Last Updated on September 13, 2024
Content marketing is all the rage nowadays with every SEO expert and online marketer hailing the importance of quality content for higher search engine visibility, more social media shares, and increased conversions.
E-commerce site owners concentrating on their bottom lines need to take heed of this industry trend, and realize that they can drive up their sales by building good content around the products they’re selling.
Product Descriptions
Starting off with a basic yet highly important content element to any e-commerce site, your product pages should have comprehensive copy. It has to contain every single detail about the featured product. This includes everything from the dimensions to the material to the contents if it comes with a number of items, as well as its features and benefits to the customer.
It’s certainly not enough to simply rewrite the descriptions given by the manufacturer, especially if the product is similar to others being sold online. Remember that the copy is there to help sell the product to the reader, and that duplicate content also looks suspicious to search engines.
Rich Media
Pictures are vital to rounding out your product pages, as there is a wholly reasonable natural tendency in online shoppers to be suspicious of fraudulent online stores. If you’re selling items such as furniture, clothes, equipment and anything else that usually needs some inspecting, you should provide high-resolution pictures of the actual products (in different angles, if possible).
What would be even better though is if you had videos of your products in use. It’s actually a tried-and-tested practice, with Zappos having an increase in sales by about 6% to 30% because of their product videos. It helped that they recorded real Zappos employees and not commercial actors, giving the videos an air of credibility.
Customer Reviews
One of the easiest ways to generate content for your e-commerce site is to allow your customers to write their own reviews on your products. Just get your web developed to code it into your site, and send email reminders to those who’ve actually purchased items that they can give their thoughts on the product. You don’t have to struggle with content ideas, as your customers will make content for you! You can even merge the video idea with this and let your customers record their own video reviews.
Customer reviews are multipurpose. The unique content looks good for search engines, the customers have a better idea about the quality of your products, they also trust you a lot more knowing that you let them voice their opinions, and you can use their feedback to improve your offerings.
FAQs and Forums
There might be general inquiries that your site’s visitors are always asking you regarding the products, the shopping process including payment methods and shipping, and other similar concerns. Instead of repeatedly addressing emails posing the same old questions, just gather them all together with your most in-depth answers in a single FAQ page.
Building upon that idea, you can also tap your network of colleagues and expert customers to provide more insight about your offerings, especially if you’re selling software or services. You can bring them to a forum on your website where they can answer more specific questions about your merchandise as well as anything regarding the industry you’re in.
Blog
If you really want to maximize your e-commerce site’s potential for higher traffic and more targeted leads, start writing a blog within the site. You just don’t want to make it overly promotional, as people read blogs to get more insight into a particular issue or actionable tips, not to get another sales pitch.
You can still link to your own merchandise, but cover them through broader concerns about your industry. Provide useful methods on how they can get more out of particular products. You can also use the blog to update your visitors about promos, deals, and new items. Remember to link to other relevant articles as well, so that they get more info that will help them make the decision to buy.
Conclusion
The foundation for success for any e-commerce website must be a good product/service that can bring something different to consumers. However, the increased competition online demands just as good content built upon that foundation to stand out. By providing every beneficial element of your goods and your process to your audience through that content, you reach out to more consumers and strengthen the relationship you have with your current customers.
