Introduction
With the changing dynamics of the market worldwide, we all know how important it is to have an e-commerce marketing strategy. Online stores are now realizing the power of content marketing. When the entire world is lunging over the digital marketing experience, a viable e-commerce content marketing strategy can give you an edge over your competitor. It is cost-effective and a much better way to create loyalty for your brand and increase your sales in the process.
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Before we dive into various strategies that you can opt for your e-commerce platform, let’s talk about some fundamental things that are important to enhance your understanding of the entire process. E-commerce content marketing has become such a powerful tool today that no company can ignore it. Companies invest millions in digital marketing campaigns through advertisements and social media, but when you look at the analytics, content marketing gives the best return on investments (RoI). There is no doubt that content marketing gives you a strategic upper hand. When you create high-value content with good frequency, you naturally attract online traffic. You otherwise have to pay for such traffic in the form of advertisements, etc. So, in a way, it has a massive impact on search engine optimization (SEO). Visit We Push Buttons for organisational advice and strategies.
When discussing e-commerce content marketing, we must understand that content without strategy is nothing. It is nothing more than an amalgamation of photos, videos, and a bunch of words. It won’t do anything for your business as it will not be able to see the limelight of the digital marketplace. Your content will be like background noise in the vast and complex digital space. To avoid this, your content marketing should be specific and properly defined. It should be connected to a goal that you want to achieve soon. Such goals can be like increasing your sales, increasing the target audience’s involvement, or improving your bottom line.
Today’s biggest challenge in content marketing is to create content that will put you ahead of others. It is not an easy task. According to many experts, the content marketing strategy for your e-commerce company should encompass the customer’s entire journey right from the start. It should not just focus on making a sale but also on educating about the product, addressing specific problems, giving valuable information, etc. While your content is focused on these things, your brand and product will be present at every step of the journey. This is a long-term strategy to build a loyal customer base, improve your brand value, and increase your sales.
Now, let’s talk about various e-commerce content marketing strategies that you can opt to enhance your customer base and improve your business.
1) Add a Content Hub
Content is king here; the sooner you learn this, the better. Getting help from a content marketing agency can lead to a tremendous change in your business. To retain your customers and engage them more effectively, add a content hub to your e-commerce website. A content hub is a place on your website where customers can find all the relevant information related to a specific topic or product. It can be anything including but not limited to photos, videos, articles, blog posts, social media posts, and more. The point of creating a content hub is to organize your content more effectively so that the entire content in that hub revolves around a particular topic. This will improve the accessibility for the customers and engage them effectively. For example, if you sell electronics, you can create different content hubs for the best mobile phones in different price ranges, Smart TVs, OLED TVs, Best Tablets from XYZ company, etc.
Over the years, content hubs have proven to be a great strategy for e-commerce content marketing. It is a strategy that benefits both the owner and the customer. With this strategy, your customers will get a superior user experience, and they will be able to digest any topic on your website more effectively.
2) Plan Your Content Ahead
To stay in the lead, plan your content ahead of time. Study the market, your customer’s expectations, and your competitors. Based on all this, plan on a quarterly basis what kind of content you need to show your brand and improve the market footprint. A good e-commerce content marketing strategy includes an up-to-date content calendar. This practice will help you remain focused by planning ahead and in line with your business goals. It will help your customers stay engaged with your website as they will expect your fresh content on schedule. Also, it will help you cover various topics on time concerned with your brand promotions, customer needs, and advertisement campaigns.
This strategy will help you enjoy greater domain authority over your niche and better connect with your target audience.
3) Encourage User Generated Content (UGC)
It is a highly effective digital marketing strategy for e-commerce companies as it shows people using your products. This makes user-generated content a highly valuable thing to associate with your brand. It not only acts as social proof of your brand’s success but also an effective advertising tactic for your brand using word of mouth marketing. With so many rising e-commerce companies that spend millions in promoting their products, it has become increasingly difficult to figure out what to believe. It’s only natural now that people don’t believe companies as much as they believe actual customers using their products. There are many ways in which you can encourage customer’s involvement with UGCs, such as:
- Updating user-generated content posts on your social media platforms regularly. It will help in engaging with the customers.
- Creating online contests for customers to submit photos or videos of them using your products.
- Creating hashtags about your brand or particular products on social media platforms like Instagram & Twitter and encouraging people to use them.
- Reviews are among the best of UGC, and encouraging people to leave reviews of your brand and products will greatly enhance your brand’s value.
