With the prevalence of social media, businesses are constantly feeding their audiences with unique and engaging content on a variety of channels − and consumers are beginning to expect this from brands.
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 content you have, we're outlining 10 benefits of content marketing to help stimulate your eCommerce strategy.
- Increase reach
- Increase website traffic
- Increase brand awareness
- Grow your social media following
- Establish trust
- Build authority & credibility
- Save time and share more content with automation
- Accelerate the buying process
- Earn higher-qualified leads
- Scale your retargeting audience
Increase Reach
Find where your customers are frequenting online, and be present − whether that be answering questions on forums, replying to comments on social media, etc. Online businesses aren't limited to creating content only within their site.
Prospects, leads and customers are having conversations about your brand outside of your website, so it's important to realize the potential to listen to and engage 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).
Increase Website Traffic
In addition to having an optimized eCommerce SEO strategy, we recommend companies take advantage of content such as blogs, downloadable eBooks, case studies, infographics, white papers and more to drive website traffic.
Publishing various content pieces that are useful and relevant to your audience will have them coming back to your website for more. We recommend planning out a sending cadence to help keep your content organized and help build your audience's expectations of when to see your content.
More content means more ways your store can be found by users. Don't forget to share your content pieces throughout your preferred social media platforms to encourage more 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 content related to your audience and industry.
Brand awareness is much more than people recognizing your brand. Although that's great, having your audience understand the unique factors that make your brand stand out from the competition will really make 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 or participate in online forums to establish your brand image and increase awareness.
Further, link your most recent content − whether it be a blog, webinar, eBook, etc. − to older (and related) content pieces to further engage users and teach them what your brand is all about.
Grow Your Social Media Following
One of the biggest assets and greatest benefits of content marketing is 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 paragraphs of text).
According to HubSpot, content with relevant images result in 94% more views than content without images. And, 80% of consumers said 'authenticity of content' is the most influential factor in their decision to become a follower of a brand.
Continue to shape your brand image by including relevant and intriguing images and videos into 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. Create content that provides plausible solutions and offers beneficial advice to create a foundation for a great customer relationship and have users returning for more content.
As you continue to share valuable content throughout social media, don't forget to connect with those who have shared your content or engaged with your posts. Replying to social media comments and engaging with your audience publicly shows that your brand is a trusted source and can be counted on for specific information on a certain subject matter.
Build Authority & Credibility
What sets my business apart from others? Why should people trust my brand? These are just some questions to ask yourself when developing a content marketing strategy.
Service-based businesses succeed or fail based on their ability to communicate their expertise with their audience. It's highly encouraged to create a content marketing strategy that shows off your business's expertise in the industry.
At Groove Commerce, we use blog posts, case studies, webinars and downloadable resources to communicate our expertise and show proven results. By building this authority and credibility, we're showing we can drive significant results for various types of businesses.
Save Time & Share More Content With Automation
There are plenty of eCommerce marketing tools out there at your disposal. Save money by managing all aspects of your content marketing in one tool, and save time by personalizing your content and tailoring messages to different audience segments in one place.
See in-depth details of your content's performance, and let your online marketing assets work to generate leads for you. Automation tools are great for setting an email/social media cadence, while providing you with more time to focus on bigger priorities.
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 buying process that we refer to as the buyer's journey.
Check out the graphic below from HubSpot to learn more about each stage of the buyer's journey.
To really reap all of the benefits fo content marketing, we encourage businesses to meet customers where they are in the buyer's journey. In other words, cater content to people in the awareness, consideration and decision stages to maximize engagement and accelerate the buying process.
Obviously, the buyer's journey takes much longer for larger purchases, such as buying a new house or partnering with a service-based company to help fulfill business goals. To help speed up the process, follow the inbound marketing methodology to help guide them on the path to purchase.
Earn Higher-Qualified Leads
At Groove, we use "gated" landing pages for long-form pieces of content, such as our downloadable eBooks and webinar recordings. Gated landing pages require visitors to fill out a form to access the content you're offering.
Typically, gated content is reserved for higher-quality content that benefits your audience. Visitors will have no problem signing up for webinars, guides, etc. if your content is of high value to them.
One of the greatest benefits of content marketing is capturing higher-qualified leads through email submission forms. Once captured, segment users based on the content that interests them. Then, continue the conversation via email to nurture those leads and convert them into customers.
Scale Your Retargeting Audience
Analyzing the performance of your content is key to retargeting users with information relevant to them. Take a look at the people who viewed your content, and set up display ads to target those users with similar products/services.
For example, let's take a look at our most recent webinar, eCommerce SEO Strategies To Increase Organic Rankings. Our marketing team could set up display ads promoting Groove's SEO services to better nurture those visitors.
By retargeting that specific segment of users, we're providing a great user experience and offering them the opportunity to learn more about Groove's marketing services that are relevant to them.
Conclusion
We hope these 10 benefits of content marketing motivate you to get started with creating new, unique content. Remember to be authentic, show your brand personality and establish your tone of voice in each piece of content you share.
Need help with your eCommerce content marketing strategy? Explore Groove's marketing services here or fill out the form below to get in touch with our team.
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