Content marketing is the new frontier for the marketing industry. Quality content writing in 2020 is no longer the secret tool of the giant conglomerates. It is now accessible to anyone who wishes to integrate it into their marketing strategy.
This is especially true if your company is web-based. Without content, your company consumers might have a hard time finding your company online and it can be quite hard to explain what it is that you do.
Now, there is so much out there to learn about content, new content marketing trends, how it works, and how to apply it, that it can be overwhelming. There are way too many ‘experts’ selling the secrets to online success.
Who do you believe?
How much do you need to invest in learning?
Will you ever know enough to feel confident to start using content writing in 2020 as a major part of the strategy?
Is there something you do not know about and everyone else seems to be using?
Let’s start with the basics.
What is content marketing?
What are the new content marketing trends?
It is the process of writing content with the aim to distribute it in order to directly or indirectly promote products and services. In other words, it can be a straight forward ad, a long article full of value, or anything in between.
Since the spectrum of content marketing is too large, today we will cover content writing in 2020 for e-commerce businesses only.
When you are an e-commerce company your content needs are vastly different, and more demanding, than a traditional brick-and-mortar store. Too often you see major e-commerce sites focusing entirely on the traditional digital marketing technique and neglect to see what can drive businesses in a higher ground.
Our advice is to take a look at your competitors, do not copy them, instead simply be aware of what they are doing.
Then focus on conversions. So there you have it, place conversions are the forefront of your content strategy and let’s get started.
The Process
Having a solid strategy in place, and in line with the rest of the marketing plan is the first thing you need to establish.
Remember we are focusing on conversions. This is the ultimate key performance indicator(KPI) of whether you are doing well as an e-commerce company.
According to Amazon Seo Consultant, we can see the averageconversion rates for major industries in the graph below.
The first thing to do in theory and in practice is to isolate your ‘why’ and define it as best as you can.
Why are you choosing a particular portal or platform to publish your content?
Is it because it is overall a popular platform?
This might not make sense for your product or service. Understanding your ‘why’ will allow you to isolate where your content needs to be published. To understand your ‘why’ we need to consider three important elements.
First Element | Audience
Naturally, for the most part, most e-commerce companies have an idea who their ideal client is, right? Even though you might know the details take a few minutes and write down the details which should include:
Age
Gender
Location
Likes
Dislikes
Habits
Keeping in mind always that an audience is a dynamic element, meaning that it can change depending on what new product you are launching, etc. Therefore, it is good to create this short demographic clarification for each one of your products.
Element 2 | Habits
Digital marketing is all about various interactions online. For these interactions to happen successfully you need to define some habits your audience has.
Where does your audience hang out online?
What social platform do they prefer to use?
What are the main issues your audience cares about lately?
What time do they seem to be online mostly?
How much time do they spend reading content online?
Who do they trust?
Do they prefer playful content or heavy analytical content?
What are the new content marketing trends they tend to follow?
Once you know where your audience hangs out, you will identify where you need to publish most of your content. Knowing the issues that are ‘trending’ with that audience will allow you to integrate elements of those issues in your writing and make direct or indirect connections to your products and services.
Understanding details such as the amount of time they spend reading content will navigate your content writing in 2020 to be the right size. Another important element is knowing who they trust.
Is it a particular set of influencers? If so, then work at establishing a relationship with those influencers. Identifying influencers and working with them has never been easier. A number of influencer platforms have popped up lately.
Some examples include:
You get the idea right?
Knowing their habits will save you major cash, and increase your conversion rates.
According to Convince and Convert the following chart breaks down the social media preferences by generation:
What does this mean for you?
Even though certain platforms report higher usage numbers, do not use that data to make decisions. Instead, search and find where your audience is frequenting.
Publishing ads and content on Instagram, for example, when your target audience is people over 55 years of age, would not be a good investment of your marketing budget.
Element 3 | Content Creation
Once you know your audience and your platforms and other outlets for distribution, it is now time to create!
If you were to start building content before defining the first two elements you run a high risk of creating content that your audience is not interested in, and paying to publish it in platforms that your audience is not using.
Have you heard the phrase that one picture is worth 1000 words?
Let’s see this in the example below, which demonstrates the content marketing funnel.
Not all content has the same intent.
There are six stages in the customer journey. For each stage, you will need a different kind of content. The image covers B2B and B2C companies.
Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Intent
Evaluation
Purchase
According to trackmaven, the following funnel represents the three stages clearly.
For us the bigger the section the more effort a company needs to place for that part. For example, awareness right at the top of the funnel might need a lot of content. This is because people have never heard of you, so far they have lived their lives without your products, therefore your company needs to work hard to stand out. As a company moves deeper into the funnel it makes sense that the user will need less and less information. Doing the opposite can scare people off.
For each stage, there are various types of content that a company can use.
Type of Content
Once you understand that you have six stages in your process, you can start developing the appropriate content for each stage. What are some kinds of content that you need to consider for each stage?
Blog Articles
Here you have the least restrictions in creativity. You can take the user by the hand and explain anything that needs to be addressed (depending at what part of the process they are at currently). Take a moment and learn how to optimize SEO and how to use calls-to-action (CTAs) for better results.
Photos
People rely heavily on visuals these days. It is a quick way to get the point across. Take pictures of your products. Make sure your e-commerce site carries enough visuals to allow the user a ‘feel’ of the product.
Videos
As far as new content marketing trends, video is taking over. People prefer watching a tutorial on how to use a product, even if they have never seen that product before in their lives.
This is part of the reason why influencers are extremely successful as well. Create a few videos of people using your products or services ( and make sure they look happy doing it!)
Assuming you are capturing the users’ information (with their consent of course), you need to craft an email for each stage of the process. Make emails light and fun, and always include your CTAs.
User-Generated Content
You have to plan for this right from the start so you do not miss golden opportunities from super happy clients. User-generated content (UGC) includes testimonials, reviews and other comments your clients leave publically for your company. It is worth noting that UGC is among the big new content marketing trends of 2020.
UGC will be an invaluable part of your strategy once the client moves further down the funnel and starts considering your product. These are some examples of content you can use during each stage.
However, content creation by nature is very dynamic so do not be afraid to experiment. Are you using any particular tips and tricks to increase your conversion rates for your e-commerce company?
Remember, sharing is caring.
Comment below and let us know.