What is the need of content marketing for an eCommerce brand?
Well, they are the ones who need it the most!
Yes. Retail brands to market themselves need content marketing the most. As their target audience is very selective and interact only with content that interests them.
Which is not the case with traditional marketing, where the audience have less or no freedom over selecting or picking up content of their choice.
With statistics to be believed, effective content marketing can help an eCommerce brand to escalate their conversion rate to almost 6 times.
Coming to the comparison, brand websites with content marketing have an average conversion rate of 2.9%, whereas websites without content strategy have an average conversion rate as low as 0.5%.
Figures are alone a powerful evidence to embrace an effective content strategy, though, this is not the only reason.
Content marketing is impressively differentiated in the social media and increase the mentions (by word-of-mouth). And surely is the best method to create a buzz about a product or a service or brand.
Seeing the industry trends, it is clear that the amount of time an adult spends on digital media and its platforms is constantly rising. Figures have almost doubled, from 2.7 hours in 2008 to 5.6 hours in 2015.
It’s simple to weigh out some of that time into the content from eCommerce stores.
Why Every Brand Needs a Content Strategy
You must have heard the benefits of a content strategy before, right?
Now is the time to prove that with statistics. Have a look at some of these findings from Demand Metric:
- 3x times more leads than traditional marketing
- Cost effective, 62% less than traditional marketing
- 82% of consumers develop positive opinions about the brand through custom content
- 70% of consumers develop a personal connection
- 60% of consumers, encourage reading content of their brands
- 70% of consumers find learning from articles as a source than advertisements
- 72% of customers build a relationship with a brand because of custom content
The best part about content marketing is that augments each aspect of your brand. As content interacts directly with your audience, it builds a direct connection that arouses emotions on the deeper level as compared to the traditional ways.This improves the way you say your brand message and also the impact that it leaves on them.
For other benefits of Content Marketing, here is a graphical guide.
How An Effective Content Strategy Can Be Of Help To eCommerce Brands
Contents
Research from Demand Metric and ReferralCandy puts light on the facts, like:
- 60% of audience seeks out a product, only after getting informed about it.
- 90% of audience encourage reading custom and related content.
- 86% of the audience are happy paying more for better customer experience.
All the expert salespersons are well versed with the fact, that sales is all about building an emotional connection. This fact alone empowers content marketing to be even more effective.
Benefits of Content Marketing for eCommerce Brands:
Product research
More than 80% shoppers conduct a thorough research before buying any product. And the even more appealing fact is that almost 60% of consumers start their research for a product over search engines.
So with an effective content marketing, eCommerce business has a better chance of attracting shoppers to their brand site early in the search process.
Like product reviews & buying guides are perfect examples of effective content that can change the game.
Effective Sales Pitch
Content marketing has the biggest benefit in assisting for an effective sales pitch. It actually teaches rather than direct selling.
Nowadays, audience is more keen in getting informed and engaged in content that just a mere sales pitch, which is all about ‘selling’ selling’.
Here, eCommerce brand is promoted in a more user-friendly way, with the help of Content Marketing.
Image source: eCommerce Insiders
Improved Shopping Experience
High-quality content augments the user-experience in their complete journey with understandings and entertainment.With content available, the amount of time completely changes that a shopper spends during the shopping. Adding a declaration of conformity and other T&C policies precisely enhances the buyer’s understanding and also boosts the trust towards the website.
Display Products In A Meaningful Way
Casual content or personal content has the ability to display the products in context and show their value in a more meaningful way.
A stronger emotional bond allows a user to understand what exactly they are about to own and increases the urge to buy.
Content can also educate the shopper on how to use the product or it useful features, that are unknown to them till the point.
Product videos
This form of content has great sales benefits. With figures from various researches,
- 73% of online shoppers make the buying decision after watching the video
- 14% of search results cumulate to videos
- 46% online shopper avoids online shopping if video is unavailable
- 71% of online shoppers trust videos for better explanation
- 58% of online shoppers find brands with product videos as more trustworthy
So if you now believe the power of product videos, then how about when they are incorporated into an effective product strategy.
My Final take:
For me, if an eCommerce brand builds their strategy with words, it will definitely reach out to the mass.
It will not only give out a superior website, but will help in escalating sales without getting near to direct & aggressive selling.
Indeed, the website will become more search friendly and user-friendly.
It not only generates higher traffic for a website, but is capable of converting traffic into sales.
To avail each benefit of Content marketing for your eCommerce brand, offer content that is high in quality, offers a solution to the users, informs/educates them, arouses a positive emotion and finally engages the online user in taking an action i.e. ‘The Final Sales Transaction’.
So what’s your take on the content strategy for an eCommerce brand that looks out to gain a competitive edge.
Do share your opinions & feedback, or if you wish to add something valuable that missed the spot in this particular write-up.
