Today a brand needs more than a picture and description to sell products. Since it’s about selling a lifestyle, better content is needed to engage the shoppers. Most E-commerce businesses now understand the importance of content for bringing in more customers and sales as simply having an online store on its own won’t deliver the desired results.
It seems like almost every eCommerce business is doing blogs and social media uploads to reach out to their prospective audience and keep them engaged.
Forms of creative content
Content can come in two forms, namely-
Written: blog, newsletter, magazine, e-book, guides/ how-to, book review, list, interview, research report/ study, white paper, press release, opinion piece, product review, social media
Mixed: video, podcast, graph/ infographic, image gallery, meme, webinar/webcast, demo etc.
Creative content ideas for e-commerce business
1. Email content
Email is a great way to start with your eCommerce content process. You can send personalized emails to your customers, including welcome emails and promotional events or something like “Weekly bytes” to your customers to keep them updated about your business or service. Seasonal and holiday themed emails can help boost sales. You can also notify buyers when an item they’ve previously added to their cart is about to go out of stock or is put on sale.
In terms of content marketing, you can also use email to better inform and entice prospective buyers. Personalization is key – tailoring your outreach to the right users based on their interests – but once you have customer email addresses, it’s a great channel to communicate directly with your target audience.
2. Guest blogging
As an eCommerce business, you might face difficulties in getting inbound links, as other site owners are often reluctant to link to product pages. A great way to get around this is to create engaging, effective content, and submit it to guest blogging platforms within your sector. If your article gets accepted, you’ll be able to promote your brand, increase traffic on your website, boost your website SEO, and enhance sales.
The key to effective guest blogging is ensuring that you are always writing for the site’s audience, as opposed to being overly promotional. Longer posts generally see more success in this regard, as they contain more detail, and are thus, more informative for readers.
Provide examples in your content, which your audience can then connect to and take inspiration from. Give your readers actionable information, and use visual elements like images, videos, graphs, etc. to maximize engagement and interest.
3. Influencers
Influencers are those people who generally have a sizeable followers online. They can either be bloggers, celebrities, journalists, industry influencers or others who are admired by people.
You should direct your content marketing efforts towards seeking these individuals in your industry in order to promote your eCommerce business. If they mention your brand, or share your content, you’ll be able to elevate your brand awareness, humanize your brand, and win the trust of buyers – because consumers believe in influencers’ opinions.
Influencer campaign is one of the most trendy social media marketing strategies at this moment. And not to mention, it is indeed a very effective strategy to grow your online sales.
4. Storytelling
Storytelling is one of the best, most effective ways in which eCommerce businesses can connect with prospective buyers, and also generate traffic and social shares.
Through storytelling, you can build your brand image and gain customer loyalty. Before you start, however, you should decide on what kind of stories you want to share. This approach should be based on:
- Your target audience
- Values and beliefs of your audience
- Your products and services
- How your offerings can help buyers
- Your brand message
Add an emotional element to your stories, and encourage your satisfied customers to share their real-life experiences. You can also provide insights into the origins and mission of your business, or even join a cause you believe in through storytelling.
E-Commerce businesses need to go the extra mile to ensure their content is engaging and interactive, enabling them to establish their authority, increase their conversion rates and drive traffic on an ongoing basis.
And key to success is to understand your target audience and develop a content plan based on that knowledge. The above tips can, however, help you in improving your content strategy and building trust with your audience.
