How people are consuming the internet is changing almost daily. Now, people want more from websites. They want a full experience. An eCommerce site is no longer just that and having a blog and social media plan as part of your SEO strategy can not only push people to your site but retain them. A clever SEO strategy and an interesting blog all revolves around good content.
Content that is useful for your customers will improve social engagement and brand loyalty. This can eventually lead to better sales. It also means that you are building an important relationship with your customers and showing them you value and care about their needs. Developing a content strategy that works isn't rocket science, it just takes a few good ideas, creatives, and belief in your products. We've rounded up our top 10 tips for content below:
First things first. You need to understand the message you want to deliver and what your eCommerce site is selling. This should be at the forefront of everything you create and content for eCommerce websites should always convey the key message. So, if you have a fashion eCommerce site don’t put content about the best beach holidays. Content on your site for the sake of content doesn’t add value.
Knowing your target audience is key for creating amazing content that will resonate. Develop customer profiles and truly understand your audience. Knowing this means that the content you create for your website will be relevant to them and their interests. Having clearly defined profiles means their needs can always be considered.
The Hub, Hero, and Hygiene strategic approach is still a winner in 2019 and developing an eCommerce content marketing strategy that follows this means that content is always being pushed. Hero content is big campaign ideas, like a video. Hero attracts customers and is usually for gaining followers. Hub content is regularly engaging content both on your website and social accounts. While Hygiene is content people search for, like regular blog posts or regular social posts. Hygiene builds content depth and keeps customers interested.
Just like good design is important for online retail sites, so too is easy to follow content. So, if you have new blog posts on site always make sure to post on any relevant social channels and encourage people to click through to the site. It's all well and good having amazing content, but if you're not shouting about it, people don't know. Use killer images for social and enticing language. Consider putting some money behind the ads to attract more of your target audience.
Include meta descriptions, use a call-to-action and always include main keywords in the content. This can encourage users to share content. To attract your potential audience, you definitely need to optimize your content. If you are out of time, you may always refer to professional research papers writing service to do it for you, however, with all the data available on the net, you may easily learn how to do it by yourself. Optimization will help the content to index and draw in potential customers.
Content is constantly changing, and Forbes predicts that in 2019 AI intelligence will continue to creep into marketing. This is no surprise, considering there are already college modules on developing applications for Amazon’s Alexa. But whether it’s AI or interactive storytelling, knowing what is happening in the digital world and keeping on top of trends is a great way to ensure your content can stay ahead, too.
If you’ve developed a strategy that’s working and managing to retain customers, well done. But don’t be afraid to change it up every now and then. People can get bored easily and stay ahead of the curb by subtly introducing different types of content and monitor it for engagement. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but it’s better to try.
Make sure that you have a content calendar prepared. Planning activities for the next year/quarter or even month mean that you can stay organized and focused. Of course, it can deviate at times, maybe if there's a trending topic you feel is relevant to your eCommerce site but having a content calendar means you can have content pre-prepared.
Sometimes it can be hard to know where to start with content. There are so many applications available that choosing the right one for your needs is tricky. Do your research and figure out your needs. Also, knowing how to format your strategy and how to map out the development of content will help keep everything on track. Hubspot's free Marketing Plan Template Generator is a great place to start your planning and useful free tool.
In today’s modern world influencers are having their moment. There are influencers for every niche, and if there's some that are relevant to your eCommerce site, their selling power can be huge. Collaborate with influencers to create rich content that will help push people to your website. A good relationship with influencers can help your products massively. And while some work might need to be paid, working on the relationships can mean that down the line there's an opportunity for some free work.
So, developing a clever content strategy is important for navigating today’s digital platforms. Find what works for you and run with it. Gathering data is also a great way to stay ahead. Observe how many people are sharing your content, how many people are seeing it and where they are coming from. There are so many analytical tools, like Google analytics and Facebook analytics that staying on top of this isn’t as difficult as it once was.
Hopefully, these tips will help steer your ideas and drive a rounded, interesting content strategy for your eCommerce site. Work with what you have and use tools that suit your requirements and budget. And, of course, go ahead create some truly amazing content.
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