Running an e-commerce business is far from an easy task. Over the last couple of decades, shopping online has become extremely popular and the chances for e-commerce businesses to grow are now better than ever. This, however, means that the competition is fearless and stronger than ever.
Everyone needs to fight for their place under the spotlight and try their best to beat their competition. And, one of the most important weapons in this process is a successful content marketing strategy.
If you’re not sure what a quality content marketing strategy implies, just keep reading.
Here are 3 steps you need to follow to create an effective content marketing strategy for your e-commerce.
What is Content Marketing?
As defined by the Content Marketing Institute:
Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
In other words, it a continuous process in which a business creates and publishes original content, so as to:
- create bonds with their customers
- attract new customers
- improve engagement
- have more people learn about the brand
- nurture a loyal relationship with them
To achieve the above-mentioned goals, you need to decide on the following things:
- what type of content will you publish?
- who’s your target audience?
- what platforms will you use?
Why is Content Marketing important?
Content marketing plays an important role in building your brand reputation. Great content inevitably brings more clients and makes them trust in your expertise. Moreover, when you put effort into creating targeted content for your audience, you strengthen your position in your niche and knock down your competition.
In addition, investing in a well-developed content marketing strategy will prove out to be one of the most effective investments you have ever done. You can find plenty of studies and research papers showing that content marketing can generate more leads than many other marketing strategies.
Content marketing makes clients trust your brand and it also makes them loyal. You can use content to add value to your products and develop a nice relationship with your customers. People want more than just products which bring a solution to their needs. They want to become part of your story and content marketing is the right tool to use to create something special for your audience.
A successful e-commerce content marketing strategy is layered and complex. Let’s break it down together and define the essential steps in the process.
1. Blogging and Guest Blogging
When it comes to content marketing, blogging is one of the building blocks.
Blogging enables you to:
- create engaging, informative content
- help your customers by solving their problem, or offering them a solution
- stimulate organic traffic
- help people discover you for the first time
When it comes to choosing what, where, and how to write, you have two options:
Your own blog
A blog that is a part of your own website, having a well-thought-out name, will create and publish content your target audience might be interested in.
Let’s say you are in the make-up selling business. You write an article on “How to choose the perfect highlighter for your skin tone?”
Someone might look this up online, run into your article, and discover your make-up e-commerce.
Guest blogging
You write a post on a blog that is relevant to your niche and get a backlink to your own blog or website. This will help you rank higher on Google and elevate your chances of being noticed by a wider audience.
Blogging is crucial and needs to be a part of your content marketing strategy.
2. Social Media Marketing
Did you know that there are approximately 3.5 billion social media users worldwide?
Not only is social media an integral part of our everyday communication, and a great source of entertainment, it’s also a super-powerful marketing tool.
Here’s how to use to build your content marketing strategy:
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, and you need to create a business account for your e-commerce. Once you do that, you need to:
- create a publish visually appealing content
- use micro-influencers to advertise your brand
- organize giveaways to increase business awareness
- read and answer to comments and messages
- analyze data and learn about the effectiveness of your content
- run live video sessions
YouTube
Videos are extremely appealing and interesting to your potential customers. Think about creating videos such as:
- how-to videos and tutorials
- product unboxing
- behind the scene of your business
Create a strong base of Facebook followers, and publish content similar to the one you use on Instagram. In addition, you could employ a chatbot messenger to increase sales.
Social media is an endless source of possibilities for you to bond with your customers, offer them something new, and learn from their behavior. It’s impossible to succeed in the business world, without having a strong social media marketing strategy.
3. Email Marketing
Finally, your content marketing strategy won’t be complete unless you learn about, and start using email marketing.
Email marketing is about distributing useful content directly to the people who’ll find it useful and interesting.
Here’s how to ensure your email marketing efforts will be successful and will empower your overall content marketing strategy:
Build an email contacts list
Use your website or social media channels to gather your visitors’ emails and create your contact list. Ask people to join the newsletter, or offer them something in return to leaving you their email addresses.
Welcome emails
Create and send a welcome message to each new subscriber.
Promotional messages
Create special offers for your loyal customers, and let them know you’re thinking about them.
CTAs
Make sure each of your emails has a strong call-to-action, to guide your customers in the right direction
Be professional
Make sure all the emails are proofread and written in a professional manner, and a consistent style. If you feel this might be a problem for you, check out some of the best writing companies which can help you out.
Email marketing will help you keep in touch with your customers, remind them about your brand, and encourage them to engage with it more often.
Final Thoughts
A content marketing strategy will help your e-commerce reach its goals and will separate it from the competition. It will help you learn about your audience and find different ways of approaching them successfully. Furthermore, a comprehensive e-commerce content marketing strategy helps you strengthen the relationship with your clients and increase your brand’s visibility. It does require hard work and persistence, but it’s definitely worth the effort.
Make sure you use the guide above and start building a strong content marketing strategy for your e-commerce today.