How Content Marketing Will Help Your Ecommerce Site

Have you got a content marketing strategy?

If you don’t, it’s time you started thinking about it. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways for you to market your brand online. The benefits of content marketing include building trust, raising awareness, giving you more to share on social media, and it helps your search engine optimisation.

3x more leads than traditional marketing

Costs 62% less than traditional marketing

70% of people prefer to learn about a brand through articles, rather than through adverts

82% of customers enjoy reading relevant content from brands

Sources: (Content Marketing Institute and Demand Metric)

Content marketing can include any form of online content that a company creates. Rather than promoting the company like an advert, it is designed to provide something interesting for users in order to engage them. Types of content include videos, blog posts, reviews and social media posts. The content itself acts as a touch point for a user to interact with a company and won’t necessarily lead directly to a sale, but it will influence a user’s opinion of your brand.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

By producing relevant content and updating it regularly you are more likely to rank highly on search engines.

• By providing high-quality information, people will continue to access and share your content, which will increase the value of your page helping your site creep to the top.
• When content is shared there will be more links coming to your site, which suggests that you're an authoritative voice.
• The more content that you produce the more pages that you will have indexed in Google. This means that there will be more entry points to your site on the internet.
• Google likes to crawl sites that update their content regularly. Media sites, for example, will get crawled multiple times a day because they need to constantly update information to stay current.

Brand awareness

Content has the potential to give you greater online visibility. If you regularly produce high-quality content then you will start to be recognised as an authoritative voice on the internet. You’ll be the go-to website for people to search for information. And the more interesting your content, the more likely it will be shared through social media. As a result, more people will see your brand. You should make it as easy as possible for users to share your content. Make sharing a clear call to action on your webpage. And make sure that you post your own content through social with engaging messages to encourage interaction.

Impact conversions

Content can influence the buying behaviour of a consumer, especially if they have confidence in your brand and you make it easy for them to make the purchase. You should optimise your on-page content and use call-to-actions where relevant to help the user transition through each buying stage.

Loyalty

If you’ve written an article about a product and a customer has purchased the item and is happy with it, then they’re likely to trust your opinion in the future. Having reliable content on your site will boost confidence in your brand and encourage consumers to return.

60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site (Content Plus).

You need to be seen online to get people on your site and to start making sales. Online retail is competitive and a search engine is the No. 1 starting point for most users – 60% of consumers start research on a search engine (Retailing Today). Therefore, it’s essential that you’re ranking highly in order to be seen amongst your competitors. You also need to produce content for your users to better their opinion of your brand and enhance their experience.

Internet users spend 20% of their time online accessing content (Demand Metric), so it’s a great place to influence the buying process. Here’s how:

Product Research

It gives users the opportunity to do product research. Most users shop around before making a final purchase, so having the information in place for users to make a decision will improve chances of a sale. 81% of consumers research products online before purchasing them (Retailing Today). It also means that your site will feature higher up in search rankings for content related to the product.

Trust your brand

You must build confidence in your brand. If you provide relevant information about products or give some advice to a customer, then they are more likely to see you as a reliable voice and return to your site for information in the future. Even if they don’t make a purchase the first few times that they access your content, you are still creating a positive experience with your brand.

Talk About Products

Content gives you more opportunity to talk about your products. You can have image-rich content to show people using the product, which may influence its desirability. You will then have the chance to explain why the product is essential to your customer’s needs, which gives you more say in the buying process.

And because it’s easier to understand something when you have an example. Why don’t you check out the companies below to see how they are using content marketing effectively?

ASOS are one of the largest online fashion retailers, commanding a huge online presence through effective social media campaigns. Their ‘Fashion Feed’ features product reviews and blog posts to showcase key products and provide useful advice to consumers. They effectively market to their target audience, young adults, by producing relevant content through the right channels. And, most importantly, they successfully engage their audience, which generates more reach.

On social media, ASOS introduced the campaign #AsSeenOnMe, where users can feature their Instagram outfit of the day and showcase ASOS products. It filters by category so that people can shop for the right look. The feature is a great way to engage with their audience and also gives customers the chance to see what the products look like on ‘real’ people.

Creating interesting user-engaging content, they are still the dominant online retailer, with 3 times more online visibility than competitor boohoo.com.

Butler & Wilson are a fashion retailer in London selling stylish clothing, accessories and jewellery. Their bricks-and-mortar store is accompanied by an eCommerce website that is seeing continuous online growth. They’ve implemented a content strategy to support their site’s growth, with the aim of providing users with useful content. Their blog content on their ‘Simon Says’ section features product collections, with style guides and how-to’s, so that customers can complete their look. The content can be shared through social channels, giving them an opportunity to extend their reach and brand awareness. It can also provide them with a boost to their SEO, by adding more relevant information to their site and increasing their indexation.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription-based beauty box that also has an online shop for consumers to purchase their favourite beauty products. They effectively use content and social media to boost their online visibility. Their blog has depth by including a variety of content types, such as, ‘features,’ ‘how-to's’, ‘interviews’ and ‘videos’. They’ve also included the fun ‘Random: Discovery Mode,’ which randomly generates a page for you to read/watch. Their video how-to guides provide useful information for users on applying makeup and using beauty products and they also include interesting Q&As with industry professionals. Offering a wide range of content enables them to be more visible in search and improve their awareness by being shared online.

Get on board with content marketing and start implementing a strategy like the best online retailers out there. Take a look at your competitors to see what kind of content you should be creating. Try and produce high-quality videos or images to really encourage engagement from your users. And make your content relevant, interesting and worth sharing.