The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Ecommerce Websites

28 September 2018 Nathan William

In this new era of digital marketing, content is the king and content marketing is the present and future of marketing. Every e-commerce business is either switching to a digital plan of action or modifying its existing marketing strategies according to the newest digital marketing techniques.

Yes! Content is the essence of every marketing strategy. Content has the power to influence a reader or a viewer and convert them into a customer. Content marketing comes with its share of dilemma - plagiarism. However, including a plagiarism checker in your content marketing strategy can save you from copying others’ ideas and content.

What is Content Marketing?

To put it simply, content marketing is an approach that is focused on creating content that is relevant and valuable enough to influence and attract the audience and retain them to convert them into sales.

All content marketing strategies are formed to achieve specific objectives for an e-commerce business, such as building the brand value of an ecommerce business, converting an audience into customers, and maintaining customer relations.

Content marketing is a necessity for e-commerce websites today. Compelling content can help drive traffic to a website and grow business. Many e-commerce websites still do not understand the manifold benefits that a good content marketing strategy has. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 57% of marketers are still unsure about how an effective content marketing strategy can work wonders for their B2C websites.

So, if you are, like many others, wondering what the advantages of content marketing for your e-commerce business are, we will give you a list of them.

Drives Website Traffic

The greater your content is, the more likely is it to attract viewers and drive a lot of traffic to your website. Once you create the reputation of publishing relevant content through blogs and other modes of writing, visitors will keep coming back to your site more often.

Better Leads

In this new dawn of online buying, consumers choose websites that provide relevant information and then go on to making purchases. When a potential customer visits your website and finds content that gives them insight into your brand, they trust you more, and this creates better leads for your business.

Higher Sales

Better leads help you generate more sales – there is no rocket science involved in this simple equation. A good content strategy will belt out quality content and turn readers into buyers.

Builds Brand Image

Brand image is everything for your business. Engaging content enhances the brand value and authority of your website and helps you gain trust from potential consumers. With good content on display on your website, your customers are sure to come back to you and help you achieve brand loyalty.

Better Brand Recognition

With a stronger social media following and better website visibility, your business will have a better brand value and be trusted by many. And you know what this means, right? With more brand credibility, people will make a faster purchase decision, thus giving you the edge by converting leads faster than your competing brands.

Enhanced Customer Relationships

Your customers can make or break your e-commerce dream, and this is precisely what makes maintaining great customer relations a vital factor. In this new era of digitalisation, informative content can be used to take care of your customers' queries. Your website can have a section for FAQs where you clear their usual doubts. Great material also ensures better customer engagement. When one of your consumers likes a blog or a video on your website, they may share them or refer other people to read or see it.

Still skeptical about adopting a good content marketing strategy? Well, if you are not convinced yet, let us show you some Content Marketing Statistics:

70% of people prefer to know a company through their articles and blogs than any other form of advertisement.
Content marketing generates thrice the leads as outbound marketing does. It also costs almost 62% less than any other form of digital advertising.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 76% of B2C organisations are already using content marketing.
According to Hubspot, companies that have blogs on their website have 434% more indexed pages than the ones without blogs.
77% of Internet users read blogs to know more about a company.

Most companies know the effectiveness of content marketing. However, they fail to come up with a strategy that suits their brand the best. So, now that you are convinced as to why you should get a good content market strategy for your e-commerce website, here are some tips for the same.

Use these brilliant tips to create the best Content Marketing Strategy

Research and Plan

You first need to understand the needs and requirements specific to your business. Every business is unique and has its share of goals and objectives. So understand your business module and your target audience before creating content.

Come Up With Unique Ideas

If you are publishing repetitive or un-engaging content, then the chances are high that you might end up losing some of your audience. Therefore, it is critical that you come up with fresh and original ideas. Make sure your creative marketing team comes up with appealing ideas that your audience will relate to. Also, remember that half the battle of an engaging blog is won when it comes with a smart and catchy headline.

Beware of Plagiarism

If your website has duplicate ideas or content on it, your SEO will be affected adversely, and you will end up losing valuable customers. Avoid copying content or unintended plagiarism by using efficient plagiarism checkers and tools.

