For a long time, online stores only provided brief product information and SEO text, and people had to look for the content elsewhere. Today, e-commerce is increasingly combining content and commerce: online customers want to be informed, inspired, and entertained throughout the entire buying process. Content marketing (or content-based commerce) presents great opportunities for companies. By providing a great digital customer experience, they can stand out from the competition and retain their customers. But the implementation is complicated. What are the real benefits of Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies? How does it work in practice and what technologies are needed? This article explains content marketing in detail.

Definition of Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies Strategies

The simplest definition of Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies is when a company publishes and distributes content to drive product sales through digital channels such as an online store. However, simply providing content is not enough. Content-driven commerce requires that content be strategically integrated into the shopping process to provide customers with the highest quality shopping experience possible.

The entire digital customer journey should be supported by content, from initial ideation, through product selection and purchase, to post-purchase use of the product. Customers must be able to access the content they need anytime and at any digital touchpoint.

Why are Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies becoming more and more important?

It sounds trivial, but more and more customers are shopping digitally as much of the customer journey is shifting to digital channels. The closure of local retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend.

Manufacturers and retailers need to provide their customers with an online shopping experience similar to that of a brick-and-mortar store, with no personal salespeople and no touch-and-play customers. try the product. An online store as a mere product catalog with a checkout function is not enough for this. Only with text, images, videos, and interactive elements can they “recreate” a high-quality customer experience.

Demand for advice on technical products travel, or even fashion for example is very high. Customers have dozens of questions and need to make sure they’re making the right decision. Content can provide answers. In addition, customers increasingly need to be entertained and inspired when shopping, beyond pure information.

Beating e-commerce giants like Amazon or global brands in terms of offering and performance is almost impossible. Many products are interchangeable. However, unique content offers an opportunity to differentiate and engage customers with your brand.

What opportunities do Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies offer?

What do retailers and brands gain from content marketing? What opportunities are there when they invest in Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies?

High-quality customer experience

Online shopping is hardly a substitute for shopping with friends, it is too technical, too boring, and not an experience. And those who need advice prefer to go to stores with real salespeople. Through E-commerce Content Marketing Strategies, retailers and brands can give their customers a better shopping experience.

Higher purchase rate

According to various studies, 60% – 80% of all online shoppers leave products in their shopping cart and do not complete the purchase. That’s because, just before the payment, doubts can arise. For example, the customer might ask “Is the product right?” The more well-informed customers feel, the more likely they are to complete a purchase with them.

Lower profit margin

According to a SaleCycle study, one in four products purchased online is returned. In some categories, such as fashion, two-thirds of all products ordered will be returned.

Common reasons are:

• Product in real life is different from the picture
• The size of the clothes received is larger or smaller than usual
• Customers realize when they try it out that the product doesn’t meet their expectations.

By providing detailed information, photos, and videos, you can prevent your online customers from making the wrong purchase and reduce the number of returns.

Less burden on customer service

Fewer returns also mean less work for customer service, call centers, and return processing. Help your customers use the product after purchase,  through content like how-to guides or FAQs, to use the product proficiently and avoid making mistakes. Then there are fewer problems that they have to deal with through their customer service.

Differentiate from the competition

Your competitors may offer products that are similar to yours or even sell the same. It’s hard to differentiate yourself purely based on what you have to offer. And offering more customer service than Amazon is unlikely. Your content offers one of the few opportunities in eCommerce to really stand out from the competition. Through your style of content, you can give your customers a unique experience they can only get from you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Thanks to Google, YouTube, TikTok, and more, targeted searches for products or ideas are often a prelude to the buying process. On average, organic traffic accounts for 1/3 to 1/2 of all visits to online stores. Through your content, people will find you more often, not only with your online store but also with all the channels you use.

Implement e-commerce content marketing techniques

It sounds as good as Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies and has many advantages for marketing and sales, but technical implementation is a challenge. Content-driven commerce requires a deep integration of content marketing channels with e-commerce functions. This is almost impossible to do with different or only partially compatible systems.

The basic problem is that data and content are distributed in different systems. Each system has its strengths and functions that are more or less suitable for certain types of content. For example, product data is managed in a store solution, the marketing text in a content management system, images and videos in a digital asset management software, and data for personalization to customers. from analysis software.

Different channels such as desktops and apps provide different user experiences. Tracking and personalization also don’t work across channels.

The best way to implement the integrated Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategies concept is to use a content management system (CMS) as the central building block. You connect all the data sources to the CMS.

Content authors can work with all data and content as if it were original, existing content in the CMS. They build campaigns and entire content experiences from content and create variations for personalization.

In turn, the content can be emitted to almost a multitude of different user interfaces and channels. Since all content is controlled by a central system, customers get a truly consistent experience across all channels, and omnichannel content marketing is truly possible.