Are you looking for ways to reach your customers that are more sustainable? But aren’t sure what approach makes the most sense?
Because honestly, marketing can feel overwhelming if you aren’t quite sure how to deliver a consistent message that will attract and convert your target audience into paying customers.
One way is to leverage content marketing as an effective way to help you reach your desired audience.
I’m going to break down how you can use content marketing for eCommerce sales so you can reach more customers.
What Is Content Marketing For eCommerce?
Content marketing for your eCommerce brand is about creating helpful and valuable content that will attract your ideal audience. You do this by delivering a consistent message that resonates with your audience.
Creating content is just one component of the marketing pie. Think of content marketing as being a part of the foundation of your brand’s marketing plan. Where you create a piece of valuable content that helps move your customers through the buying process.
This will help you facilitate how your ideal buyers go through your buying journey. Once you’ve nailed this down, the sales for your business become easier to manage.
But you may be wondering…
How is Content Marketing Different From Social Media Marketing?
In today’s modern marketing landscape content marketing gets interchanged a lot in various formats of marketing. While yes, you are creating content for social media it’s a different type of content.
Content marketing on social media tends to be a shorter marketing message that is broken off from your overall message.
Due to social platforms prioritizing short and sweet information. Often social media content is not in-depth and really provides a highlight. Versus content that may be from a blog post that is thorough has less competition competing for your audience’s attention.
I’ll go into more details about the differences in a moment.
But before diving into content marketing for your eCommerce brand. It’s important to first have a solid strategy of how you want your content to reach and influence your target audience’s actions.
Create A Content Marketing Strategy For Your eCommerce Brand
A content marketing strategy is your unique method for how you will use your brand’s messaging to attract customers to your business.
It’s about getting clear on which methods and channels of communication will be most effective in helping you to reach more affluent customers for your brand.
You can do this by first understanding who your ideal buyers are and where they tend to show up online. This will give you a starting point of where to spend your marketing efforts.
For example, if you discover that your ideal customers value educational content and the products you sell may require more education to use. Then you could look into having a blog on your Shopify website.
A further example of this would be if you sell luxury skincare products. You could decide to have a blog post on your site titled, “How to Properly Exfoliate Sensitive Skin”.
As this may be something your skincare line helps your customers deal with.
Of course, in the post, you would walk your ideal customers through the importance of skincare and the steps needed to achieve the desired outcome for their skin.
Then inside that post, you would position your appropriate products as the solution to help them get the results they want.
A similar example of this is Aēsop’s article on skin hydration
But, you may be wondering what are the differences and benefits between long-form content such as blogging, and short-form content such as social media posts.
Long-form Content Marketing For eCommerce brands
Long-form content is content such as articles that are written with quality information. A video that is produced and uploaded to YouTube. Then there is audio content such as a podcast or other audio channels.
Long-form content as previously mentioned is also content that is thorough and offers greater insights to the reader. This is perfect if your audience loves to do research, which affluent customers love to do. Plus you’ll get the added benefit of leveraging SEO to help you reach more people organically.
Blogging
The benefit of using blogging as a method of long-form content is that it’s easy once your post is optimized, to get found organically by Google.
This will help your brand to grow in authority with search engines and better position your products as an ideal solution for people looking for the type of products you offer.
Another benefit is that the written format will give your readers the chance to absorb information based on their schedule and lifestyle. If they are taking a break at work they can quickly read your post or if their children are taking a nap they can quietly read.
Video is also a great method of long-form content in that it’s obviously visual.
Video Content
Video content allows you to really showcase your products in natural situations that the people watching can identify with. Video is a great way to incorporate storytelling into your marketing message and also help in building a community.
If you are going to use video, I highly recommend creating a YouTube channel for your brand and creating helpful content. YouTube is owned by Google and so your potential to reach more customers is amazing!
Not sure what type of video content to create?
Borrow some inspiration from Glossier’s YouTube channel. They feature a variety of “Get Ready With Me” ladies from various backgrounds.
Plus they also have videos that showcase an ideal situation of how to use their products. Such as this one called “ 5-minute Date Night Look”. Which is perfect for those moments when you need to pull yourself together quickly.
Review the content marketing strategy for your eCommerce brand and see which long-form content method makes the most sense for your business.
Let’s go over how to make your long-form content work for you.
Short-form Content Marketing For eCommerce Brands
Short-form content is smaller content elements that are usually taken away from larger content pieces. For example, cutting your video into a snippet or clip to share on social media.
My suggestion is that you are using social media as part of your marketing strategy. Use a social channel that your ideal audience uses. This will help you maximize your time and reach.
Here are some of the most popular social media channels and some ways you can create content that draws the attention of your audience.
Instagram has evolved over the years to support various formats of content from still photos to video. Right now videos and Reels are the most popular.
So if you have a piece of video content already published. Take a snippet of that video and share it with your Reels or as a video post on your feed.
TikTok
TikTok has been gaining popularity with its quick videos and unlimited scroll-up feed. Plus the reach so far has been really amazing for a lot of businesses. If your audience is on TikTok, this could be a great place to share quick videos that encourage people to visit and make a purchase from your online store.
Pinterest is another great platform to reach more people who tend to earn more money. What makes Pinterest great is that a lot of people use the platform to gain inspiration and ideas. You could position your products as the perfect elements to style their homes and/or any other lifestyle needs they may have.
Conclusion
Content marketing for your eCommerce brand when done well and consistently can help you attract more ideal-fit customers who are happy to buy from you.
Make sure you do your research, have a well-defined brand message, and show up where they love to hang out. Once you do you’ll have a consistent stream of customers who will have the opportunity to become fans of your brand.
If you want to understand what elements you need to have in place for a successful eCommerce experience. Get the guide below.
