Content marketing would be the most proven way for an eCommerce store to leave its competitors in the dust. The content of your business can play a significant role when it comes to consumer decisions. It can be a determinant of whether consumers choose you over other businesses.
Given the importance of content marketing, it is vital to determine how to use it effectively. An eCommerce store can’t keep producing content and just hope that it’s received well. Content marketing in today’s marketing landscape should be approached strategically.
If you’re confused about the most effective way to distribute content, then this article is for you. In the following sections below, we will be discussing the top 10 ways to use content marketing for eCommerce.
What Is Content Marketing?
Before we talk about the ways to use content marketing, let’s first properly define it.
Content marketing is when businesses publish their content on various platforms.
The “inside” of the content could be educational, informative, or promotional. The content can be on social media, email, print publications, radio, and tv ads.
The goal of content marketing is to bring awareness to the business. If done correctly, some benefits are increased customer engagement, customer loyalty, and brand awareness. But the most important advantage of them all is an increase in sales.
Throughout the years, content marketing has gathered impressive statistics and has seen a lot of innovations. Given the number of ways to use content marketing, knowing which one works best is essential.
To know how content marketing can be used efficiently, listed below are the top ways an eCommerce business can use it.
Top 10 Ways To Use Content Marketing
1. Storytelling
One of the most underrated ways to use content marketing is through storytelling. Great eCommerce business owners and brand designers understand that humans innately love stories. They’ve been told stories before they even knew they were called as such.
With consumers being familiar with storytelling, this will make your content be more engaging and compelling. This style of content marketing will make consumers connect better with your content and empathize with the narrative.
If you can identify their pain points and address them in a relatable way, you will have a higher chance of landing a sale.
A brand that does an excellent job when it comes to integrating storytelling and content marketing would be Nike. They’ve presented most of their commercials in a narrative way wherein it inspires its viewers to do something which goes hand in hand with their famous tagline – “Just do it.”
2. Video Content Marketing
The use of videos is one of the most engaging ways to present your content to consumers. It’s a tool included in any effective digital marketing strategy because of its proven results and potential to go viral.
You can adequately show how a product works with video content marketing rather than letting your customers visualize everything by just reading about it. Videos can make viewers be immersed in the content using its audio and visual effects.
According to research done by Wzyowl, 69% of consumers like to learn about a product or service through video. Along with it being a top choice to learn, video content marketing boosts a business’ content marketing metrics and conversion rates.
Check out how Mixam uses videos to show its prospects how easy it is to use their service. Rather than creating a blog about it, they made an animation to keep its audience engaged.
3. How-to Videos
How-to videos still fall under video content marketing, but the effectiveness of this style deserves its own spot in this list.
With how-to videos, you get to explain better how your products can solve a problem or make things easier.
The best feature of a how-to video is demonstrating how the product is used and showcasing the different features it has.
This works best for new products like a predictive dialer or inventory management software – basically, products that people do not usually use.
A well-explained how-to video can be enough for a consumer to buy the product. Once they see that it’s easy to use and solves their problem, they’ll be hooked immediately.
It is much easier to answer common questions and address technical issues through video demonstrations with how-to videos.
Time Camp capitalized on this content marketing by creating short videos on how to navigate their software. The business knew that some don’t want to read long instructions, so they used it as an opportunity to create how-to videos for their free desktop time trackers and other software.
4. Infographic Content Marketing
An infographic is a visual representation of information or data. They are used to give life to written content or as marketing material to educate consumers.
These visual images are a great way to capture the attention of your market. Excellent infographics are colorful, pleasing to the eyes, easy to follow, and most importantly, informative.
If you’re planning to educate your audience about your product or service, but you don’t want to take much of their time, an infographic should be one of your top choices.
Take a look at how Gili Sports educated its readers on the calories burned per hour by paddle boarding. In this infographic, they were able to make nine comparisons in a single picture.
According to Venngage, 65% of B2B marketers use infographics as part of their marketing, and 59% of B2C do the same. Digital Information World mentioned that infographics are 30x more likely to be read than text articles to convince you further of the benefits of infographics.
5. Blog content marketing
Blogging is one of the best content marketing strategies out there. It has stood the test of time, and it’s still highly considered valuable both by marketers and consumers.
A great thing about blogging is you aren’t limited to any topics. You can blog about maintaining good health while also having blogs on retaining a good credit score.
Blogs are part of any inbound strategies done by businesses. It’s an avenue for them to showcase their expertise and, at the same time, bring value to their audience.
Even though high-quality blogs take a lot of time to prepare and finish, their benefits to a business make the whole process worth it.
Here are some of the benefits of blogging as a content marketing strategy:
- Drive traffic to your website
- Converts traffic to leads
- Increases consumer trust and confidence
- It helps with the business’ SEO
- Improves customer relationship
A great example of this is how Mannequin Mall still posts blog content even though they’re in a very niche industry.
But because of their effort to bring value to its market, whenever you search “mannequin seller” on Google, their website ranks on the first page.
This just proves how effective blogging is as a content marketing strategy when you’re aiming to increase your brand visibility.
6. Turn events into content marketing
Business events can be trade shows, seminars, online conferences, exhibitions, or fairs. These events can be used as content marketing since they show value to your audience.
By interacting with your market, you are also building your brand image to the public. For prospects, it shows that you are a legitimate business and a fun group to transact with.
It tiles your market that you’re not just in business just to sell products, but you’re also serious about nurturing client relationships through these events.