Quality of Content

Before you adopt a content marketing strategy, you should know that quality is the ultimate king. So hire professional writers and editors who are familiar with SEO guidelines to ensure that the content produced for your website is top-notch. With digital marketing being the IT thing, there is a myriad of online tools that you can utilise to create content that is engaging enough.

Vivid and Illustrative Content

Remember how as a kid we found monochromatic text books boring? And at the same time we were attracted to books that came with vibrant pictures? This very same logic goes for online content. Everyone finds visually captivating content more engaging. So make sure that your creative marketing team includes images and pictorials in the social media posts and articles. You can use infographics too.

While most people have a misconception that written content is the only mechanism of content marketing, you must know that a good content marketing campaign is not limited to writing. So play around with your strategy a little so that things do not get monotonous for your users.

Here are some of the latest Content Marketing Trends that are sure to rule the year 2018.

Video Blogs vs Conventional blogs

Video blogging will take over written content. With high-speed internet eradicating the problems of buffering, people are choosing videos over written blogs any day. So if you do not want to miss out, start investing more on video content. Also, Live Videos are a thing now. It can be considered the best way for customer engagement. Use Facebook and Instagram to host live Q&A session and podcasts. You can also have an influencer do a product review video.

Colloquial Content

With voice search being the big thing of 2018, the language of the search terms will be more natural. So the content for your website should use more generic terms to get better search results.

Shorter and Crisper Content

We all are leading hectic lives, and we barely have time to go through lengthy blogs. We all prefer shorter content.

Content Transparency

It is the year 2018 and transparency is all you need. So before you make a post on your website or any of the social media platforms, be aware of the different consumer protection measurements to avoid future penalties.

Drafting a web page’s content seems like an easy task. You just have to find a moment, sit down, open an empty document, think about a random topic, and start writing… unfortunately, such illustration has little to do with reality.

In this article, I am going to describe an effective way to create (or plan to create) content, which is based on a robust analysis. Also, I am going to present an exemplary copywriter’s draft, which is an essential element of the process.

Interestingly, the draft and other presented steps can be done both by an SEO expert or a copywriter, determined only by the structure of a team, work methods, knowledge, and expertise. With creating content based on the deliberate marketing strategy one can extend its reach, improve conversion ratio, and ROI.

1. Research the user’s intentions and determine the kind of desired content

When commencing to create content, one should research the profile of a potential user. Every user has its goals and expectations regarding the quality and form of the conveyed information.

The awareness of the user’s intentions helps to create effective content. When the content meets the user’s expectations, the web page not only generates the improved conversion rate, but it also generates positive behavioral signals, which are thereafter noticed by Google.

The user’s expectations can range widely depending on the phrases searched on Google.

Compare the expectations of the two following users, who search two different phrases:

Phrase A: "ready cabins" – the user is determined to buy and is looking for a specific offer.
Phrase B: "cabins maintaining cost" – the user is looking for information, does general research, considers making the purchase decision now or in the future.

Despite the two phrases being about the same topic, the user’s expectations when uttering the Phrase A are totally different than when uttering Phrase B:

Phrase A – The content should contain the offer, prices, photos, visualizations of several projects and the explicit CTA (Call to Action) presented as a link, telephone number, contact form, etc.
Phrase B – The more extensive content that should contain advantages of the described utilities, the tabulated data comparing the operating costs, maybe some graphics like pie-charts and bar charts.

[tweet_box]Get a free #content creation draft for #copywriters. Create awesome copy for users and Google[/tweet_box]

The lack of clear intentions of a potential user

In a situation when you are not sure about the user’s expectations, it is reasonable to elaborate the organic Google search results and verify the kind of content which has the highest ranking.

Google’s algorithm aim is to meet the users’ expectations, so the web pages which have the highest ranking usually fulfill the user’s expectations correctly (at least in theory).

2. Verify Google’s search results

Regardless of whether one is sure what the user’s expectations are, it is always useful to verify what sort of content generates the most intense organic traffic in the desired area of interest. On the basis of such datasets, one can prepare a similar, yet more attractive, form of content which will address the expectations of the user in a better way.

