There’s a lot more to ecommerce content marketing than creating good content. You’re trying to get conversions, and that takes some strategy. Creating good content is just one part of your content marketing strategy. Here are eleven ecommerce marketing tips to create content that converts.
Know Your Client
Your marketing campaign begins with a proper understanding of your client, and a good way to do that is by creating a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a model of your ideal customer. Get inside their head so you can understand where they’ve come from, what they need, and what they are afraid of. If you already have clients, then this part will be a bit easier; just model your persona around them. Now it’s time to think about the Buyer’s Journey. The journey begins when the buyer becomes aware of a desire, need, or problem of some kind. Next, they look at their options and compare them. Finally, they make a decision and are ready to buy. The buyer’s journey is where you begin to look for content ideas.
Get Some Partners Involved
Think about some people who could help you reach new audiences. These could be people you partner with to promote each other’s content, or someone you collaborate with on a product. Make a list of these potential partners. Now for your dream list. This one will be made up of celebrities, people associated with brands you love, and industry influencers. Spend some time reaching out to the people on your lists, once you know how you would like to partner with each person.
Your Call to Action
Before you begin creating content, figure out what you want to get out of it. What are your goals? What do you consider a conversion? Are you selling low-cost items your customers will purchase right away or higher priced merchandise that requires more time and convincing? Once you know what your goals are and what a conversion will be for you, it’s a good time to come up with your call to action (CTA). “Your CTA could include options such as: getting a discount, joining an email list, entering a contest, or joining your referral program. The main point is to have your CTA in mind before you begin creating your content,” advises Dorothy Green, ecommerce content marketer at Big Assignments.
Content Topic
Now it’s time to choose your content’s topic. One good way to get some ideas is to join or view communities where people are discussing topics relevant to your niche. Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Google+ forums are all good places to start. Once you’ve spotted a topic you think you could create content based on, plug it into a keyword research tool like Ahrefs Keyword Explorer or Google’s free keyword tool to make sure it is a popular topic. You can also check out your competitors’ websites to see what topics they are writing about. Consider plugging their URL into a backlink analysis tool to find out what topics are sending them the most traffic.
Business Value of Your Topics
Take your list of content topic ideas and whittle it down to the ones with the highest potential for business value. You’re looking for topics that are aligned with the CTA you have chosen. Make your way down your shortened list and assign your topics numbers based on how well you think you can combine them with your CTA. Now all you have to do is pick out the topics with the highest numbers.
Creating Content
Try entering your topic into Google to see what kind of content comes up. Click around and see what patterns form, and more importantly, what resonates with the people interested in your topic. Choose a blog post format that suits your topic well. Write a good headline that will grab people’s attention and bring them in. Take some time and format your content properly. Use bold and italics to highlight important parts. Get better copy flow by writing shorter paragraphs. Use subheadings to break up the text further and make it easier to read and digest. Some ideas for content include a video that tells a story, a photo series, an ebook, an interview with an influencer or customer with an interesting story, and an email drip series.
Writing Perfect Ecommerce Content
Writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, so don’t be afraid to get some help from the professionals. Here are some good tools to get you started:
#1. MyWritingWay and AcademAdvisor
These are useful grammar resources to help you with your content copy. You’re a professional, so make sure your content reflects that by having it edited properly.
#2. OXEssays and Essay Services
These are proofreading tools, reviewed in OX Essays review, that will help you ensure your content copy is polished and free of errors.
#3. Writingpopulist and LetsGoandLearn
These are writing guides you can use to write persuasive and effective content copy. Not everyone has an easy time writing, so get some help here if you need it.
#4. PaperFellows and Studentwritingservices
These online editing tools, suggested by Studydemic, are great for helping you produce well-written and error-free content copy.
Conversion Content
Take advantage of some existing proven strategies for content that converts. A how-to guide presents you as an expert, an authority on a subject. Cash in on that authority by swinging a person who was on the fence with your guide. A buyer’s guide is another effective conversion strategy. You put yourself in a powerful position by asserting yourself as an independent expert, while also setting the standard to which your competition must measure up. Video on a product page improves conversion rates greatly and is worth your time. You could even jump on the unboxing trend.
Inserting Your Call to Actions
Now it’s time to insert your CTAs. This is the most important part of the process because your CTAs drive your conversions. It’s critical your CTAs are inserted in relevant sections of the post, not just anywhere you can squeeze one in. You can use different types of CTAs, such as in-text links, exit-intent pop ups, sidebar scroll pop ups, and opt-in bars.
Use SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important step that is easy to forget. But once you’ve gone to all the trouble of creating some great and convertible content, it would be a shame not to optimize it and use it to its full potential. Run through these important steps before you publish your content. Have an eye-popping headline. Know your target keywords and use them. Don’t forget to optimize metatags, headings, and URLs. Include keywords as naturally as possible in your text. Link internally to other pages, and also link to influencer content. Include social share buttons and ensure they are function-able and easy to see. Make sure your loading speed and mobile friendliness are both good.
Content Outreach
Now that you’ve created some great content, your goal is to get as many people as possible to see it. If you’ve been working with an influencer then just ask them politely to share it with their audience. Don’t forget your own clients and subscribers. Set yourself reminders to promote your content after a week, a month, etc. You put a lot of work into creating that content, so get some decent mileage out of it. You can find some good tools out there to automate this process. Why work harder than you have to?
Set Goals and Measure Your Results
It’s important to pay attention to how your content performs. Likes, shares, and other such metrics are useful, but they only tell part of the story. You need to know how many people are actually viewing your content, how they got to your page, and where they go once they leave your page. Find out how much traffic your posts are getting so you can determine what you are doing well, and where there is room for improvement.
Conclusion
Content marketing is a lot more than just creating a good piece of content and putting it out there for people to consume. Before you do anything, you need to figure out a few things about your buyer. Try and get some partners involved to increase your reach. It might seem early, but it’s best to figure out your CTAs right away, so you can create content that will work well with your CTAs. Your content topic is important, and so is doing some research to find out what kind of content your audience cares about. Writing your copy professionally is key, and so is determining the business value of your topics. Creating quality content and effectively promoting it is important. Don’t forget to measure your results so you can improve for the future.
short url: