24 Juicy Tips for Ecommerce Content Marketing from Inbound Marketing Pros

ReferralCandy PRESENTS 24 600D TO THE LAST DROP! POSSIBLY THE LONEST HANGING FRUIT! JUICY TIPS FOR ECOMMERCE CONTENT MARKETING FROM INBOUND MARKETING PROS YOU NEED A REASON, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? BUILD A STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR AUDIENCE INTERESTING CONTENT IS A TOP 3 REASON PEOPLE FOLLOW BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT 702 OF CONSUMERS PREFER GETTING TO KNOW A COMPANY VIA ARTICLES THAN ADS Rand Fishkin taught me As long as people see content as a means to an end (getting higher rankings and distracting people so you sell more stuff) instead of part of the end itself (building strong relationships and an enduring audience who will ALWAYS buy your stuff) it'll stay crappy. that content isn't for direct signups - it's to create loyalty, branding and familiarity. LEO WIDRICH CO-FOUNDER, BUFFER IAN LURIE CEO, PORTENT INTEGRATE IT AS PART OF A GREAT USER EXPERIENCE WELCOME NOT SURE WHAT YOU WANT? HEAD OVER TO T BLOG 867. OF CONSUMERS WILL PAY MORE AND WE'LL SHOW YOU FOR A CUSTOMER E Av N THE BENEFITS OF EACH FRUITI FRUIT BLOG Experience is never divorced from Consider the user journey as they commerce, so as long as your structure their content and site ecommerce site feels more like a experience. In my experience, we are usually called on to accommodate gift shop and less like Walmart. you're on the right track. many different buying stages. RYAN DEISS DJ FRANCIS VP OF CONTENT STRATEGY, FOUNDER & CEO, DIGITALMARKETER.COM IMAGINATION PUBLISHING To most ecommerce sites, content feels almost like a distraction. They're there to sell products, and can't make a good, data-verified connection between content and sales. So content gets shunted off to the blog, separated from the products, which of course reduces the impact, and makes it seem more like a distraction. IAN LURIE CEO, PORTENT WHO ARE YOU WRITING FOR, EXACTLY? YOU HAVE TO BE SÚPER SPECIFIC. HOW DO I STAY HEALTHY? GET TO KNOW THEM ENGAGEMENT DATA HOW'RE YOU FEELING TODAY, MRS HUDSON? GREATI MY LITTLE GRANDSON Is LEARNING HOw TO WALK! NEWI INFO- GRAPHICS SOCIAL LISTENING ADS OPINIONS Choose who you want to reach, and find out everything you can about them. Their problems and desires. Get to know your shoppers through data, social listening and engagement via real conversations. The data will The topics that relate to those problems and desires. The language let you know how well types of content are performing. Social listening will give you an idea of what your customers are looking to see from you. Engagement opens dialog and actually empowers consumers to feel they are a part of your business. they use when searching Google and social media for those topics. Who else is serving the needs of these people, both with content and with products and services. CARMELLA LANNI BRIAN CLARK BLOGGER, THE VEGAN E-COMMERCE GIRL CEO, COPYBLOGGER MEDIA DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO FEEL 5 IDENTIFY ENTERTAINING OR HELPFUL TOPICS YOUNG ENERGETIC OPTIMISTIC BANANAS IN PYJAMAS ANNOYING ORANGE KEYWORDS FRUIT NINJA trwo OF CONSUMERS FEEL 607. MORE POSITIVE ABOUT A COMPANY AFTER READING CUSTOM CONTENT ON ITS SITE Think about the broad set of topics that may be helpful (or entertaining) to your potential Make sure you have a really well shoppers. Don't be salesy. Just share stuff that relates to them. thought out positioning statement. This should summarize very succinctly Once you're getting that attention, the sets of feelings that you want to you're hoping to squeeze the engender among your target social, search and email benefits customer. Having this will not only from it, making all of your position you in the customer's mind, it will help you focus