Ecommerce Content Strategy: Triple Traffic with a Proven Plan

Let’s talk about ecommerce content marketing and it’s importance.

Too many online store owners and marketers ignore the power of content marketing.

But, every other traffic-driving activity you do will work even better for you (that means lower cost of acquisition) if you have a good content marketing strategy and execution.

I could dive in and tell you all about PPC (which I will) or how to optimize your site for search (which we will talk a bit about), but neither of those activities will get you a 10x boost in traffic without content marketing.

So, let’s start from the beginning and build a solid content foundation to lower cost of acquisition, improve customer lifetime value and grow a brand for the long-term. 

What is Content Marketing?

In general, content marketing is the creation of content in various different formats like written articles, tutorial videos, infographics, and the sharing of that content to targeted audiences with the goal of generating more leads, building your brand and driving more customers to your website.

Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing, designed primarily to bring an audience to you, from where those people are already out searching for answers online—whether that be on search engines, video discovery platforms, social media networks or otherwise.

Using Content Marketing to Stand Out (Today).

It’s more challenging than ever to truly stand out from the competition with your content marketing efforts, though.

Publishing a quick 500-word blog post on a subject your prospects care about, no longer makes the cut.

In today’s content marketing landscape, there’s an incredible race to the top in terms of the amount of free value brands and individuals are willing to offer through content creation.

So, how do you get your content to stand out in a crowded space?

Well, it turns out that it’s still possible to quickly rise above the competition in a very difficult industry.

Take blogger and content marketer, Ryan Robinson’s recent guide to learning how to start a blog, for example.

While this topic has literally billions of search results and millions of competitors vying for the top spot in organic search rankings, Robinson’s been able to climb high up the first page of results in a matter of just a few short months.

How? By going way above and beyond the amount of value other free pieces of content offered on this subject matter.

With his guide clocking in at well over 20,000 words in length, it’s almost twice as in-depth as anything else ranking well for this topic.

But on top of just the level of depth, Robinson’s post also contains embedded tutorial videos, interviews, screenshots of his own processes and results, audio recordings, customized infographics, free downloadable templates, and an even more in-depth free course for readers that want to further their education on building a blog.

If you learn anything from this example, it’s that you’ll need to raise the quality bar if you want to get ahead with your own content marketing strategy.

Now, let’s briefly talk about the fundamentals of developing a content marketing strategy and how this will help take your marketing efforts to the next level.

What Should You Write About?

The biggest challenges facing your target audience today.

If you can introduce your prospects to free content that immediately helps to solve some of their problems, you’ll give them a hell of a lot more confidence in choosing you when it’s time for them to invest in a paid tool, solution, or resource on the subject at hand.

So, how can you identify these most pressing questions, challenges, hurdles—and then meet those needs with high-quality, transformational content (in the format your audience most want to consume that content)?

Ask your audience.

Interview your existing audience about their biggest challenges, taking their answers as potentially golden ideas for future content you could produce.

This’ll also be extremely useful when it comes to prioritizing features for your product in the long run.

Research your competitors.

Which questions your competitors are out there answering with their content?

In what format are they delivering that content?

Then, identify ways you could create something that stands out as more unique and valuable.

Dig into your own experiences.

You didn’t build your business without learning a thing or two about the industry you’re in.

Chances are, you’ve got some unique experience and insights to share through content, with others in your audience who want to replicate your success or achieve a result you’ve gotten.

In order to build out a cohesive, well-diversified overall content marketing strategy, you should take into account utilizing multiple different content formats like we mentioned above—a mix of written blog posts, video, audio, eBooks, and experimenting with paid advertising campaigns to drive in early audiences that’ll interact with your content.

Next, will be learning how to drive traffic to your website, and then implementing calls-to-action throughout your content that’ll generate leads from the audience that shows up to consume that content.

In order to do this, you’ll need to grow your website’s domain authority—a measure of how authoritative search engines view your website—which takes time, effort, and most of all consistency.

You can build your domain authority over time by consistently writing relevant, fresh content, then getting that content shared and mentioned by other established brands & individuals in related fields.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or need a content marketing evaluation for your existing blogs, there’s a game plan for you.

Let’s get right into how to do this step-by-step, with content marketing tips that will get you started on the path to free traffic.