3. The decision between creating new content and optimizing an existing one

Decide whether you want to create new content or you want to optimize the existing subpages. The massive error which is made both by SEO experts and copywriters is their exclusive focus on the distribution of the new content. Meanwhile, as analysis shows (here the example of Hubspot) refreshing and optimizing the already existing subpages can create excellent results.

Creating content vs. optimization

When positioning the rich-content web pages, it is worth considering using existing resources in order to expedite the results and increase work effectiveness.

Every decision entailing workload or financial commitment should be taken on the basis of data, so when planning future content, articles or subpages, one should answer the following questions:

Are the subpages related to the web page’s topic?
Are the subpages generating organic movement from Google?
Is the generated movement substantial?
Are the phrases at which you aim highly ranked?
Is the enhancement of their ranking possible?
Does extending the existing web page’s topic range decrease the quality of existing content?

Despite the fact that every rule has its exceptions, knowing the answers to the above-mentioned questions will generally enable us to make a correct decision in regards to the next actions.

Why is it worthwhile to optimize existing content?

In many cases, the verification, updating, and optimization of existing data is far less time consuming than creating new content. Moreover, the effects of such work are often visible far quicker.

his is true because:

Google’s algorithm rewards fresh pieces of information with a better ranking. Often after optimization, Google is testing the new content, which greatly increases the volatility of the website’s position. In such a way, Google may test the satisfaction of users who visit your web page.
We preserve the potential behavioral signals, even if they are mediocre. In the case of new subpages, the algorithm does not have any new behavioral data. That is why new content is not trusted by the algorithm, which tends to undervalue it for a period of time ranging from several days to several months. I usually presume that the process of building the trust of new subpages takes about 4 months.

4. Assess the risks deriving from content distribution

Both creating new content and optimization of existing subpages entails certain risks.

Position cannibalization when creating new content.

For organic Google results, the algorithm allows a maximum of 2 to 3 subpages from the same web page. Most web pages can expect only one iteration.

What is interesting, Google’s algorithm won’t choose the subpage, which would be the most profitable for the page’s owner, but which is the most suitable for the search results.

Example:

Subpage A – well optimized, potentially top 5.
Subpage B – not optimized, the potential third page of the search results, but serves better as Google’s ranking complement.

In such a case there is a risk that Google’s algorithm won’t put Subpage A in the top 5, but will put Subpage B in the top 30, so when creating new subpages about similar topics we risk the cannibalization of our position.

Diluting the topic when optimizing the existing subpages.

When deciding to optimize and expand the additional segments of content we must remember the user’s experience. Articles which are too long may water down the topic. Too much content may distract the user from the most relevant data.

As it happens, too much text can discourage the reader, create negative behavioral signals, which are thereafter received by Google, and in consequence lead to loss of the hard-earned position.

The awareness regarding the user’s expectations and the analysis of competitors can enable you to avoid the potential problems and minimize risk related to the content distribution.

5. Learn what the sales and marketing goals are

When creating content one must be aware of the goals of the website’s owner. Thanks to this it is easier to analyze the profile of potential readers, create a strategy and a publication plan based on user’s expectations. It is especially important when one of the main traction channels originates from organic Google results.

This knowledge helps to determine the proper character of the content (manual, educational, sales subpage) and choose the form of the CTA, suitable for the purchase phase in which the user is.

6. Optimization and positioning

The awareness of the targeted phrases helps to plan efficient optimization. You will find pieces of the important information in the exemplary draft under point 9 of this article, but some elements are universal:

Iteration of the main keyword in the title and meta title.
The appearance of the keywords in the headers and content.
Optimal density of the phrases.
Phrases which appear in the “above the fold” segment (the section which is visible without scrolling down the subpage).
Usage of at least one graphic.
Dispersing the content into relatively small paragraphs.
Using many headings.
Placing only one heading h1.
And many more.

7. For a reader, visual aspects are crucial

Even the most valuable information not delivered in an attractive way may decrease the subpage’s effectiveness. That is why it is crucial to focus on the form, font, headings, and structure as well as graphics.

