With the prevalence of social media, businesses are constantly feeding unique and engaging content to their audiences through a variety of channels—and consumers are beginning to expect this from brands. The emergence of the latest content marketing trends, including AI-driven personalization and the use of video across platforms, has further shaped how customers and brands interact at every step of the buyer’s journey.
eBook
The Ultimate Guide to Inbound
Marketing for eCommerce
Today, brands that seize opportunities at the forefront of their industries know how to fully develop omnichannel eCommerce strategies that put these technologies to work for them.
Fulfill your audience's expectations by creating a solid eCommerce marketing strategy to increase engagement, nurture users through the buyer's journey, and drive more conversions.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Whether you're just getting started with creating content or want to improve the material you already have, we're outlining 10 benefits of content marketing for eCommerce to help stimulate your eCommerce strategy:
- Increase reach
- Increase website traffic
- Increase brand awareness
- Grow your social media following
- Establish trust
- Build authority and credibility
- Share more content and save time with content marketing automation
- Accelerate the buying process
- Earn highly qualified leads
- Scale your retargeting audience
Increase Reach
Find out where your customers go online, and be present—whether that involves answering questions on forums, replying to social media comments, or posting photos on Instagram. Online businesses aren't limited to creating content within their own sites.
Prospects, leads, and customers are having conversations about your brand outside of your website, so it's important to recognize the potential benefits of listening to and engaging with them! When posting on other sites, such as Quora, remember to offer real answers rather than advertising your products (that's what paid ads are for).
As you build your reach, you’ll also want to look at a variety of social platforms. Consider using both the traditionally formal and more professional platforms like LinkedIn as well as younger and more casual networks like TikTok. Watch trends that emerge on these platforms, and see how you can develop interactive content that will keep people interested and encourage them to repost or otherwise engage with your material.
Increase Website Traffic
In addition to having well-optimized eCommerce SEO strategies, we recommend that companies take advantage of content like blogs, downloadable eBooks, case studies, infographics, and white papers to drive website traffic.
Publishing various material that’s useful and relevant to your audience will have them coming back to your website for more. We recommend planning out a posting schedule to help keep your content organized and build your audience's expectations of when they’ll see new material.
As you create your content, look for ways to link the material together into content clusters, and brainstorm ways to build pillar pages that provide thorough, in-depth information about key topics. This kind of organization, and the linking opportunities it provides within your site, can further boost SEO rankings while encouraging people to remain on your site as they bounce around different pages.
A quality eCommerce content strategy provides more ways for potential customers to find your store. Don't forget to share your content through preferred social media platforms to promote further engagement.
If you haven't started a blog yet or are looking for fresh content ideas, check out these business blog ideas to help drive traffic and increase user engagement.
Increase Brand Awareness
Improve your website's search engine rankings and, in turn, get your content seen by more people by consistently publishing relevant material that’s related to your audience and industry.
Brand awareness is much more than people recognizing your brand. While that's great, having your audience understand the unique factors that make your brand stand out from the competition will really have an impact.
To achieve this, focus on the "why" behind your brand. Why does your business do what it does? Engage with users through social media comments, likes, and shares. You could also participate in online forums to establish your brand image and increase awareness.
You can see a great example of social listening from Stanley, the maker of the popular mugs. When a person on TikTok posted about their cup surviving a car fire, the brand found the video and offered to replace the customer’s car. This helped to catapult the company’s reputation and demonstrate the advertised hardiness of the brand.
Furthermore, be sure to link your most recent content—whether it be a blog post, webinar, or eBook—to older relevant material. This further engages users and tells them what your brand is all about.
Grow Your Social Media Following
One of the biggest assets and greatest benefits of content marketing involves implementing a social media branding strategy. There's no doubt that visual content is much easier for us to digest (and frankly, it's more interesting than reading long paragraphs of text).
According to HubSpot, content with relevant images results in 94 percent more views than content without images. And, four out of five consumers said that “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in their decision to become a follower of a brand.
To further enhance your visual content, add short-form videos to your posts. For example, creating Instagram Reels or encouraging people to post user-generated content can further engage visitors.
Continue to shape your brand image by including relevant and intriguing images or videos in social posts to attract more consumers and grow your following.
Establish Trust
To help establish consumer trust, we recommend positioning your brand as an industry expert. Develop content that provides plausible solutions and offers beneficial advice to create a foundation for great customer relationships and convince users to return for more content.
As you continue to post valuable material on social media, don't forget to connect with people who have shared your content or engaged with your posts. Replying to social media comments and engaging with your audience will show that your brand is a trusted source and can be counted on for specific information on a certain subject.
A great way to connect with your audience is to show some transparency and reveal the human side of your business. For example, behind-the-scenes videos of your team or interviews with key personnel will build strong customer relationships by helping people feel as though they are getting to know your organization.
Build Authority and Credibility
What sets my business apart from others? Why should people trust my brand? Be sure to ask yourself these questions when developing an eCommerce content strategy.
Service-based businesses succeed or fail depending on their ability to showcase their knowledge and skills. It's best to create a content marketing for eCommerce strategy that highlights your company’s expertise in the industry. Thought-leadership blogs, webinars, and white papers can all showcase your knowledge and build a relationship of trust with users.
