Why is eCommerce Content Marketing Changing?
Ecommerce content marketing is one of the most important things an ecommerce company can do to gain some traffic, rankings, and engagement with their brand. Content marketing is making a big change in 2018 and more brands should approach ecommerce marketing as a more in depth process. In the past, according to Marketing Insider Group you would be able to get a significant ROI by publishing a 500-word blogpost and a few articles a week, but in today’s market you won’t be able to get away with that any more. According to Forbes, marketing professionals should be making posts that are about 1000 words each or more.
There has been growing concern around marketers that their work may not be making that much of a difference in terms of rankings because there is such a high saturation in the market. In this article I am going to write about the factors that are changing ecommerce today and the different approach marketers should to trying to relate to their customers and audience.
Telling Stories and Experiences
Bringing the product to life is one of the important things a content marketer could do for a product that they are trying to promote. Not only should the customer understand your story and experience with the product or certain brand, but they want to experience that moment with you. Providing the experience in a story telling manner the company will be able to have their customer imagine using their product and having the product in their lives. It allows the customer to more easily “put themselves in the other person’s shoes” in their mind and potentially want to purchase that product. Digital storytelling is one the biggest buzz words right now online and within communication professionals.
The goal of digital story telling is fostering community growth and relatability to people on a humanistic level. You want to be able to do the same with your products. Subaru is one of the companies that has been excelling lately at using storytelling to promote their new cars and their CrossTrek sales have seen the difference increasing from 2016 by 45.6 % and in overall sales they saw an increase of 7% according to Forbes.
Focusing on the People
Nurturing your relationships online is going to be a lot easier if you focus on people rather than if you focus on your products. Featuring a product is great for customer to get familiar with your product, but it will not get your customers to relate to you. Creating posts and marketing campaigns that are more relatable for your customer is key. If you focus on the product, then it stops the conversation between the customer and you. Remember, ideally you want your customer to be able to relate to using the product opposed to not being able to imagine actually using the product.
Check out our past blog post that is all about what new the new relationship focused algorithm that Facebook is using to prioritize. Alibaba, one of the biggest ecommerce companies, launched a commercial in January and it was completely focused on connecting people.
Hiring Journalists
Hiring skilled writers and journalists is a must if you are going to be able to create high quality content and also have them be able to write well. Remember that today’s journalists are expected to be one-woman/man type of show and able to do all kinds of media production work in terms of content. Also, another major reason to hire is a journalist is because they will be able to build content that isn’t only focused on the products but on the people who are using the products.
Furthermore, they will be able to create content that is more competitive and also focused on value and quality. These maybe basics but make sure that your content is written by someone who has a handle on spelling and grammar, even the best. According to Forbes, having a writer with a higher education level can help give credibility and authority to your posts.
Focus on Video
Focusing on video is really important right for 2018. With the privacy issues that have arisen with social networking sites they are responding by adjusting the algorithm to prioritizing video and live video streams. This is really important when it comes to marketing for ecommerce and how your content with be interacted with on social networking sites. If possible always try and make a video that will promote your products in a rich and interesting way.
Images are still a wonderful addition to any marketing campaign as the old saying “a picture is worth a million words”, but moving pictures can evoke even more emotion than one single photograph. Remember that a video has the possibility to tell a story and to show a message through image instead of words. Showing your customers the value of your products is much more impactful then telling your customers that your product is valuable.
Connecting your Content to the Calendar
Making great content is a must in this media rich environment, but you have to also make content that is relevant to what’s happening in the world around your company as well. Marketers can no longer write content that is within a vacuum that ignores the outside world. Acknowledging holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, Cyber Monday, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and many more in order to build relatability with some of the holidays that your customers enjoy.
Making your campaigns around particular holidays is also a good time to grab the attention of shoppers with sales and discounts for certain holidays. A great example of a company connecting a real world event with a product is what Budweiser did for FIFA coming up this summer.
Influencers and Guest Posters
Making sure your content has a rich community of influencers and guest bloggers discussing your content and adding content is important to growing your brand. Having other reputable companies posting and blogging on your site you could capture part of their audience. The best compliment a marketer could get is having another company blog link to their blogpost or reference their work. That is the ultimate goal. Have influencers is also really important for your brand because they already have large networks and a following that is established. Make sure to choose an influencer that you feel represents your companies values well and is able to evaluate your product or speak eloquently about your products.
Ecommerce marketing is really important and you need to take it seriously in this digital environment. Remember that we are currently still in Web 2.0, although transitioning to Web 3.0, so sociality is still the number one driving force. Making the necessary adjustments to your company by either allocating someone in your office to do the marketing or hiring a professional is vital for your company’s success.
Don’t forget that if you find your content boring to write then your content is probably boring for others to read. So have fun and write something interesting your traffic will thank you for it.
