A lot of ecommerce founders/owners and marketers who’ve been around the block have heard about content marketing and are using it to their advantage, but they’re not sure how to transform their ecommerce content strategy into a lean, mean sales generating machine.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, then pay close attention to what I’m about to say, as I’ve been where you are now and I figured out what it takes to make your content marketing stand out from the crowd. There are 3 ways to do it…

#1: Occupy Wall Street & Ecommerce Content Strategy Don’t Mix!

The first way to improve the effectiveness of your Ecommerce Content Strategy is by shifting your focus from the 99% to the 1%.

Source: grist.org

Instead of trying to be heard by the many (the billions of consumers on planet Earth), why not give being heard by the few (the influencers in your market) a try? Because by establishing a relationship with an influencer, you’ll gain access to many potential customers in one go AND you gain some authority yourself because his/her/its credibility gives YOUR credibility a boost.

What classifies as an influencer in your market? A successful blogger, product review site, affiliate, author, news site, forum, competitor… and the list goes on and on.

You can create a relationship with an influencer by interviewing them about their knowledge & experience or by regularly interacting with them via social media or comments on their site for several weeks or months on end.

Once you’ve established a pretty solid relationship with an influencer it’s time to let your ecommerce content strategy cash in on it. How? I’m glad you asked!

• Why not ask influencers to check out a piece of content of yours and to share it via social media if they like it?
• Why not ask them to review your (best) products and post the review on their site?
• Why not offer to write content for their site so you can reach their audience multiple times and so they can keep their audience engaged and/or entertained?

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other ways your Ecommerce Content strategy can benefit from you establishing relationships with authorities in your industry. So, get creative with it!

#2: To Be or Not to Be With Your Ecommerce Content Strategy

Every buying decision is an emotional one. Better said: how much people are willing to pay for something depends on how valuable they FEEL it is. Price = perceived value. And guess what? The more someone can identify with your products, or with YOU for that matter, the more valuable he/she will think they are (or think you are).

Do you see where I’m going here?

What separates the rookies from the pros when it comes to selling is that rookies try and sell you the product, while pros try to sell you the product AND the man. And that’s why your ecommerce Content Strategy (dare I say your entire ecommerce site?) stands or falls by its ability to present your (company’s) personality to the consumer.

Because let’s face it: no one will EVER remember your brand if all you do on your ecommerce site is offer products and process payments. In this day and age, you need to show what your company stands for and what it won’t stand for or its future is doomed.

So, how do you humanize your brand with an ecommerce content strategy? Here are a few tips:

• Show you’re real: go behind the scenes and show how your products are made or give a tour of the office, introduce the people who work for your business, etc.
• Show you care: ask customers for feedback and then actually implement the feedback AND mention the person who gave the feedback by name, talk about the likes and dislikes of your (potential) customers even if they have nothing to do with your business, etc.
• Reveal a weakness or mistake: to err is human, so never be afraid to publicly state what you’re not good at and what you want to do about it & never be afraid to admit the company’s made mistakes and to show what was done to make up for them.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously: poke fun at your brand, yourself, and your products. Crack jokes in blog posts. Humor can go a long way towards making people care about your company.
• Be authentic: speak up about what you think most companies in your market are doing wrong, have an opinion about current events, etc. It’s better to be hated by many but loved by plenty than to be known by none.

#3: It’s Showtime for Your Ecommerce Content Strategy

What’s the basic premise of an ecommerce site? You go there to buy products and then you leave. Wham, bam, thank you Ma’am.

If you stick with this basic premise, then all your online store’s ever going to be is one of many, oh so many marketplaces where buyers and seller(s) meet. There’s nothing unique about it and people will be about as loyal to it as the scorpion was to the frog.

Source: karenbjones.com

You need to be looking for ways to make people stick around longer and to make them come back in the future with your content marketing. Because the longer people stay on your site and the more often they come back, the more likely it is that they’ll remember your brand and buy from you now or in the foreseeable future.

Put simply: your ecommerce business must not only be selling, it must also be ENTERTAINING.

You can add some entertainment value to your ecommerce content strategy by using things such as infographics and other interesting visuals, humor, writing like you talk (like I always do here on the Motriz Marketing blog), stories, contests and much, much more.

And now I’ve given you three ways to improve your ecommerce content strategy I want to end this one with a big fat cherry on top by saying: whatever you do, never assume your content marketing efforts are “good enough”.

Good is the enemy of great and you need to be great to outcompete your competitors!

With kindest regards,

Dennis Miedema