At Groove Commerce, we use blog posts, case studies, webinars, and downloadable resources to communicate our expertise and highlight proven results. By building authority and credibility, we're showing that we can drive significant results for multiple types of businesses.
Share More Content and Save Time With Content Marketing Automation
There are plenty of eCommerce marketing tools that you could benefit from. Save money by managing all aspects of your content marketing with one tool, and save time by personalizing your content and tailoring messages to different audience segments in one place.
You can easily review in-depth details on your content's performance while letting online marketing assets work to generate leads for you. Automation tools are great for sending or posting messages consistently, and they provide you with more time to focus on bigger priorities.
Our favorite tools include HubSpot and Klaviyo. Both can assist you with email nurturing, automating blog promotion, and segmentation. By delivering more personalized content to your users through these strategies, you can save time while also keeping readers more interested in what you have to say.
Accelerate the Buying Process
Most people won't purchase from your business the first time they hear about it—and that's totally fine. Consumers go through a process that we refer to as the buyer's journey.
To learn more about each stage of this journey, check out the HubSpot graphic below.
To truly reap all the benefits of content marketing, we encourage businesses to meet customers where they are. In other words, design content for people in the awareness, consideration, and decision stages of the buyer's journey to maximize engagement and accelerate the buying process. The ability to customize content to meet specific customer needs is one of the most valuable inbound marketing benefits.
Obviously, the buyer's journey takes much longer for larger purchases, such as buying a new house or partnering with a B2B service company. To speed up the process, follow the inbound marketing methodology to guide shoppers along the path to purchase.
To help people navigate the buyer’s journey, consider using dynamic content and AI recommendations. These tools will deliver more relevant material to your users, helping them better understand what you have to offer.
Earn Highly Qualified Leads
At Groove, we use "gated" landing pages for long-form content, such as our downloadable eBooks and webinar recordings. Gated pages require visitors to fill out forms before accessing the content you're offering, which is helpful for increasing eCommerce leads.
Typically, gated content consists of higher-quality material that benefits your audience. If your content is of high value to them, visitors will have no problem signing up for webinars, guides, and similar items. You might also consider using high-value lead magnets, such as relevant quizzes or calculators. Both could help you draw in new leads.
The ability to capture highly qualified leads through email submission forms represents one of the greatest benefits of content marketing. After capturing leads, segment these users based on the specific content that interests them. Next, continue the conversation via email to nurture these leads and convert them into customers. One of the biggest inbound marketing benefits is that people will appreciate the value of high-quality content and feel more inclined to engage with your brand.
Scale Your Retargeting Audience
Analyzing the performance of your content is key to retargeting users with information that’s relevant to them. Take a look at the people who viewed your content, and set up display ads to target these users with similar products or services.
By retargeting that specific segment of users, you provide a great user experience and offer them the opportunity to learn more about relevant products.
Thanks to first-party data tracking tools, you can construct lookalike audiences that mirror those who already engage with your brand. They will usually respond well to targeted display ads. This enhances your overall success and improves engagement rates.
Advanced Content Marketing Strategies for eCommerce
As technology continues to improve, the trends surrounding eCommerce marketing also shift. Providing leads and existing customers with personalized interactive content, AI-generated content, and shoppable videos will keep them interested. You can deliver material that speaks directly to their needs and what they want to see, helping to keep the conversation going and encourage conversion.
Groove Commerce offers effective services that enable you to take advantage of these trends and align them with your own marketing techniques. We’ll help scale your capabilities so you can keep your brand at the forefront of your industry while bringing in more conversions.
Tools for Scaling Content Marketing
Once you begin to implement these content marketing best practices, you’ll want to have a plan for scaling as your business operations grow. Tools for automation, analytics, and planning can help you find new opportunities and quickly take advantage of them as they arise. Some of the best options include:
- HubSpot for inbound marketing
- Klaviyo for email content personalization
- SEMrush for SEO and keyword tracking
These tools make it easy to incorporate best practices into your content marketing management while increasing eCommerce leads for your business.
Content Marketing Metrics to Measure Success
Finally, as you implement your content marketing strategy, you need a plan that will help you track the ROI from your efforts. The better you understand the impact of your efforts, the easier it will be to modify your strategy to capitalize on what goes well and improve what doesn’t.
You’ll want to start with a few central key performance indicators (KPIs). We recommend tracking the following:
- Organic traffic
- Bounce rate
- Lead conversion rates
- Time on page
These numbers will help you determine how people respond to the material you publish and where you need to make improvements. To gain an even better understanding of your site’s current performance, request our free website audit.
Conclusion
We hope the above-mentioned benefits of content marketing motivate you to get started with creating new, unique material. Remember to be authentic, show your brand’s personality, and maintain a consistent voice in each piece of content you share.
Content marketing can have a transformative impact on eCommerce growth by enhancing your reputation and nurturing relationships with leads.
Need help with your eCommerce content marketing strategy? Explore Groove's marketing services or contact us today to discover how we could assist your business.
If you want to learn more about how content marketing can work for you, read more in our eBook on inbound marketing for eCommerce. We’ll break down exactly what you need to know to create a successful strategy.
