How To Make Your CPG Brand Website A Successful Sales Channel.

Series: Making Your CPG Brand Website A Successful Sales Channel.

Amazon, Walmart.com, Ebay, Instagram shopping, the list goes on… Customers are consistently buying from a multitude of different platforms, and this is great for your brand. In today’s day and age, you’re able to sell to multiple different consumers and diversify your sales channels… So what’s the problem?

Selling your products on multiple platforms allows you to gain a wider audience, but it can also dilute your message and branding as you don’t have much control over any marketing materials other than what your listing shows, you’re forced to stay within whatever the stylistic elements of the sales channel you are using at the moment. This can cause your product to not seem enticing. Research findings indicate that one-third of consumer purchase choices are based on packaging. You want the same effect your packaging gives associated with your listing, it’s part of what’s setting you apart. 

There are also many other limitations that are stopping you from selling your brand on other sales channels. You’re forced to stay within the  deal constraints, product recommendations, and not have a  personalized experience for your consumer, to name a few reasons. Besides, you're in a sea of products and standing out becomes difficult.

 So how do you offer more than your competitors while making your branding stand out, and growing your brand awareness? Your brand’s website. 

At Statehood, one of the main problems when dealing with CPG brands is coming across an underutilized brand website. Most CPG brands will outsource work, or work for countless hours in-house (sometimes both)  to create a stunning website that shows off their product in all its glory, but does this help their top line? Barely. An underutilized CPG brand website occurs for a couple of reasons:

1. No external deals or offers coming from the website incentivizing consumers to check out and buy from your website.
2. The inability to afford the same deal being offered on your other sales channels.
3. Brands not wanting to “cut into” existing sales coming from other e-commerce sites. 

These aren’t all of the concerns we’ve heard, but the most common. Let's break each one down.

No external deals or offers coming from the website incentivizing consumers to check out and buy from your website.

It’s your brand website! Although, you may not be able to offer some of the low prices on your website that you offered on Amazon, that doesn’t mean you can’t create incentivizing information and deals. 

 53% of website traffic is organic, making search one of the main focuses for any online business that wants to maximize it’s site’s profitability. Earning organic traffic for your brand website when your goods are searched means that you have access to a consumer base that isn’t solely using Amazon, Walmart.com, or another e-commerce website, and based on how you represent your product (ex. Bundles or a personalized experience not offered anywhere else) you can stop them from searching your product on another sales channel.

 You can do the math yourself: if 53% of traffic is organic, meaning search based, and your website is shown consistently for a variety of search criteria, you’re able to capitalize on a segment of the market you were ignoring before. 

So how can you gain organic traffic? The best way to grow organic traffic to your website is through proper SEO. This is achieved through doing the appropriate keyword research, creating valuable content including backlinks, having good meta tags, amazing product images, and more. For some crucial tips for ranking your website, check this article out. 

One major way to get organic traffic that’s worth talking about in this blog is creating quality content. Quality content helps grow your website, but also your brand’s messaging in the long term. You’re killing two birds with one stone.  

Quality content detailing how your product(s) solve everyday problems such as: what pairs well with your product, or the benefits associated with your product, is all useful information that encourages buyers to appreciate your product. It also lets consumers know you’re much more relevant than a similar product on another e-com website. You’re able to make them understand you’re the only provider that is offering the unique selling  point you are creating content for. 

The inability to afford the same deal being offered on your other sales channels. 

Okay, so this reason is what the majority of brands we work with point to when they say “it’s pointless to put money into my website.” Your goal isn’t to replicate what you’re doing on other sales channels, but to add more value.  Adding value can happen in a multitude of ways. Here are some we’ve used in the past. 

Subscriptions/Subscription boxes

Subscriptions and subscription boxes are a solution for CPG brands looking to stand out. They offer multiple deals to consumers who are familiar with your brand and can allow for continuous repeatable sales. They’re also perfect if you have a wide variety of products that can be grouped together in different categories such as “monthly popular flavors.”

Seasonal or new lines 

There might be a certain set of products you might want to gage the demand for. Or products you keep specific only to your website for a certain amount of time. This allows consumers to want to check out your products with the intent to buy something they cannot get anywhere else, or for only a certain amount of time.

“Secret” or promotional offers 

This can be anything from products you have specifically hidden that you want to build demand for or products that were doing very well, but you might have cancelled.  A good example of this would be Bath and Body Works' somewhat secret “recently canceled” section of their website. 

Adding a section similar to this allows consumers to spend more time on your website and allows them to go through your website for a sale, giving your brand a lot of e-commerce leverage since the consumer has to go through your brand experience, giving you the chance to do something like upsell or adding the perfect bundle. 

There are also certain promotional offers such as having individuals sign up for your newsletter, allowing them to have 15% off any product. This can allow for more consumer info allowing you to retarget, and nurture a customer base that has already visited your website and bought from you. 

Brands not wanting to “cut into” existing sales coming from other e-commerce sites. 

It’s fairly common for brands to have one of their online channels to be their main source of online revenue, and adding another dominant form of sales can seem like they are cutting into their golden goose. This is not the case. Successful brands don’t have just one or two successful sales channels, but many, for multiple reasons:

1. If they get flagged or brought down on their main sales channels, they have back up or other successful channels to rely on. 
2. Over the long term, brands that have multiple sales channels succeed by having multiple sources of revenue. 
3. Platforms like Amazon allow for your brand to get even more exposure through their own SERP. Meaning more possible sales coming from your brand website.

Bring traffic to your brand website today, now.

Bringing traffic to your brand website has never been as important. It’s vital for the long term success of a CPG brand’s online presence.

 It can also be a task that can take multiple months to years to perfect if not done correctly in a timely manner. At Statehood we are specialists when it comes to bringing traffic to your brand website and using new traffic to create more sales and nurturing your brand and consumers for long term brand growth. All set up in a timely manner so that you’re not wasting multiple months or years. 

To see how you can make your brand website a useful tool that can increase your online sales or how to manage and grow multiple sales channels successfully and fast, reach out today for a consultation!  Sign up on our calendar now for a free consultation. 

Our calendar.

For more information and tips on how to make your brand succeed in the e-commerce space follow us on Twitter at StatehoodLLC, Instagram at statehood_llc and follow our LinkedIn page simply at Statehood E-commerce solutions.