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Content marketing is a strategic approach to marketing that involves the creation and dissemination of unique, valuable, and relevant content to attract prospective customers and retain current customers. Examples of content marketing include blogs, videos, social media posts, newsletters, or podcasts. Each eCommerce company should take a unique approach to content marketing tailored to their goals, product type and target audience.
1.Product Marketing
Content that is focused on product marketing is content that showcases your product and highlights the added value/benefit it provides customers. Examples of this type of content marketing include customer testimonials and case studies.
2.Thought Leadership
Content marketing can also be used to build credibility for your brand and position yourself as leaders within a specific field. By positioning your brand as a go-to resource in your field, in the future when a prospective customer is looking for a product/or service like the ones you provide, your brand will be who they turn to first.
3.SEO
Content marketing can elevate your SEO strategy by creating content that answers the most searched questions. The most common type of content for this strategy is a blog. Keyword-driven articles can be discovered naturally when prospective customers use a search engine.
Top Content Marketing Channels
Creating unique and engaging content is only half the battle with content marketing. You also must make sure the content is distributed in a way that will reach your target audience.
Email: Sending newsletters through email to your subscriber list is an easy and cost-effective way to engage with your consumer base. Newsletters should be compelling and easy-to-read. Along, with providing conversion opportunities, communicating regularly with your customers gives your products more exposure and increases brand awareness.
Social Media: Content can be discovered organically on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more. Alternatively, content can be circulated on social media through paid advertising, helping brands reach a new and specific audience. Most eCommerce companies find it most effective to do a mix of both.
Podcasts: Podcasts are a way to share knowledge and information in an easy-to-digest format. They are a useful tool for positioning yourself as an expert in your field. Popular podcasting platforms include Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pandora, and Audible. Utilizing podcasts as a form of content marketing can be very effective, but gaining an audience will take time and consistency. Cross promotion on other platforms like your social media channels will also help your podcast gain recognition.
Video Platforms: short-form video content can be circulated on Instagram or TikTok, whereas long-form video content is optimal for YouTube.
Remember, content can be used more than once across different distribution channels. For example, an Instagram reel can also be shared on TikTok or Twitter, and a customer testimonial shared on Twitter can also be shared in your newsletter.
Creating a successful content marketing strategy can be broken down into six steps: set goals, determine your content mix, create content, distribute content, monitor/track content and review/adjust.
Your content marketing strategy should be informed by your business goals.
Examples of common content marketing goals include:
· Increase brand awareness
· Education current and potential customers
· Foster brand loyalty
· Attract new customers
· Appear higher on search engine results pages
Your content mix is the combination of different content types such as blog, videos, case studies…etc. Your goals need to inform your content mix. For instance, if one of your goals is to appear higher on the search engine results pages, your content mix should include keyword-driven blog articles. However, it is equally important to make sure your content mix reflects your target audience, otherwise you are wasting valuable time and effort on content that won’t resonate. For instance, if your product is aimed at a demographic 40+, TikToks would not be an ideal content type because 80% of the U.S. audience on TikTok is aged 16-34.
The content you produce will impact the way prospective and current customers view your brand. Consider investing in high-quality imagery/video production and good quality writing that reflects your brand voice. When a consumer who has never heard of your brand comes across your content, it is vital they are left with a positive first impression.
Design a distribution strategy that will help you reach your target audience. Along with choosing which distribution channels to use, you must also determine timing and frequency. When building a loyal audience through content marketing, consistency is key. Creating a content calendar will help you manage multi-platform posting.
Tools like Google Analytics and Hootsuite can be used to monitor your content. You can also use social media analytics to determine which type of content performs best.
With your goals in mind, determine the effectiveness of your current strategy and adjust where necessary.
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