Often complex information or loads of data are easy to understand via a user-friendly graphic, picture, or video.

8. Promote your content

Creating content is half of the way there. Content is created for the users, so take care to have as wide a range as possible. In order to do this, use all available marketing tools and channels, starting from social media, mailing, SEO, or SEM. The topic of content promotion is much wider than the sole act of content creation, so planning your time 50/50 between creating and promoting the content is the bare minimum.

9. Prepare a draft before creating the content

The aim of the draft is to define the topic, desired type of content, technological aspects (the length, headings, paragraphs), defining the keywords, auxiliary (supplementary) phrases, as well as other information which will help to create effective content.

Below you will find an exemplary draft for the phrase “content marketing strategy”

The main phrase “content marketing strategy”

Think of phrases for which the search results are similar (4 or more results reiterate in top 10) in order to include them in the content. Thanks to that you can acquire the long tail for the phrase “content marketing strategy.”

In this example, such similar phrases are

content marketing objectives, digital content strategy definition, website content planning template, content for marketing plan, content marketing campaign, content generation strategy, content strategy example, content writing strategies, content goals, tips for content marketing, content strategy best practices, build strategy marketing, creating social media content strategy, content marketing objective, content marketing ways, content creation plan, content marketing channels, effective content marketing, etc.

Other phrases which can be included in the content are the words that are the most popular words in our top 10 competitors in Google’s ranking:

content marketing strategy, content marketing institute, marketing plan, content creation, content strategy, social media marketing, digital marketing, content audit, media content, target audience, blog posts, creating content, types of content, buyer personas, marketing success, business goals, search engine, marketing goals, b2b marketers, successful content, calls to action, etc.

We cannot forget about the basic SEO best practices

The fundamental phrase should be in the title (meta title and H1).
The fundamental phrase should appear around 0.4 - 1.5 times per 100 words of the content.
In the content, we include as many auxiliary phrases as possible; the more the better.
In the headings, we include several auxiliary phrases, approximately suitable phrase and potential users questions.
We include the fundamental phrase and several auxiliary phrases in the introduction and above the fold section.
We prepare the table and an ordered list to use in the text.
In alt=”” attributes of the pictures, we include the fundamental phrase, auxiliary phrase, or approximate phrase.

Now, let’s set the basic technical features

The content’s length: 3500 - 6000 words.
The number of paragraphs: 60 - 120.
The number of headings: 30 - 45.
The number of graphical elements: 10 - 40.
The amount of bolded text: 20 – 90 words.

Let’s check which questions are asked by the users for the given topic

When answering the question, it is important to elaborate on the topic and produce the added value. For the phrase “internet marketing” and relatives the list of questions goes as follows:

How to write marketing content?
What is a content plan?
What should content marketing do in order to be successful?
How to write content marketing?
What is content strategy marketing?
How to create content marketing?
How to create a content strategy?
How to build a content marketing strategy?
How to write a content strategy plan?
How to develop a successful marketing strategy?
Why have a content strategy?
What is content marketing strategy?
What is content development?
How to build content?
How to start content marketing?
How to create a content marketing strategy?
What is content development in marketing?
How to start a content marketing business?
How to plan content marketing?
How to create a blog content strategy?
Why create content?
Marketing plan how to get started?
How to develop a content marketing strategy?
Content marketing strategy how to?

Description of the content’s purpose

Let’s say, we intend to order/write a descriptive blog article, presenting the advantages of having the proper internet marketing strategy, encouraging visitors to check out particular services related to article content.

Call to Action

We set up the CTA goals; for example, the newsletter subscription or checking out the offer.

Conclusion

Creating attractive content requires a lot of knowledge, proper tools, and even more time. Focusing on quality enhances the probability of success. I believe that Surfer will become an inseparable companion when distributing perfect content, which perfectly meets users’ and Google’s algorithm expectations.

I am curious about your thoughts and comments regarding the draft structure you are using to create or to order the creation of your content. What information does your perfect draft contain? I will be grateful for every insight.

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