Producing exciting, relevant and informative content is one of the best ways to inform, engage and convert leads into customers. Content marketing plays a crucial role in raising brand awareness, building relationships with potential leads and promoting brand discovery.
Smart e-commerce businesses create tailored content for every stage of the customer journey, from search all the way to nurturing after the sale.
Just like the term “candy” covers gummy bears, cheap chocolate bars, and fancy truffles, “content” shelters a lot of media under its umbrella. It covers everything from the emails you send your customers, to the posts on your company blog, the sales and product videos you make, and the social media updates you share.
Content supports your customer on every step of their journey.
Unsurprisingly, generating sales is the top priority of 84% of B2B marketers and B2C isn’t far behind. So, in this post, we’ll take a look at the role content marketing plays in e-commerce sales and examine 4 ways you can leverage it to get powerful results.
Create product listings that drive conversions.
Product listings can be a pain on your to-do list or a brilliant opportunity that moves your potential customer one step closer to buying—it all depends on your framing.
Too many e-commerce businesses list the product’s features in bland bullet points, offer the specs, throw in a few semi-decent pictures and call it a day. This is both boring and ineffective.
Smart e-commerce businesses grab this opportunity with both hands.
Instead of listing features, use this chance to show your customer how your product can help solve their problems. Answer the questions they are already asking: the questions that a great salesperson would answer if they were wandering around a brick and mortar store! Focus on the challenges this product meets and on what makes it better than your competition.
A coffee pot isn’t just a coffee pot. It’s a way to enjoy a delicious beverage on the patio and start your day off on the right foot so that you can be your most productive self. Don’t sell products—sell solutions.
Answer customer objections before they voice them.
There’s always a reason not to buy—the timing isn’t the right, Or maybe they aren’t sure they really need your product. They might as well wait until next week and speak to cousin Larry to get a second opinion.
Instead of watching your potential customers click away, use content to answer their most common objections and make them want to stay.
Create an up-to-date, relevant FAQs section and answer the most frequent questions you get from current customers in a fun, conversational way. Then, use your blog to expand on the more intricate objections—the ones we feel but can’t always voice.
Create content aimed at customers on the cusp of buying, and address the things holding them back. This is going to be slightly different for every business. To figure out the right content for yours, speak to your sales team and build content around the most common reasons people use when they say no.
Provide social proof.
As your potential customer moves further down the sales funnel, they want to know if your product has helped other people in the same position. They are looking for social proof—stories from satisfied customers that demonstrate buying from you will be a good experience. You can use a few different types of content to drive the sale home!
User generated content (UGC) can be invaluable at this point. Whether in the form of comments, reviews or testimonials, UGC shows potential buyers that other people believe in you.
According to the 2016 Bright Local Survey, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their friends and family.
For larger purchases, customer case studies can help you meet and answer a lot of common sales objectives before the customer even speaks to a sales representative. This is an opportunity to dive deeper into the customer experience, then you would through the reviews or testimonials, and create content that draws on real-life to show the product in action.
To make case studies an even more effective sales tool, you can use dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) to capture the customer’s attention. Focus on a term that’s particularly significant to their problem and addresses their current pain point.
Use content marketing to fix mistakes.
You made the sale and then, something negative happened unexpectedly. Maybe the item was damaged, the delivery got delayed, or the email you sent had an error in it.
Mistakes happen. What can set you apart from other e-commerce businesses is how you handle those mistakes. Are you going to let them defeat you, or are you going to turn them into an opportunity to connect with your customers? While most of us think of content as the stuff we publish on the company blog, it covers all manners of communications, including email.
When things go wrong, customers get frustrated. That frustration can easily escalate into negative reviews and the loss of a potentially great customer. Instead of letting the situation get out of control, communicate with your customer frequently and often.
Let them know what’s going on and offer to fix it. If there was a delay, refund the cost of shipping and offer complimentary free shipping for the next purchase. Keep them in the loop and show them you care—you’ll be surprised how many businesses fail to do this!
A well thought out content marketing strategy drives sales.
Great content plays a key role in every stage of the customer journey. It’s a powerful discovery tool, a great way to build trust and provide answers. Successful e-commerce businesses create content that helps the customer no matter where they are in the buying process.
Crucial Vacuum Founder Chad Rubin grew his e-commerce business to an 8-figure business in 7 years. He is a Top 250 Amazon Seller and co-founded Skubana as an all-in-one ERP system and operations platform designed for high volume sellers to run and automate their business.