But a monetization strategy that combines content across everyone’s favorite platforms? 

Delicious.

This approach to content monetization is called an omnichannel strategy.

 

 

An effective omnichannel strategy is a content approach that ensures a seamless customer experience that is fully integrated across multiple channels or platforms.

Think website, email list, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Substack, Spotify, or any other platforms where your readers spend time.

When done well, your omnichannel strategy will incorporate unique monetization strategies on each platform. For example, you could use paid ads on your social channels to drive traffic back to your website, where you also have ads placed or brand-sponsored content.

The result is a sustainable, resilient content strategy that maximizes your reach and overall user experience.

How to Build an Omnichannel Strategy

Unfortunately for publishers, building the perfect omnichannel marketing strategy is just a bit more complicated than making the perfect sandwich.

To get started, here are several important steps to follow:

  1. Understand Your Readers: Before you start picking out ingredients for your strategy, learn as much as you can about your readers. What platforms do they spend the most time on? What content do they engage with? How do they prefer to engage with your content as well as your top competitors’ content? Audience research and competitive analysis will form the backbone of your strategy.
  2. Develop Brand Guidelines: One risk you face when publishing content across multiple platforms is inconsistency. This problem can be easily solved with a brand guideline document that ensures all your content is written in the same voice (key phrases, tone, and language) and published with the same visual branding (colors, font, imagery)
  3. Build a Content Calendar: Using your audience research, develop a plan that includes content across each platform or channel you plan to leverage. Be sure to include monetization strategies specific to each channel and cross-platform promotion opportunities.
  4. Analyze and Adapt: Unfortunately, the work doesn't end once you begin posting and implementing your chosen omnichannel strategies. If none of the customers at the sandwich shop are ordering the ruben, it’s probably a good sign that the recipe needs some improvement. The same goes for your content strategy. Monitor your analytics closely to adjust and optimize your content strategy for the best results.

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Implementing an Omnichannel Strategy

To help you understand exactly what implementing an omnichannel content strategy might look like, here’s an example we’ve created for a recipe site called Sandwiches With Sally:

1. Website and Blog Posts

The foundation of Sandwiches With Sally is its blog, which is hosted on its website. Sally’s primary content smartly exists on a platform that she owns — her website — instead of one she does not — like Instagram — to avoid the algorithm and regulation updates that often come with social media platforms…and limit your ability to generate revenue.

Sally creates and publishes high-quality, valuable content on her blog twice weekly. These blog articles use SEO best practices and target keywords her ideal readers are searching for.

A few monetization strategies Sally leverages on her website include:

  • Sticky display and in-content ad units 
  • Affiliate links
  • Brand sponsorships
  • Guest post opportunities

2. YouTube Videos

Sally creates a well-produced video tutorial of each recipe. These videos go live at the same time as the blog posts to complement each article.

They also use SEO best practices, targeting appropriate keywords to help improve her SERP (Search Engine Results Page), and can use the same monetization strategies as her website.

3. Social Media

To utilize social media platforms to drive increased traffic to her website, Sally shares visually appealing images of her sandwiches on her Instagram and Pinterest feeds, behind-the-scenes clips on her Instagram story, and short-form versions of her YouTube tutorials as Instagram reels and TikTok videos.

A few monetization pathways for her social media include:

  • Product reviews
  • Sponsored posts

4. Email Newsletter

Sally’s extensive email list is another example of a highly valuable owned asset because it is reliable and resistant to potential platform shutdowns or restrictions.

Each week, Sally sends out a newsletter summarizing her new recipes and providing exclusive cooking advice. The call to action always directs readers to her website, increasing sessions on her site and driving ad revenue.  

5. Premium Content

As Sally grows her readership and establishes herself as an authority on sandwiches, she can begin creating and selling premium content such as paid instructional cooking videos and eBooks or physical cookbooks and branded merch, as well as other physical or digital products.

She can also host online cooking classes and workshops or offer a premium subscription model for members-only content through a platform like Patreon.

Why is Diversification Important for Effective Monetization?

If the bread sandwich metaphor wasn’t clear enough for you, here are a few reasons why developing an omnichannel content and monetization strategy is important for your business:

  1. Improves Business Resilience: Relying on a single channel to reach your revenue goals is not only an ineffective strategy, it’s also downright risky. They say: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. We say: don’t put only eggs on your sandwich and call it eggsalad. To develop a sustainable, resilient revenue stream, you need to leverage multiple cheeses… er, channels, and strategies.
  2. Improves Reach: Your readers spend time on many different platforms. By not diversifying your content strategy, you’re missing key opportunities to connect with new and existing audiences. Utilize multiple channels to improve your reach and drive sessions back to your website, where you can generate steady recurring revenue all while your homemade bread is rising.
  3. Improves Overall Customer Experience: When done well, an omnichannel strategy will help you build authority and trust by maximizing the value you can deliver to your audience. This directly impacts engagement metrics and conversion rates, which is the end goal of any monetization strategy.

Build a Monetization Strategy That Works With Playwire

Hopefully, by now, you’ve worked up an appetite to go out and begin building an effective omnichannel approach. Once you’ve done so, and you begin to see the traffic growth you deserve, that’s when the magic can really happen.

And this is where a well-established monetization partner, like Playwire, can help take your website or app to the next level.

Playwire is where content creators and publishers go when they’re ready to start earning more ad revenue from their content. We’ve got the tools, tech, and expertise to get your sandwich shop the Michelin star it deserves.

If you’re ready to get started, contact us today.

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