5 Steps of Developing an Ecommerce Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is a widely recognised way to drive traffic to your website, create awareness for your brand, generate quality leads, earn customer loyalty, and provide a competitive advantage over others.

Benefits are immense, and you might have already tasted some of them. According to a survey held in 2015, there has been a 70% increase in the number of contents created by marketers compared to the previous year. As a result, 86% of B2B respondents have acknowledged the importance of content marketing.

But how does content marketing work? Well, the idea is that by using informative, well-written content to promote your business, you can become a trusted source of information. Once you have a solid reputation with users and the search engines, you’ll see search engine ranking improve, as well. Blogging is a form of content marketing that allows you to directly address the needs of your customer, giving them a reason to visit your site. From there, you’ll see even more organic traffic come to your website from the search engines, as they’ll view you in a positive manner.

But to attain the most of it, you must follow some strategies. We are here to guide you through 5 proven steps that can boost your content marketing and build trust with your audience.

#1. Define goals and identify your desired audience

The first step towards content writing is to define your goals. Why do you want to create content? Who is your audience?

Excellent content will attract the audience on its own. But, fascinating the wrong group of people is not the best thing for your brand.

Focusing on the right audience helps your content gain more value and solidifies your brand image, says Jason Ginsberg, social media head of a boutique creative agency Los Angles.

Below are some steps to recognise your preferred audience.

• A clear understanding of your Business and Products

Your content should focus on those who are related to your business and uses your services and products. Spend time to have a clear understanding of the services you provide and research to find all possible fields that can benefit from your business.

• Look at your current customer and create personas

Your existing clients are definitely among your desired audience. Create a database and organise your clients based on who they are, where they are from, their budget and what they need.

• Surveys on a Regular Basis

Surveys are an effective way to gain insights on your audience. Take feedback and use them to get a better understanding of their relationship with your company.

• Use the widely recognised Google Analytics

If you still don’t know, then quickly learn how to use Google analytics. It gives access to a vast group of data on your site visitors. You can understand how much traffic is coming from which area or marketing channel and how many of them are turning into leads.

• Use the Social Media Platforms

Different social media platforms have their analytics feature which you can use to look into your audience. Knowing your client’s gender and interests can also help you to enhance your content strategically.

#2. Decide what type of content you want to create

Now that you know the goal of your content and who your audience is, it’s time to decide what type of content you will go for. Is it going to be a blog, social media post, a report, a press release, infographic or video? Decide the type based on the purpose. You can certainly create multiple types of content if needed.

• Business blogging: more online visibility

Blogs are an effective platform for you to communicate with your leads and customers and converse with them. Your helpful content is the best way to establish authority. It is also responsible for transferring traffic to your website among which some turns to lead.

• Social media marketing and press release: establish a digital presence

If your goal is to get recognised, then the importance of social media marketing is noteworthy. People spend a lot of time on social media. They play a vital role in establishing your online presence. Similarly, press releases play a crucial part in presenting your organisation or business to the public.

• Infographic and videos: Make contents more appealing

By now you already know who your target audience is. Do you feel that long text articles will attract your clients or should you go for something more eye-catchy? Or should you focus on creating video contents or infographics? The use of pictures, videos, graphs and charts are sometimes the perfect way to attract readers.

#3. Plan steps in advance before creating your content

After determining your target audience and content type, the next step is to plan the succeeding steps of your action. Writing a high-quality content takes up a lot of time. So, let’s take a look at what things we need to plan.

1. It is possible that you need to write different sorts of content. In that case, at first group the content types based on priority.
2. Next step is to allocate time. There is always a deadline that you will have to maintain. So, start by allocating your time based on your tasks.
3. Targeting the right keywords is essential. In the planning stage, should find all the keywords for which you want your content to rank in the search engines.
4. The next stage of planning is to generate ideas. Have a look at your competitors and others who have written on this topic. It will give you an idea of what people want. Based on this, come up with ideas that are original and relevant to your business.

#4. Create content centring your plans

Now that all the other stages including planning are done start with creating the content. You can have in-house writers or outsource the tasks to freelancers.

If you decide to go with in-house writers, then it is always better to find someone who is an expert in the field. Prior knowledge makes it easy to provide more valid information to the audience.

A brief of the whole content plan should be provided to the writer so that everything goes smoothly. The writing pattern should be clear, fast and straightforward to read.

#5. Research and measure the performance of your content

The success or failure of a content is measured based on its purpose. One way to measure content performance is to conduct an SEO content audit and check if the contents have met your expectations. Use analytics to view data and get access to information regarding traffic and lead.

If the results are good and you are satisfied then pat yourself on the back. If not, then start from step one and review all the stages. Strategies need to be updated continuously but the key steps remain the same. Also measure shopify dropshipping course for ecommerce that helps you a lot.

You need to study the market, your team’s strengths and weaknesses to ensure that your content marketing strategies fulfil your goals.