If you’ve been around in the eCommerce or digital marketing field for some time you must have realized how many players in these fields stress that content is king! The truth is that content is the wheel of any digital marketing strategy and primarily influences the effectiveness of the strategy.
Generally, you may have the budget to spend on marketing or advertising, but without the right content, you may be shocked by the results. It’s content that allows clients and potential customers to engage and understand what you offer and how you’re different from others.
It should be known that modern customers are always looking for a reason why they should buy from you or choose you. Quality products and affordable prices are no longer enough to make customers buy from you again and again. Many customers and potential clients are also becoming more interested in the story behind your brand and the difference it is making in society.
For that, we see many brands now investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR), storytelling, and cultivating trust to attract and retain customers. However, all in all, every business marketing strategy relies on engaging content.
So, if you’re a digital marketer or a digital marketing agency, we would like to help you understand how to craft the best content for your clients. More importantly, you will have to traverse the common mistakes to avoid in your content marketing campaign. This piece will help you explore the different dimensions you must keep in mind when coming up with the most reliable content for your eCommerce website. But let’s start with a few facts.
Facts About eCommerce Websites & Users
E-commerce websites are sites that allow people to buy and sell products, avail services, and invest or buy digital products among others. Apart from helping people purchase products or access services like customer service, eCommerce websites serve as an extension for marketing efforts.
On the other hand, the eCommerce realm is evolving steadily and the latest eCommerce statistics indicate that global retail eCommerce sales amounted to almost $5.2 trillion dollars in 2021 and the figures are expected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026.
However, although the eCommerce field is growing steadily, about 70% of e-shopping carts are abandoned before checkout. Long checkout processes, unexpected shipping costs, or the need to create a new user account are among the major causes of cart abandonment on eCommerce sites.
As though that isn’t enough, competition is another aspect that eCommerce site owners must tackle to rank higher on SERPs.
However, before customers choose to buy your products, they must be convinced to do so and that’s where content comes in. Content with the right keywords can help a site rank higher, but it’s compelling content that can help persuade customers to buy. So, how can you craft compelling content?
1. Understand Customer Expectations
Customers are the blood of every business and any content marketing strategy must be customer-centric. But how can a content marketing strategy be customer-centric without understanding their needs and expectations? As a digital marketer, find out what attracts your customers or their interests through surveys, research, or predictive analytics.
Currently, there is a range of tools and technologies that can help digital marketers understand their customers better. These include Google Analytics, Semrush, Ahrefs, and AI among others. These solutions can excellently help you as a digital marketer to know the source of website traffic, what site visitors do on the website, and the potential keywords to use to attract more customers. Considering these dimensions helps digital marketers set and realize SMART Goals with their content marketing strategies.
2. Keep It Concise
eCommerce websites don’t need bulky content and if you want to give your website visitors a thorough explanation of your products, then try creating a blog section. Generally, product descriptions must be precise, focusing on the major facets of a product or a service. For example, if your site specializes in herbal products, try highlighting the uniqueness of each product and what customers will benefit from them.
You can also provide product specifications, like quantity, do’s and don’ts, and testimonials. Let your product descriptions and pages capture every dimension of a product and put a CTA for more information. This will help optimize conversions and ROI.
3. Support Content With Graphics
Want to enhance your content quality and make it more appealing? Use quality images or graphics. Visuals are crucial in marketing and have a lasting impact on customers. More so, visuals are excellent choices when it comes to striking the first impression. Besides that, science also shows that the human brain processes visual information better than text. In addition, humans can remember images faster and better than text.
Therefore, where necessary, try to include images or graphics in your website content. More so, not just any images and graphics. If you can’t find appealing images or graphics on the internet, then invest in photography. This will empower your website content excellently.
4. Encourage Call to Action
Any eCommerce website without strategically positioned calls to action (CTAs) is like a ship without a compass. CTAs enable website visitors to excellently navigate the site and take the required action. Calls to action like “limited offer”, “end of season sale”, and “Register Now”, instill a sense of urgency in customers which compels them to buy or do what you require them to do.
With that, they boost conversion and improve ROI. CTAs can also act as a support system for your site’s key performance indicators and this can help you grow your business. Understanding where to place CTAs and the type of CTAs to use is also crucial.
5. Build Connection Via Content
Customer relationships and their proper management can build a loyal customer base. That’s why there are several content marketing strategies like storytelling, podcasts, video marketing, user-generated content, and social media marketing popping up. Therefore, as a digital marketer, ensure to leverage content as a tool for establishing new relationships with your customers or reinforcing the existing ones.
The good news is that you can connect with your customers in so many ways. For example, you can choose to respond to customer feedback, reward the loyal ones, or establish connection spots like being on Instagram or providing customer assistance.
Bottom Line
Content marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies that digital marketers leverage worldwide. However, due to the competitiveness of the digital marketing field, digital marketers must be strategic with their content marketing techniques. Whether it’s video marketing, blogging, or social media marketing, marketers must craft appealing content. This will help enhance the effectiveness of a content marketing strategy, improve ROI, and strengthen a brand’s online presence.
