There are various ways to aid customers discover your business online – but most of them need a financial investment on your part. Thankfully, content marketing presents a lower-cost option to paid ads. It democratizes the playing arena: if you’re ready and able to put in the effort, you’ll achieve success even without key financial resources.
Let’s describe what content marketing is and then explore the ways it draws your ideal customers.
What Is Content Marketing?
At its core, content marketing involves problem-solving.
Your target customers possess a problem or a question, and they’re searching for answers. You provide a service or product that solves their problem. If you offer them precious – and timely – information about their problem, they’ll be more inclined to pick your offering as their solution. The information you offer them constitutes content marketing.
Content marketing takes different forms, like:
- Blog posts
- Webinars
- Tutorials
- eBooks, checklists, and guides
- Special reports
- White papers
- Videos
- Infographics
Whatever the format, the goal stays the same: to offer potential customers answers, solutions, and clarity.
The following are the ways to grow your online store with content marketing:
# 1 Attract Leads
In the absence of content like tutorials or posts, your website depends on product pages. However, everyone doesn’t know about the need for your product, or that it even is present. People don’t look up Google to search for a product; they look for an answer. That’s one cause content marketing runs hand in hand with search engine optimization.
Imagine your online business is comparatively new and a friend inquires if you possess liability insurance. You ask why you require liability insurance. Your friend simply answers, “Because every business has it.” That isn’t very useful! So what do you do? You move online and search, “why do businesses need liability insurance.”
You’re putting forth a question, not searching for “best liability insurance companies.” You’re not prepared to purchase insurance, but your query is one that could ultimately result in a purchase. If the information you unravel assures you that you need liability insurance, your following step will be to search for insurance providers.
Some insurance companies contain blog posts that answer this query while other companies don’t. Which companies will display in search results?
That’s the way content marketing attracts leads.
# 2 Nurture Leads
With your new leads, you can take one of two steps:
- Sell them something instantly
- Gather their contact information and begin nurturing them
The second choice pertains to leads who may not be prepared to purchase, but wish to remain informed regarding your products and services. If you present them useful content – a free guide or an eBook – they’ll happily give their email address or follow you on social media.
Your leads have now become contacts, and you can now pursue them so long as they stay on your mailing list. As you keep on generating new content – videos, blog posts, infographics, PDFs, webinars – dispatch it to your email list and post it to your social media accounts.
By continuously offering content that solves issues and answers queries, people start to rely on you as a source of useful information. When they’re willing to buy, they’ll pick you.
# 3 Turn Leads Into Buyers
Based on the problem you’re solving, some content can straightly sell the solution and link to relevant product pages simultaneously. It solves a problem by sales, recommending particular item readers can utilize to invite people to attend their bridal party.
However, you can even convert readers into customers with blog posts that don’t particularly associate with your products.
Gorilla Printing, a big format printing business located out of New York, penned a blog post that describes how large format printing functions. They show different examples and offer details regarding the process. If you visit the page, you’ll see a chatbot in the corner. Readers might possess extra questions, which they can inquire straight on the post without needing to go elsewhere.
Gorilla Printing employs content marketing to draw leads and then presents additional ways to interact with them. Inside the blog post, and most definitely near the end, you should always present the reader a following step to take. At the least, you should provide them a means to contact you – such as a link to your contact page or a chatbot – or a free offer in return for their email. Though it may not lead to an instant sale, pursuing to engage likely customers raises the opportunity that they will become purchasing customers.
# 4 Design How-to Videos
Videos enable customers to know more about your products, and they’re more interactive than text. If you vend a niche product, videos present an excellent way to exhibit how to use the product and outline different benefits and features.
Within your videos, you can expect and answer questions to convert possible customers into knowledgeable buyers.
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# 5 Add Product Photos
You’re selling products, as an ecommerce site. This implies that you require to include creative pictures of your presentations into your content strategy.
Utilizing images on your company’s blog and Instagram will interest customers to know more. And integrating valuable content with high-quality images motivates customers to join with your brand.
For instance, if you are a seller of home decor, build a blog post regarding how to decorate for every season. Load your post with tricks and tips, together with attractive images of your products. Not only will this offer readers useful advice, it will aid them visualize your items in their homes and encourage them to purchase.
# 6 Be An Online Hub
Don’t fear to become an authority in your sphere. Your content doesn’t require to be highly branded, though by publishing content associated with your sector and trends, customers will revert to your site if they have queries.
This can go far in the matter of building trust with buyers, and you’ll disassociate yourself from the rivals who are extremely busy compelling the hard sell. Converting your content into an online media hub will draw traffic to your online store. You may also score some striking backlinks from other trustworthy sites and enhance your SEO initiatives.
Go digital into a powerhouse channel for pushing sales.
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# 7 Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) worth is among the greatest advantages of content marketing for any industry. When you design original content, like infographics and blog posts, you can include keywords that will aid your content attain best results in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Research the keywords which people usually search for when searching for your product, and employ them across your content to spike your organic rankings.
# 8 Relationship Building
Content marketing also permits you to cultivate trust and form relationships with your scheduled audience. If you offer consistently useful information, people will see you as a professional in your field and a reliable source of information. By generating helpful content that assists people attain their goals, you will earn credibility among potential customers and peers.
Useful content also opens the entrance to networking opportunities with different businesses and industry professionals within your niche. Associating with non-contesting brands also enhances your clout and builds rapport in your industry.
# 9 Greater Conversions And Income
A strong content marketing scheme leads to growing leads and conversions for your online store. Hosting text and video illustrations of your products will assist you sell the benefits of your presentations, and this raises the chances that people will purchase.
As per Econsultancy, 100% of ecommerce companies surveyed mentioned revenue as a commercial gain of content marketing. Moreover, 60% of companies accept that content engagement is growing.
The numbers are self-explanatory. Investing in content marketing can offer serious ROI for your ecommerce site, and it can aid you turn potential leads into earning, loyal customers.
# 10 Engage Your Audience
After you have had your content placed and running, make it spread! It’s useless developing content if it’s unheard of, so attempt engaging customers on your channels Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram,… or email newsletter. The initial method you can attempt today is presenting some small but exciting incentives such as a discount code, and requesting your customers to follow you. Then, you only have to send these interested clients your nicely-prepared content campaign and see your conversion rate rising.
# 11 Learn From Your Industry Influencers And Write Shareable Content
Without excellent, shareable and regular content, or marketing efforts won’t draw customers’ interest for long. One method to discover ideas to generate nice content is to locate and learn from famous influencers within your industry. Form a list of the best 20 blogs, social media accounts that you find exciting and follow them, you must be updated with ideas daily. Know how they are producing content to draw their audience and you may get to adopt those methods to your own. Suppose you are vending cosmetics online, following beauty influencers like MIchelle Phan should provide you plenty of ideas to design and endorse your own content.
Conclusion
In the matter of developing a unified marketing strategy for your online store, elevating your content game should certainly be part of your business scheme.
Further, take time to cautiously consider which of the numerous digital and social media platforms you should concentrate your efforts on. Then include to it a scheme for what content marketing approaches you will use to best promote your brand.
You will obtain the answer through experience – so explore, play around, and learn.
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