your efforts. marketing gradually more effective. ANDY CRESTODINA PAUL MAY WEB STRATEGIST AND CO-FOUNDER, ORBIT MEDIA CEO, BUZZSTREAM 6. FIGURE OUT INTERESTING CONTENT THAT HELPS SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS FEELING HOT? HERE ARE 24 FRUIT DRINKS THAT'LL COOL YOU DOWNI BLOG LINK Every customer really only The best content is Create content not about products but rather is a focus that sells the wants two things from your content: (1) Help overcoming something negative; (2) Help achieving something positive. And, really, that's what all products do as well. lifestyle around on the problems that buyers face. your products, not just the products DAVID themselves. MEERMAN SCOTT MARKETING & MARK SALES STRATEGIST MACDONALD DANIEL BURSTEIN WEBINKNOW.COM GROWTH TEAM & DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT, MECLABS CONTENT MANAGER SHOPIFY Sell around a vertical. If you're REI, it's outdoor and sporting gear. Petco is about pets. What content will help solve your customers' problems, answer their questions, inspire them to try new things, tell stories around their interests? Start producing content that is useful and interesting to your target audience. Give them a reason to come to your website. Without that, outreach to influencers isn't going to be Start reading consumer magazines in your sector. Experiment, learn what resonates, and develop a content effective. In terms of finding influencers, you can use a tool lke SEOmoz's FollowerWonk - strategy from there. or even Twitter search. REBECCA LIEB DHARMESH SHAH CTO, HUBSPOT DIGITAL ADVERTISING & MEDIA ANALYST, ALTIMETER GROUP YOU CAN START ANYWHERE, BUT YOU GOTTA FIGURE OUT YOUR PROCESS AS YOU GO. DON'T PUMP CONTENT, PUMP OUT PASSION 8. GET CONTENT CREATORS INVESTED IN CONTENT CREATION PASSION MOTIVATION! WHAT YOU KNOW WELL WHAT YOU LOVE MORE BANANAI Only write about what comes If you can go to people and say, look, you've told us about the time constraints of your job, we know you're hesitant to commit to anything. from passion. Sure, you are not going to outrank Mr. Humungo. But slowly but surely you will build a local and relevant but here is an editorial calendar that audience and in the end it is not about attracting 1 million people, it is about attracting the 1,000 that are in your area takes into account your time limitations, and here's the kind of support we can offer you during the process.. and here is WHY we want you to create this content.. then you that want to give you money. have a solid business case that also AVINASH KAUSHIK seems manageable to the individual. DIGITAL MARKETING EVANGELIST, GOOGLE KRISTINA HALVORSON CEO, BRAIN TRAFFIC START BY GUEST POSTING 10 INCLUDE SOCIAL PROOF HERE'S WHY TIM'S APPLES ARE THE HEALTHIEST WHY EVERYONE LOVES TIM'S APPLES: REVIEM THE BEST GREATI VIBEO LOVE IT! Start by guest posting - not by writing your own blog. Put your best free content on the blogs your prospects are already reading. Don't try to beat those influential blogs; Content marketing delivered by the brand must be complemented by content generated by brand or product advocates. Brands that partner with them. They're looking for epic content, and you're looking for so be uber-businessy about it and 'synergize'. emulate, if not duplicate, the best aspects of social networks not only activate a self-sustaining model of rospects3B content marketing, but they can become more trusted in the process. KIERAN TAYLOR CMO, BLUCARAT JOANNA WIEBE FOUNDER, COPYHACKERS.COM 11 WRITE IN A TWO-STEP PROCESS 06:30 AM 03:00 PM EDIT AND WRITE PRIORITY FOCUS ON DETAILS RESEARCH: I HR PRIORITY: BREAK THE BLANK PAGE" SYNDROME! The first step is the sourcing process. I find lots of research studies on a topic. Write a few sub-headings and basically make a big mess in a word document. I