How eCommerce Sites Benefit from Content Marketing (or Go Bust without It)

Regardless of what you are selling, you will need to up the game this year. 2016 is all about content, and eCommerce sites have to be in-the-know to get noticed. Having a great product is just not enough. You need to know how to draw in an audience that will appreciate that product.

The eCommerce industry has historically spent huge amounts of money on SEO and PPC, completely ignoring blogs and other content routes available to them. While PPC and SEO are still important investments, the attention needs to slowly turn to creating content that is engaging and that sells. Most of all, eCommerce sites need content that helps them build trust with their potential buyers.

The bottom line is this—your customers need to know that they can trust you, and providing them with helpful and engaging content that sets you apart from your competitors is a cost-effective way of ensuring that you build a solid reputation.

If you have solid content in place, you will:

• Be more likely to be perceived as an expert. Think about it. If you prepare a how-to guide for that circular saw you’re selling, or a series of recipes for a rice cooker you’re currently featuring, buyers are more likely to shop with you. You’ve demonstrated both knowledge and the willingness to go out of your way to help them, which is probably more than any other seller out there who is not doing the same.
• Give one heck of a boost to your SEO efforts. Original articles have tremendous SEO value! Other than simply relying on your homepage to do the work for you, check out the keywords that people are using to search for things that are right up your alley. Offer solutions and answer their questions, and you will be reaping a double benefit. Linking a product that you sell can be inconspicuously done via the author box, and you can even strike up a deal with various bloggers that write in your niche and post these articles as guest blogs. It is a great way of diversifying your link portfolio.
• Give a little, but get a little more in return. Most eCommerce site owners go on record saying that content is too much effort, especially if we talk with small to medium enterprises. Granted, not all content will convert into what you feel should be dollars, but you’re getting so much more out of it! People love to hear a good story, and building content gives you an opportunity to get your story out there. If it is a good story, you’ll be awarded social signals— likes, shares, pins, tweets and more. This will boost your brand awareness and help draw in new customers!

Content You Should be Focusing On

Something that your page is likely to have are the FAQs, or ‘frequently asked questions.’ This is an area where you can really shine. Make sure to answer your FAQs creatively and in a funny way. Make it an experience for the reader. Of course, make sure to cover all the important points and give extensive answers, but don’t be afraid to throw in a chuckle or two. People expect these to be boring and dry. Make use of that and turn it into a memorable exercise that they will definitely remember!

The next important step is building a series of how-to posts that will accompany your products. This applies if you are selling appliances, tools or gadgets, but you can get creative and really go this extra mile even if you sell hair products, makeup or clothes! Why not have a video showcasing your products and teaching people how to make different hair-styles easily? Your imagination is the only limit.

A great idea is to shoot a video and then transcribe it, making a written how-to guide accompanied with photos that will benefit users who do not have the option of watching the video. It’s a good way of repurposing your content and reaping multiple SEO benefits.

And our last tip is to write up detailed product descriptions accompanied by beautiful photos of your product and use that to promote your products and your content on social media. Open Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and reach out to your prospective buyers. Great photos are important because they up-sell your products and garner much more steam than those dry product descriptions ever would, especially on Instagram.

Content Creation Is Easy with Tools

Content creation can be a daunting task, especially if you are already burdened with managing your entire eCommerce site. Luckily, there are tools that will make your life a lot easier, and help you come up with great content ideas, measure how your content performs, or simply create great content for you.

KWFinder – Before you know what to write about, you need to know what your audience is potentially interested in. KWFinder does just that; it scours the web and spits out keyword ideas that have a low SEO competition. Just type in a keyword and you will get a pretty accurate estimate of the number of monthly searches, as well as alternative ideas for the keyword you’ve input.

Quora – Another great resource is Quora, a site that has a ton of questions, and, even more, answers. Log in to see what questions people have about your products or your niche in particular. You can then offer an expert advice and use the insights you got from there to craft a great response blog post that can help you rank for current, niche-related keywords. And the best part is that Quora is completely free.

Grammarly – After you’ve gotten your fix of ideas and sat down to pen a piece of great content, make sure it’s not ruined by poor spelling or punctuation! Use Grammarly to fish out those commonly made mistakes and get suggestions on how to make your writing better. A premium version costs a bit, but a free one will get you started off on the right track, so make sure to use it.

Visually – If you are looking for a solution to your photo, video and graphics troubles then check out Visually. Teams of designers and developers work side by side to create an excellent infographic, engaging and viral videos, and great presentations.

Aussiewriter– If you are not the greatest writer in the world, don’t worry, there are ways to get around that. Aussiewriter is an online writing service that specializes in creating engaging and shareable content that gets noticed. You can choose between different expertise levels for the articles you order, but keep in mind that every piece of content they produce is of good quality.

TrackMaven – Once you write a great piece of content, it’s important to track its progress and see how it measures up against your competition. TrackMaven enables you to track content across key web channels, including social media, emails, blogs, and paid advertising. It pays off to keep an eye on your competition to see if they are doing anything that’s worth doing, and you are not.

MozContent – This is another great tool from those marketing wizards at Moz. It allows you to evaluate how engaging and popular your content is, which avenues are worth pursuing, and which you should cut loose. It will help you find content that you’re audience reacts to and finds helpful, so you can direct you efforts into creating more of it!

To reiterate, content is shaping up to be a real and powerful marketing force in 2016. Paid ads are in a slow decline as of late—just think about how many times you’ve clicked on one in the past month. People want real, engaging and helpful stories, and are more likely to share those, as well. Social signals have become a sort of a digital word of mouth. Make sure you’re following the latest trends and boost your marketing efforts with a solid content marketing strategy. Your competitors are definitely doing it, so keep up!

Author: Kiara Halligan works as a content marketing consultant for Aussiewriter. Kiara believes that every marketing campaign could be spiced up greatly with quality content. Feel free to contact her at FB or G+.