If you’re running an ecommerce business, then you’ll know how important it is to stay connected to your customers.
Any ecommerce company requires sales to thrive, but one-off sales from the occasional client isn’t enough. You need to find a way of transforming the traffic that happens upon your business website into dedicated clients for your company. That’s where killer content comes in.
Ultimately, in today’s highly saturated online market, it’s not enough to simply have a great product or service that you can deliver to your customers. You also need to build a relationship with your customers – that’s where content marketing is so essential.
Content gives you a way to connect with your customers on a deeper level and show them the value of both your brand and the things that you sell. The right content can make your audience “fully connected” to your brand. Statistically, fully-connected customers are 50% more valuable than their counterparts.
So, how do you deliver killer content?
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1. Get to Know Your Audience
The first step in delivering fantastic content for your audience is figuring out who you’re talking to. The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to create the content that’s most likely to capture and keep their attention.
You can find out details about your audience by looking at the previous sales conducted by your organization. Other options include sending out surveys and questionnaires or simply performing a competitive analysis to discover what kind of customers other brands in your niche are trying to attract.
Once you’ve gathered some data, you can begin to build “user personas” (profiles of your ideal audience members) that can guide your content decisions.
2. Consider Different Stages in the Buying Journey
When you have a basic buyer persona to guide you, you’ll be able to start diving deeper into the journeys that your customers go through when they decide to purchase from your brand. Knowing which stage of the buying cycle your clients are in will help you to create content that anticipates their needs, doubts, and questions.
For instance:
- During the awareness stage, customers will want content that explains what your ecommerce business sells.
- During the consideration stage, they’ll want to learn more about why your company is better than your competitors.
- During the purchase stage, they’ll want content that demonstrates how they can use their new product.
Remember, your content strategy can also help you to bring new customers into the awareness stage by giving you a chance to reach out to people searching for keywords and phrases related to your brand.
3. Keep Content Valuable and Fresh
With a solid understanding of your audience, you can begin to develop the content that will help to drive more revenue for your brand. According to research from HubSpot, the more content you publish for your ecommerce site, the more likely you are to attract the attention of customers (and investors).
Businesses could receive up to 3.5 times more traffic on their site if they publish 16 or more blog posts every month than companies publishing fewer than four posts a month. Regardless of how big or small your company might be, the more in-depth valuable content you publish, the more your customers will come to you.
The key is making sure that you don’t just publish content for the sake of it. While quantity is important, quality is crucial too. Focus on content that supports, informs, and delights your customers.
4. Use Keywords Carefully
Keywords are an important part of any content strategy for an ecommerce brand. Your keywords are what help customers and potential buyers find you – even when you’re just getting started online. However, it’s important to plan your keywords carefully.
Keyword planners and online tools can provide you with guidance into things like cost-per-click, keyword volume, and competition data. Remember, you’ll want to choose a broad selection of keywords, including semantic terms, long-form keywords and more.
Try to choose terms that don’t just appeal to your customers. Think about when you might want to attract website brokers, investors, or shareholders to your business.
5. Create a Calendar for Your Content
Just as frequency is important to the success of your ecommerce content plan, it’s also crucial to be consistent with how often and when you post. Being organized is always a good plan for any company, and a content calendar can help you to keep track of your marketing efforts with greater ease.
All you need to do is create a schedule of when you’re planning to publish certain types of content. For instance, you might have a “throwback Thursday” post on social media every Thursday, followed by a blog post on Mondays and Fridays. If you know exactly when you’re going to post, you can start to schedule updates in advance and take some of the stress of marketing off your plate.
6. Choose a Wide Selection of Content Types
When most companies first get started with content marketing, they assume that they’re restricted to using blogs and articles alone. While written content does have a valuable impact on your business, and your SEO strategy, it’s not the only way to enhance your brand.
There are various forms of content to consider leveraging, including:
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Live streaming and broadcasts
- Infographics
- Images
- Social Media
- Articles
- eBooks
- Case studies
- Interviews
To keep your audience as entertained and engaged as possible, it’s worth connecting with them through a wide selection of different content formats. Remember to measure the success of each campaign so you can discover which has the best return on investment.
7. Use Email to Give Your Content a Wider Reach
Posting your content on social media or promoting it on your website is a great way to start bringing your ecommerce business to life. But don’t overlook the value of an email marketing campaign. According to research from the Direct Marketing Association, the average ROI for an email strategy is 3,900%. The same research suggests that your customers would rather receive promotions through email than their social channels (72%).
There are plenty of ways that you can promote your ecommerce content through email, including:
- Drip campaigns that nurture and engage your customers over time, convincing them to purchase.
- Newsletters that provide up-to-date information on the latest products and services.
- Abandoned cart reminders that encourage customers to complete their purchases
- Exclusive competitions and discount emails for loyal customers
- Trigger emails for times when your customer takes a specific action on your website.
To get the best results, make sure that you segment your email campaign for each user persona in your audience list. This will help you to deliver more personalized experiences for your clients.
Rystedt Creative can help your ecommerce business develop killer content. Contact us about our Copywriting Services.