intentionally jot down lots of things that don't flow well. I do this for around an hour or so. Then I go and do other tasks. Then in the afternoon, I get back to the post. The great thing is that my brain has by then normally made sense of all the different sections. I then edit and write the actual content in a concise form. In this second phase l'm very focused on the actual wording, the flow and ordering all the research I've collected. I then publish that post next thing in the morning after doing a few final tweaks, like adding images, and so on. LEO WIDRICH CO-FOUNDER, BUFFER THERE ARE STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE YOU SHOULD AIM FOR. 12 WRITE IN YOUR AUDIENCE'S LANGUAGE 13 TRY LONG-FORM WRITING WHY DO I NEED TO EAT FRUITS? AND FRUITS 500 800 WORD COUNT What we call SEO copywriting is Long-form stuff definitely works. But not for complex stuff - it is usually consumer-focused and impulse-buy. It is not against best-practice. It is actually in a long actually reflecting the language of the audience back at them (when done correctly). This has been the secret to effective copywriting in general for decades before search engines. The key is to quit worry about gaming an algorithm (that's getting more "person like" all the time) and focus on the language of and battle-tested tradition of direct response copywriting. The stuff has been around for many decades with people like Eugene Schwartz. I wouldn't use it for expensive B2B stuff though. the audience in order to connect with them, first and foremost. BRIAN CLARK CEO, COPYBLOGGER MEDIA TIM ASH CEO, SITETUNERS CHAIR OF CONVERSION CONFERENCE 14 USE VISUALS WITH RESTRAINT TEXT VISUAL MOTION ORANGE HIERARCHY OF DISTRACTION I VISUAL ATTENTION People misunderstand the power of visuals. Basically they distract the visitor and make it hard for them to prioritize. There is a hierarchy and stuff at the higher levels will prevent the visitor on focusing on more subtle stuff at the lower levels. So cut back on the motion and the window-dressing - boring works. TIM ASH CEO, SITETUNERS CHAIR OF CONVERSION CONFERENCE 15 BREAK DOWN COMPLEX ISSUES AND VISUALLY DEMONSTRATE CONCEPTS WITH INFOGRAPHICS I love infographics IF - and only if - they're done well. I think infographics have been abused and have gotten a bad rap as a result. But when we're analyzing data from thousands of advertisers and looking at billions in spend, charts are boring. Infographics can really help break down complex issues and visually demonstrate concepts If they're done right. LARRY KIM CTO, WORDSTREAM INC. PEOPLE ARE BUSY SO YOU HAVE TO REACH OUT TO THEM. 16 FIND PROMOTABLE TOPICS FOLLOWERWONK LOOK AT THE WORD CLOUD OF ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF THE BIGGEST PLAYER. HEALTH TASTE WEATHER CONTENT USE THOSE KEYWORDS KEEP THE CONVERSATION COING THROUGH RELEVANT SOCIAL CHANNELS. CO-RELEVANT CONTENT IDEAS. REWARD PROFILEN. PUSH THE CONTENT AT THEIR FOLLOWERS THROUGH OUTREACH AND ADS. BLOG LINK NEWSLETTER SIGNUPS AND FOLLOWS. MIKE KING DIGITAL STRATEGIST AND INBOUND MARKETER, IPULLRANK.COM 17 APPLY THE 5 PRINCIPLES FOR CONTENT PROMOTION PLAN SEGMENT LEVERAGE ENGAGE AUTOMATE FRUIT LOVERS FINDING CONTACT INFO HEALTH- CONSCIOUS PEEPS COLLECTING METRICS CITRUS FANS BROADEN THE SPEND AT LEAST AS MUCH TIME PLANNING AS YOU DO ON THE ACTUAL PROMOTION PEOPLE YOU REACH OUT TO BY SEGMENTING YOUR -CONTENT MARKET LIST OF LEVERAGE EASIER TO ACQUIRE LINKS TO HELP GET THE MORE DIFFICULT ONES ENGAGE IN YOUR COMMUNITY PRIOR TO OUTREACH AUTOMATE LOW-VALUE TASKS PAUL MAY CEO, BUZZSTREAM 18 BUILD A FAN BASE 19 PERFORM EMAIL MARKETING CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE CONTENT NEWSI FAN BASE CONTENT PRODUCTION AREETING AIGN SEARCH CAMPA NALYSIS, METRICE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT SOCIAL PRACTICES ACTIVITY CHANNEL I. Love. Email marketing! Strategically, I believe that start-ups should be building permission assets - groups of If you are not thinking about the transformative nature of mobile on email consumption and engagement, you are making a BIG MISTAKE. people who are excited to hear what they have to say (tactically, I'm a big fan of email marketing). AVINASH KAUSHIK DIGITAL MARKETING EVANGELIST, GOOGLE WILL CRITCHLOW CO-FOUNDER, DISTILLED YOU NEED TO MEASURE THE EFFECTS OF YOUR WORK OR YOU'RE FOOLING YOURSELF. 