4) Open-end Content Strategy
For any e-commerce company, having an open-ended content marketing strategy is an excellent practice that goes a long way in promoting your brand. By open-ended, we mean not to limit your content to a single format or means of communication. To get the maximum results for your brand promotion, use every resource available to convey the quality of your brand. As an e-commerce platform, use videos, photos, articles, guides, memes, testimonials, etc., to produce your content. This will not only make your content more interesting but will also engage more customers.
Another great advantage of this content marketing strategy is that you can easily repurpose your content. It is like killing two birds with one stone. Repurposing is a great way to attract fresh customers. You can repurpose your old content that has attracted good traffic in the past into a new form and distribute it across various media platforms. For example, you can create an entirely new video based on a photoshoot that you made in the past or include your old photoshoots in a new video.
5) Create a Glossary
Products on e-commerce platforms often contain technical specifications and unfamiliar words that frustrate the customers and reduce their ability to make a well-informed decision. Creating a glossary of unfamiliar words and technical terms on your website can effectively address such issues. This will improve the customer’s experience on your website. Remember, small things can make a huge difference sometimes. Often people have to search for unfamiliar product-related terms that ultimately take them to another e-commerce website. Often overlooked small things like a glossary of important terms on your website can make a huge difference in retaining your internet traffic and attracting new customers.
It improves the experience of a customer and is also an important search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. It will attract all the customers searching for a particular technical specification in their products or all those searching for a specific word. This digital marketing strategy will prompt them to explore your website further and all the different products on it.
6) Blogging
Blogging is a time-tested strategy for e-commerce content marketing. For effective blogging, you need to create relevant content related to a product and present alternate or best possible solutions to customers’ issues related to such products while simultaneously promoting your brand’s product. With this strategy, you will create a good audience base and help you develop effective relationships with the customers that will help your brand in the long run. When customers feel more informed about a product or the world surrounding a product, they are often more confident in their purchase. Another great thing you can do is to get featured in someone else’s blog. This strategy will help you generate good traffic on your website and improve its ranking.
7) Social Media and Industry Influencers
Like blogging, social media influencers can also be used to promote and give credence to your e-commerce website. Unlike blogging, the hype and interest generated by the social media influencers are much more as they can reach a large audience in no time. Social media influencers have a large audience base. You can find some influencers that work in a similar field as your products and build a relationship with them. This way, using their followers, you can reach thousands of potential customers within no time. For example, suppose your e-commerce platform sells electronic gadgets. In that case, you can get in touch with an influencer who reviews gadgets on their platform and, with their help, showcase your products. This digital marketing strategy will be beneficial to promote your brand to its followers. The most important factor of this strategy is choosing the right influencer whose values align with your brands and whose followers trust them.
8) Infographics and Gift Guides
There is no denying the fact that the attention span of customers in today’s digital marketplace is very low. If it’s not catchy and easily visible, nobody is going to look at it. Infographics can help your e-commerce website in this regard. They are an effective digital marketing strategy to grab customers’ attention toward your products. Creating educational infographics that can help your customers better understand your product and how it will help them is one of the best ways to use this strategy. Another great advantage of infographics is they are easily shareable through social media and various messaging services. This will improve awareness for your brand and increase good traffic back to your website.
Another great strategy to grab customers’ attention is through gift guides. They are an effective way to show off your products while simultaneously helping customers make purchasing decisions. They work best during the holiday and festival seasons when people are on a buying spree.
9) Add a Reviews and Comparison Page
Reviews are one of the best proof of the quality of your product. Adding a review page to your website where customers can give their feedback and other customers can read them is a great strategy. It will not only give a sense of openness and legitimacy to your brand, but it will also increase its prestige. Instead of reading reviews about your product on other platforms, if the customers can read about them on your website, that will help assure them about the quality of your products. Many studies have overwhelmingly proven that customer reviews impact purchasing decisions. So, it’s not something to be taken lightly as a digital marketing strategy by an e-commerce business owner. Featuring customer reviews on your website is a win-win for you as it will increase both online traffic and the sale of your products.
Another great e-commerce digital marketing strategy to influence customers’ purchasing decisions is by adding a comparison page on your website. This may seem counterproductive to some, but comparing and highlighting the quality of your product over your competitor’s product is a great strategy to attract more customers to your e-commerce website. Use a fun and easy-to-diget infographic to achieve this. It is common among customers to compare products before buying to get the most suitable product. By providing them with a page, they can do that side by side with your competitors’. This not only increases traffic to your website but will also skew their biases toward your product. So, your sales will increase, and more people will visit your website. It is a win-win situation for you.
10) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Page
It is another great e-commerce content marketing strategy that you can use to boost the traffic on your website. FAQ pages are significant for any e-commerce brand as they will help customers get a better understanding of your brand and products.
