Successful e-commerce businesses strive to educate their new and existing customers throughout their entire buyer’s journey, starting with the initial query to a well-informed purchasing decision.
This is done through well-crafted e-commerce marketing strategies that deliver high-quality content for ideal buyers. Building, implementing, and maintaining a good content marketing campaign for your e-commerce website does wonders for your e-commerce brand.
This includes increasing your conversion rates, boosting your search engine optimization (SEO), and inspiring brand awareness and customer loyalty with your target audience. However, creating an effective e-commerce marketing plan for your online store isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
You have to understand the intent behind the keywords and understand the needs of your new customers so that you can build and produce adequate content that would lead to conversions. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to create an e-commerce content marketing campaign for your e-commerce site. Read on to learn more.
What Is E-commerce Content Marketing?
E-commerce content marketing is a form of digital marketing with the end goal of connecting the consumers seeking products and services with businesses that provide said products and services.
Now, depending on where they are in the buyer’s funnel, consumers typically search for specific pieces of information, and businesses often provide that information through high-quality, captivating content that’s often entertaining and builds trust between a business and a consumer by offering to solve the consumer’s problem.
This type of content often includes blog posts, articles, and video content, but it can also translate into influencer marketing, email marketing, infographics, etc. The main point of content marketing efforts is to create fantastic content that will be easily accessible and easily digestible and turn the visitors to your e-commerce store into leads and customers.
To that end, the most effective e-commerce content is informative, engaging, and visually appealing, which means that content marketing strategy goes beyond mere keyword research and pretty product pages.
It also dives into on-page and off-page SEO, which implies a smoother user experience and other online shopping convenience features, such as abandoned cart email notifications and a smoother checkout process. The whole strategy also has to be tied to cohesion and purpose.
It’s worth noting that regardless of whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, content marketing (and SEO) is generally regarded as playing the long game. However, implementing an adequate marketing strategy aimed at potential customers can help you reach your marketing goals faster.
Why Is E-commerce Content Marketing Important?
Creating, implementing, and managing effective e-commerce content marketing may seem less significant to an untrained eye, but the truth is that content marketing is everything. It’s actually quite important; Semrush’s 2023 study concluded that 96% of e-commerce companies generate positive results when sticking to a well-developed marketing plan.
From the consumer’s viewpoint, you’re offering a solution to the problem, and with high-quality content, you’re establishing trust and authority among your target demographics and loyal customers. This practice also keeps the customers engaged, giving them something to share on social media platforms, and allowing you to “harvest” the benefits of free social media marketing.
From the SEO perspective, by offering high-quality, valuable content, you’re establishing yourself as a relevant thematic authority, which increases your search engine results page (SERP) rating, driving more organic traffic to your e-commerce platform. This increase in traffic alone can trigger an avalanche effect and further boost your SEO efforts.
Content marketing also offers huge returns on investment compared to pay-per-click advertising (PPC) via advertising platforms, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Perhaps the best of all is that the benefits of well-implemented marketing tactics compound over time, allowing you to build a massive resource of knowledge on particular products and services.
How to Create a Content Strategy for E-commerce
The core of every great and effective content strategy is to provide the solution to the problem of your target audience and increase sales. Boost your content with great research and data to make it more factual and concise, but do keep in mind that content marketing is aimed at real humans searching for solutions to real problems. Here’s where to start:
SEO Blogging
Nearly 60% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase, either through product descriptions on landing pages, user-generated content, or both. Creating SEO-driven blogs that provide a solution to the customer’s inquiry and answer all the questions they forgot to ask.
SEO blogs and social media posts are great marketing tools, as they allow you to build relevance, authority, and backlinks, which can help you boost online sales or drive content.
Build Your Content Team
Many believe that you should identify your target audience first, and that rule applies to specialized e-commerce stores within specific industries. If you’re running a general store with different types of publicly available goods, your target audience is an everyday consumer.
Instead, focus on building your content team. There are talented writers and content creators all around you, offering their professional services at reasonable prices. These can write beyond just blogs; employ them for writing and crafting email campaigns, podcasts, TikTok content, and other content for respective marketing channels.
Learn How to Write a Sales Pitch
Learn how to present your product in the best possible light; starting with the product description is commonly recognized as the best practice. Just make sure to create completely original content, using descriptors that underscore all the things that differentiate your products from the competition.
Create a Content Schedule
It’s really important to schedule content because the more high-quality content you manage to produce, the more likely it is that the masses will notice you, and you’ll be able to establish authority. So, blog consistently each week, churn out quality video content, or perhaps both.
Work Within the Industry
The best way to gain recognition, relevance, and authority is when an authority figure from your niche or industry recommends you. It helps build trust among potential customers and does wonders for your SEO. Of course, make sure to return the favor.
Tactics For Succeeding in E-commerce Content Marketing
We previously discussed why having a content strategy in place matters and how to craft one. Here are some additional tips and tricks on implementing such strategies more effectively.
Make visually appealing content: Aesthetics matter, so make sure that your content is visually captivating for your website visitors and social media followers.
Double down on what works: Identify the marketing channels that yield the best results, and focus your efforts on the most promising channels.
Optimize your presence: If you sell on Amazon, ensure your product listings are optimized with relevant keywords, compelling descriptions, and high-quality images to boost your visibility in search results.
Collaborate with influencers and experts: Get influencers to promote your product, as their endorsements provide social proof while exposing you to broader audiences.
Loyalty programs and referrals: Create a loyalty program to reward repeat customers and encourage them to refer friends, helping you foster a loyal customer base.
Customer support and post-purchase engagement: Provide excellent customer support and engage with customers post-purchase. Send follow-up emails, FAQs, and helpful content to enhance the customer experience.
In-House Content Strategy vs. Outsourcing
We previously suggested building a content team, but such actions are typically reserved for larger enterprises. Smaller and medium-sized businesses and marketplaces will fare better, in a financial sense, if they outsource their marketing to a marketing expert.
Outsourcing your marketing efforts to an external company will free up time for both you and your internal team, allowing you to focus more clearly on growing your business and making e-commerce sales.
Summary
DIY-ing content marketing is a variable strategy for startups and small businesses; medium businesses stand to save money from DIY-ing their marketing but lose precious time, and large-scale businesses have the funds to afford a professional in-house team.
Outsourcing your content marketing strategy is more cost-effective as it gives you access to a broader pool of writers with niche and industry expertise. If you’re looking for a company to help you with your content marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to contact Orchard Marketing.