20 OBSERVE THE HIERARCHY OF METRICS VISITORS DOLLARS IN THE DOOR (ČUSTOMERS) LEADS (PROXY PORNERSURE (PROXY FOR FÜTÜRE LEADS) I'M BUYINGI I'M CONSIDERINGI I'M AWARE! - BETTER METRICS FOR MEASUREMENT MORE DUBIOUS > The motivation behind measurement is to figure out what is working and what is not. Most of the time, we measure things that we think are indicative of the thing we actually want. Because often, it's hard to measure the thing we actually want. DHARMESH SHAH CTO, HUBSPOT 21 AUTOMATE A CUSTOM REPORT WITH ONLY SPECIFIC METRICS THAT YOU CARE ABOUT FOCUS ON KEY METRICS 2: • AUTOMATE THE PROCESS EMAIL LEADS SIGNUPS METRICS Aside from forensic data dives, webmasters should only spend their time monitoring key performance indicators (metrics on 'roids) that they care about. So for one webmaster, this might be just the basics. For another, they might be a brick and mortar who only cares about traffic from their sales regions, let's just say. That will require a custom report using some advanced(ish) metrics. But all too often, marketers don't automate this process and do the same repetitive tasks week after week, month after month. ANNIE CUSHING FOUNDER, ANNIELYTICS 22 MONITOR DWELL TIME DOES PAGE SPEED CAUSE HIGHER OR LOWER DWELL TIME? ANY CORRELATION TO SOCIAL SHARING? IS THERE A DWELL TIME THAT LEADS TO HIGHER CONVERSION RATE? IN SOME CASES. DOES DWELL TIME CAUSE ME TO MAKE MORE REPEAT VISITS (AND MONEY)? DWELL TIME BACK For sites like my blog a very large percentage of people will just come to read the latest post or one post to solve a specific problem. Dwell time tells you what that engagement looks like because all web analytics tools stink (natively) at capturing time for single page view visits. I use the data to figure out what content is causing people stay and read. AVINASH KAUSHIK DIGITAL MARKETING EVANGELIST, GOOGLE THE BEST PART OF ALL OF THIS IS THAT YOU GET TO GET BETTER AT IT. 23 JUST KEEP DOING OVER AND OVER FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON. MAKE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR FOR YOURSELF. SARC WROTE DO IT. ASK FOR FEEDBACK. SET ASIDE WRITING TIME FOR YOURSELF HONOR IT. Remember high school English? That's where you learned how to write (or, you were supposed to-heh). And you learned from doing it over and over again. KRISTINA HALVORSON CEO, BRAIN TRAFFIC 24 REWORK CONTENT FOCUS HEAVILY ON DESIGN THINK ABOUT CHANNELS INCORPORATE FEEDBACK EXPLICITLY EMPATHIZE HERE'S WHY TIM'S APPLES ARE THE HEALTHIEST DEFINE VIDEOS BLOGPOSTS IDEATE SPECIAL THANES 10 JONY FOR HIS PERDRACKI TIM'S APPLES PROTOTYPE KEYNOTE TEST EMAILS SLIDE DECKS EGO-BAITS WORKI I think that I've been too guilty of always moving onto the next thing rather than seeing all the different ways that a piece can be repurposed. WILL CRITCHLOW CO-FOUNDER, DISTILLED CRAFTED BY S ReferralCandy ART DIRECTION INSPIRED BY: HAËLLE CHEVAL SOURCES: http://ogcontent.com/ecommerce-content-marketing/ http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/05/28/content-marketing-ama http://www.inboundwriter.com/content-marketing/infographic-the-anatomy -of-content-marketing-2/ http://www.technicallymarketing.com/index.php/2013/05/10/the-importance- of-the-customer-expérience-1o-important-stats-for-2013/ LI KELI HOOD OF SUCCESS