7. Share some tips and tricks about your products
There’s nothing that consumers love more than making the most out of the products they’ve bought. And you can help them achieve this feeling by sharing some tips and tricks about your products.
An excellent content tip to share would be product maintenance. No one wants an item that’s easily destroyed. If you tell your market how they can properly take care of your product and prolong its lifespan, it will give out a lasting impression that your product is durable and worth every dollar.
By using tips and tricks as content marketing, you’re showing how dedicated your business is to satisfy your customers.
You can even dedicate a whole category about tips and tricks on your products, like how Key West Aloe did with its website:
8. Using your industry’s influencer
Influencer content marketing is content that is made in collaboration with influencers. This content marketing strategy has gained a lot of traction in recent years due to the rise in popularity of these influencers.
Collaborating with these individuals allows a business to put its products in front of a targeted and engaged audience. It’s a growth hacking strategy that any business can use.
Although many don’t believe in influencer marketing, it’s better to underestimate these individuals. The people who follow these influencers aren’t just an average crowd but a very loyal group and believe what the influencer markets.
A great example of this is how Adidas used influencer content marketing to increase its reach of a younger audience. Their strategy was to launch a campaign on Instagram since 70% of its users are below age 35. On top of that, they also collaborated with influencers like Selena Gomez and Iga Wysocka.
Throughout this campaign, they were able to get 12,000 entries for their contest and also achieved their goal of increasing their sales. Adidas’ sales went up by 24.2% during this period, while Nike’s dropped by 9.1%.
This growth hacking example shows that if a brand as big as Adidas still benefits from influencer marketing, small to medium-sized businesses will also reap amazing benefits from this strategy.
9. Email content marketing
With the number of marketing options available for businesses, email is still one of the top choices for content marketing.
The trajectory of email users is set to reach 4.3 billion in 2023, according to Statista. That number almost equates to half of the total population in the world. Given this fact, it’s a lost opportunity for a business that doesn’t distribute its content on this channel.
Content Marketing Institute mentioned that 9 out of every 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content organically. In the SMB industry, 81% use email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% use it for client retention.
Here are some of the reasons why businesses should use email marketing as a channel for content distribution:
- It drives conversions
- It is low cost
- Metrics are easy to keep track of
- It’s good for targeted messaging
- Almost everyone uses email
10. Leveraging Customer Feedbacks And Features
A common way that businesses use feedbacks would be by displaying them on the home page of their website. This is an excellent place to showcase them since customers first look at the home page before buying from a store.
But a more efficient way to use customer feedback to reach more people would be through content marketing. You can leverage these reviews or people using your products in blog posts, social media postings, video content, and email marketing.
An example of this is how 3Wishes – a Halloween costume eCommerce seller-highlighted their customer wearing their gothic witch costume in their tweet.
In the eCommerce world, trust is one of the most important things to establish with your customers. Without trust, you’ll never see your sales skyrocket, and you’ll have a hard time scaling your eCommerce store.
Although it might take a while to establish this with your customers, gaining it can open up many opportunities.
How Does Ecommerce Stores Benefit From Content Marketing?
If there’s a business niche that benefits greatly from content marketing, it would be the eCommerce industry. Since they are online stores, content marketing benefits them in every way possible. Listed below are the top benefits of content marketing for eCommerce stores.
I. Brand authority
When you’re killing it in your content marketing game, and you’ve been focusing on quality over quantity, you’ll eventually become the brand authority in your space. People will be looking for your eCommerce store to find legitimate and valuable content.
A great thing about brand authority is it isn’t something you can claim by yourself. Instead, it is gained by building your reputation and earning the trust of the people in your niche.
Being a brand authority means that people in that space have trusted your word. Your eCommerce site has become a legitimate source of information in your industry. People engage more with your content and are confident to share it with others.
II. Increase in revenue
Increased consumer confidence leads to increased revenue. When people trust your business and have a great customer experience, they won’t be hesitant to buy your products or avail of your service.
Plus, they are confident to recommend your business to other people. This results in more people buying from you and making your brand the go-to company.
III. Improved search engine visibility
One of the main goals of any eCommerce store is to be on the first page of Google when users search for keywords relating to their business.
Fortunately, if you take your content marketing seriously, this will be one of the benefits you get to enjoy.
An example of this is Aura. The company creates quality blogs for its market and takes on topics that can greatly help people in their niche. The effect of this content marketing strategy is shown when you search for “amazon repricer” in Google; their website is the second recommended link.
Landing a high spot on search engines drastically improves your website visibility and traffic. You get more attention to your products which in return increases the chance of you converting a sale.
IV. Relationship Building
When your content marketing constantly helps consumers, you are building relationships with your intended audience. Continually talking about helpful topics and giving value to your market eventually makes your business an expert in your field.
This is an excellent benefit since people are more drawn towards businesses that know what they’re doing.
Creating great content doesn’t just limit you to build relationships with consumers; you also get to connect with other businesses in the industry. It increases your network and resources.
V. Increase customer loyalty
Great content marketing is done when a business knows how to provide value to its market. It can be by providing the right products or by giving out content that helps the people.
When people feel like the business knows what they want and can serve them greatly, these customers tend to stay with the business for a long time.
Conclusion
It’s no secret that content marketing can be used in several ways. But each of these strategies isn’t created equally. Some produce better results than others, while some designs are stellar in other industries.
What’s important is you start testing which strategies above work well with your market. The sooner you find out, the better it is for your business. It will bring you closer to the benefits that content marketing gives to its users.
