How to Use Content Marketing to Promote an E-commerce Website
E-commerce became something of a phenomenon in recent years. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce reached incredible heights in a very short period of time as more people turned toward online shopping to stay safe and businesses shifted towards digital marketing to stay afloat. In fact, online sales rose 44% in 2020 from the previous year, likely due to the fact that people were spending more time at home with more free time and businesses shuttered their physical stores. Today, we discuss why you need content marketing to promote an e-commerce website.
While online sales continue to grow, e-commerce companies continue to pop up all over the Internet. As of today, there are about 24 million e-commerce sites on the web. Needless to say, that means you have some stiff competition, no matter your industry or target market!
When you run an e-commerce business, you might not look at yourself as a traditional digital business. But, there are still so many digital marketing strategies you must implement if you hope to stand out from your competition and increase your sales.
One of the most important parts of that digital strategy must focus on content. Content is King and getting found online relies on producing valuable content on a consistent basis. While you might not think an e-commerce site needs a lot of content, the words and images you use must draw the attention of customers and search engines alike to promote an e-commerce website.
Attracting search engines means excelling at search engine optimization (SEO). SEO involves not only creating content but including keywords that reflect a user’s search intent within your content. Hence you must write content that appeals to both humans and bots. Luckily, because Google wants to help users in their search, it’s easy to meet the demands of both humans and bots with the same content if you know some simple rules.
So, why is content marketing just as important for e-commerce sites as blogs and other websites? Read on.
Promote an e-commerce website with content
Content remains relevant
By creating relevant, content your target market needs for your e-commerce site, you set yourself up for long-term success because your content motivates visitors to shop and buy.
Relevant content boosts your SEO right away, so you’re more likely to rank high in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), which helps you to get noticed by potential customers, creates impressions. By carefully constructing your headline and meta description you entice users to visit your website.
Once attracted to your website content works to motivate visitors to make a purchase by answering questions, showing how your products solve their problems and reflect how other shoppers feel about their purchases via reviews.
Connect with customers
People are inundated with thousands of advertisements and marketing efforts every day. So, most people have learned how to tune out your promotions. They know what to look for in an advertisement, and easily ignore the enticing language and smooth sales talk.
However, using content on your website to talk about who you are as a brand and what you represent gives your business a much-needed humanistic quality. That’s exactly what consumers are looking for nowadays. When they feel like they can trust a brand, they’re more likely to not only become customers – but show loyalty to your company.
So, don’t be afraid to provide content that’s personable and conversational. Making your brand seem like a person, with an attractive brand personality, goes a long way toward making visitors to your site feel comfortable enough to buy something from you again and again.
Image courtesy of Sketch Corp
By the same token, make your brand a responsible corporate citizen by showing how you support the community and the projects that your target market values. We call this corporate social responsibility (CSR) and showing CSR goes a long way towards increasing sales.
Built-in customer service
Some people are hesitant when it comes to online shopping because they miss the human interaction and customer service that comes with shopping in-person.
Having the right content on your site helps ease the worries of those individuals who prefer to buy from a real person, which relates to our earlier point about building an appropriate brand personality.
But why stop there? You can provide great customer service upfront by explaining in detail what customers can expect from your products and the purchasing process. You can provide instructions and assistance in effectively using your products, especially if you incorporate video content into your content. Adding an FAQ section also helped support your marketing efforts.
Ensure customers understand your purchase process so that you remove uncertainty about when they will receive their products, how much they will pay for their products, and anything else that they might ask. Be careful not to promise with more than you can deliver and go over your return policy, as well. This gives everyone the information they need before they even add anything to their cart, so they know your business is as transparent as possible.
More cost-effective
Studies show that content marketing actually costs less than many other traditional marketing endeavors. Not only that, but it tends to generate more leads than traditional marketing efforts, too. Not only are you saving money, but you generate a higher ROI by simply connecting with your audience.
Image courtesy of Neil Patel
Content marketing generates traffic quickly and continues to do so indefinitely, especially if you keep your content fresh by updating old posts and adding new posts frequently. Paid advertisements only run until your budget runs out. While there’s nothing wrong with paid advertising, it should be used as a supplement to quality content, not as your sole source of marketing for your site.
Good content that connects with individuals and makes people feel something is also shareable. When people like your content and you’re engaging with them, they’re more likely to share it with their friends on their personal social media accounts. You can also take advantage of your own social media page(s) by sharing content from your website and interacting with people who want to know more. Again, it’s a way to add a more “human” touch to your business, which consumers love. Campaigns like the one below make great content on social media to promote an e-commerce website.
Most advertisers and marketing experts know that there is nothing more effective than word-of-mouth advertising. That includes digital word-of-mouth on social platforms. Plus, the backlinks you received from quality content also help your SEO.
Don’t Do it Alone
Chances are, you got into the e-commerce business because you had an idea for a great product. That doesn’t automatically make you a marketing expert, and it doesn’t have to. If you struggle to create fresh content on a consistent basis, it’s beneficial to either hire a professional or educate yourself on the process. Check out this guide from Freddie Chatt for more information, then decide whether it’s in your best interest to work with someone else or create content yourself.
Conclusion
Whatever you decide, when it comes to content marketing, make fresh content a priority. With millions of other e-commerce sites out there vying for people’s hard-earned money, it’s more crucial than ever to find ways to
get found and convert visitors into customers. Thankfully, finding your voice through the content of your site is one of the best ways to accomplish these goals. Once you get into the swing of things, you might just find you actually have fun creating content people can connect with.
