Content marketing is a channel that allows you to capture an audience that is blind to other types of advertising channels. This happens because content marketing efforts, first of all, are aimed at providing visitors with high-quality useful information, assistance in choosing and using the product. And, secondarily, on sale. This approach is not aggressive and not intrusive. In this article, we describe the main steps in developing a content strategy for the e-commerce business, although some of them can be applied in other niches.
How to Understand That You Need Content Marketing?
If you still doubt whether you need a content strategy, here is a checklist, the items of which say you need it.
- The level of conversion drops. Reducing the conversion rate is one of the signs that your tools are being used inefficiently, no matter how large your advertising budget is. Proper implementation of content marketing in your project will help to achieve a high conversion rate. Do not mindlessly fill the site with endless sheets of texts filled with keywords. Maybe search robots will read this, but your target users will definitely pass by.
- The site position is lowered in the issue. One of the key factors in search engine ranking is quality content. Google applies fairly tough filters for resources with non-unique and useless content that duplicates texts on other sites. Regularly publishing high-quality and popular content, you give a good signal to search engines. They begin to view your site as an authoritative source and thus raise it higher in the search results.
- Insufficient involvement in content marketing. Internet marketing of your e-commerce project should take into account the entire cycle of the interaction of a potential buyer with the brand. This includes a subscription to a corporate blog, email newsletters, reading articles, press releases and posts on social networks.
How to Start Implementing a Content Marketing Strategy?
Here are the basic steps for developing content strategies for businesses from the e-commerce segment.
1. Set Goals
It is important to determine the goals because based on them you and your team will make important decisions to optimize your strategy. For example, a good initial goal would be to attract visitors to your website or blog and convert them into newsletter subscribers. The email address left by the user is the beginning of the dialogue: users who are interested in your content are also more likely to pay attention to your products.
2. Find out Where Your Target Audience Is
In order for content marketing to bring the greatest effect, you need to answer the following questions yourself before investing money:
Who is your target audience? The answer to this question will allow you to choose the right content.
Where will the audience consume your content and in what form? The answer to it will affect the choice of platform (start a blog, Youtube channel, photo gallery on Instagram, etc.) and the type of content (write articles, shoot videos, draw infographics, do cool photoshoots, do reviews, etc.)
3. Make a List of the Necessary Tools
Based on the answers to the above questions, select the programs that you will need to implement your strategy. It is not only about standard editors of images and text, but also about the channels through which the content will be promoted among the target audience. This also includes an editorial calendar for content planning, various task managers and web analytics systems for evaluating results.
4. Proceed Directly to the Content
Here are some ways to implement content strategies that are perfect for e-commerce.
Video Marketing:
Back in 2015, video marketing became the leading content format. And this trend is not going to go to decline. You do not need a large amount of money, all you need is a phone or a video camera and some good ideas.
Ideas That You Can Realize Today
- A video lesson about what can be interesting to do with your product. 64% of users make a purchase after watching such videos. For example, if you sell multicookers, create an interesting, unique, fast and economical recipe.
- Shoot the backstage video. People always like to learn details about the internal workings of companies, it is always interesting how a particular product is made.
- Share your company history. Authentic stories win hearts and minds, especially when it comes to consumers who have enjoyed your product for decades and remain faithful. For example, The Eastwood Company, which sells tools, welding equipment, consumables for painting, teaches using video. Walmart also launched the Growers Stories series on YouTube. In each video, they introduce viewers to farmers who grow vegetables and fruits for sale in the hypermarket.
Blog:
Remember that people love brief, interesting and extremely useful information. Then generating frequently asked questions and your answers, you can make “How to do something” guidelines in the form of blog articles.
In turn, the American retail giant Walmart maintains constant communication with its customers through large volumes of useful content. Their main principle – you need to be where the buyer has a question or a problem. Content is intended to solve the problem. For example, before the holidays, they launch a series of articles “How to quickly and easily create a festive table.”
They focus primarily on their audience. Since the main category of their buyers is housewives, Walmart created a special section with recipes and added an interesting opportunity – adding ingredients from a recipe to the shopping list with one click. And to make your content not only useful but easy to read and unique, use such tools as
- Studicus to get professional assistance in article writings
- Grammarly to check and proofread your blog posts
- GrabMyEssay if you need to create educational materials
- Hemingway app to make your post easy to scan and read
- Copyscape to confirm that your article has no matches with the articles of your competitors.
Social Networks:
A rather effective channel of promotion is social networks. Pinterest is the most effective eCommerce channel in America because 87% of users make purchases through it. In addition, it is worth using the capabilities of all other sites.
- Instagram: create a business hashtag and share photos of your product.
- Facebook: Get your own profile, where you will upload photos, share blog posts, chat with customers directly and share product videos.
- Twitter: after creating a profile, you can post your own thoughts, start discussions, take notes with product photos and a brief description of them. It was proved that tweets with images are shared by 150% more often and clickability is 18% higher. You can also share discounts, infographics, and various charts.
5. The Last Step – Assign the Person in Charge
Determine who will deal with content marketing. Companies that do not want to dive into marketing depths on their own, or who do not have their own resources, as a rule, turn to specialists from digital agencies. Having a lot of experience and cases, they become real “stalkers” of the e-commerce market.
