In recent years there has been a lot of talk about Content Marketing, and the CMOs of large companies have been hired. They are hiring entire editorial teams and media agencies to create videos, blogs, and social media content to be disseminated online. However, all this requires a strategic approach and the implementation of targeted activities in line with business objectives to obtain truly incredible results: the statistics of the Content Marketing Institute demonstrate how Content Marketing generates many leads three times higher than traditional marketing, costing well 62% less.
Yet the more significant the results, the more the number of contents published online increases, and companies find it increasingly difficult to stand out online: consequently, the demand for influencers and influencer marketing activities grows, especially on social media, as the content they promote is more effective of corporate content.
However, it is challenging to show the actual value of Content Marketing to the SEO who manages the budget. Few e-commerce companies use this strategy to generate conversions, increasing customer awareness and leading them to purchase. Yet inspirational content, e-commerce site, and purchase button are closely linked.
Some companies create inspirational magazines with very long content that includes products and services in their stories; others create content marketing hubs that enclose the editorial content produced by the company with social content created by partners, still, others create communities to leave talk to customers. Let’s look at three examples of companies that use Content Marketing to generate online conversions.
The inspirational magazine (the Finnish Design Shop case)
Everyone flips through magazines to see the latest home design trends, and that’s why the Finnish Design Shop web shop has created the “Design Stories” online magazine with contributions from designers like Alvar Aalto and the latest from trade fairs. The objectives of this type of initiative are generally four:
– provide inspirational content to be shared across all digital marketing channels
– bring traffic from search engines
– get the public to share stories about the company on its social channels to increase organic traffic on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter & Co, perhaps using captivating images.
The Content Marketing hub with influencers (the case of TaylorMade Golf)
Influencer marketing allows companies to reach a wider pool of potential customers, and these initiatives, in addition to press, radio, and TV, can also involve Content Marketing with the creation of a hub that collects all the content created by the marketing team of the company: posts, videos, articles.
The result is the creation of a container that will bring traffic to the site and product pages with the following benefits:
- Social proof and increased conversion rate
- Increased time spent on the site up to 3-4 times compared to other web pages
- Reducing content creation costs with content curation
Social shops with UGC (the case of GlassesUSA)
Today, organic reach on social media is steadily decreasing, and the number of people paying for advertising is increasing. Therefore the costs of Facebook Ads are constantly rising. What can be done to increase the reach of content on social media?
The secret is to get customers talking, focusing on 3 activities:
- Create content that connects similar users
- Publish content to create meaningful natural interactions (likes, comments, and shares)
- Activate niche communities using the Facebook groups tool
It all stems from the request for customers to share their experiences. And reviews on social channels to generate sympathy and comments from other users and indicate. To Facebook to prioritize such content in NewsFeed. Here are some tips to get you started today:
- Ask to leave feedback and ideas using a specific hashtag and mentioning the company
- Reward the best happy with incentives such as discounts and coupons
- Use dedicated tools to identify popular content and most engaged users
- Create a group with your most influential fans and start an influencer marketing business by creating content with them.
This is what the GalssesUSA Social Shop site has done, which highlights the photos of satisfied consumers from all over the world. By tagging the relative product and is a concrete example of how the content can concretely help to increase sales, thanks to customer feedback and reviews.
Tell us in the comments how you do Content Marketing to promote your e-commerce, and I’ll give you valuable tips for your business.