When you see a video or a great blog pushed out by a brand, you take notice. No matter what the niche, if it’s something you’re interested in and the content catches your attention, chances are you’ll click through.
If the brand then continues to impress with regular, engaging content you’ll build up a sense of loyalty and probably opt for their products over the competition when making a purchase.
It’s more important than ever for ecommerce brands to have an engaging content marketing strategy. The relationship between media and buying decisions is only growing and it’s important online businesses are ahead of the game.
Here’s a roundup of five ecommerce brands already nailing their ecommerce SEO strategy through content marketing.
Net-a-porter
This online retail giant really pulls it out the bag when it comes to content marketing. It does something which most other ecommerce retailers wouldn’t really think to do – a bi-monthly hardcopy magazine called Porter. This is packed full of fashion advice, trends and brand features (whether their items are sold on the site or not). It provides it’s high end fashion consumers with objective and engaging content.
Why does it work?
Not only does it position the ecommerce brand as a thought leader in the fashion industry, it provides its specific audience with engaging content, making them more likely to make repeat purchases.
ASOS
Like Net-A-Porter, ASOS caught on to creating a magazine relatively early in 2007. Its digital version allows users to click through to purchase products whilst reading; revolutionising the way we approach fashion magazines. CEO Nick Robertson commented, ‘The business model for magazines, that was once advertising revenues, is now clothes sales.’
With cover stars including Blake Lively and Taylor Swift, ASOS has built a similar credibility to more traditional magazines in the fashion industry.
Why does it work?
The fashion giant was quick off the mark with understanding the strong relationship between media and ecommerce and acted accordingly by producing some stellar content. With over half a million readers (combined for print and digital versions) the magazine has garnered a strong, loyal audience.
Nike
Nike is pretty accurate when it comes to customer engagement. By using buyer personas, it has separate social media accounts targeted to different audience segments. Any content it pushes out is therefore super targeted, leading to more engagement.
The brand is very active on Pinterest, regularly sharing motivational quotes, images and video content. Nike understands its audience and as 80% of Pinterest users are women, it really hones in on this, pushing out a good ratio of female related content to ads.
Why it works?
By creating motivational pin boards on Pinterest aimed at women, the brand gives its audience what it wants. Providing helpful tips and inspiration, combined with their logo and branding creates great customer engagement along with that all important brand awareness.
IKEA
IKEA’s content marketing tactic is to share natural, consumer generated content. It demonstrates excellent story telling by showing real world customers using their products. It’s a win-win strategy as not only does this save time on idea generation and filming, it provides the audience with content they actually want to see.
Why it works
This type of user generated content provides social proof for their products, naturally endorsing the brand. It’s almost like a restaurant review from a friend – they ate there and loved it, you’re going to be more inclined to try it now, right?
GoPro
Boasting the impressive accolade of a permanent title in Youtube’s famed top 10 brands providing visual content, it goes without saying that GoPro is acing content marketing. Like Ikea, video content produced by their consumers is their top selling point.
This, paired with their combined strategy of using pro athletes and in-game footage also sets them apart as an expert in the video production field.
Why it works
Again, by using video content provided by their consumers provides social proof of their products, further enticing fans to make a purchase.
To sum up
As ecommerce is a web based entity, it is really important to recognise the relationship between stellar content and sales. Pushing out videos, blogs and even magazines targeted to your audience will enhance your credibility in your niche and make consumers more likely to choose you over the competition.
We help brands to not only build an ecommerce website, but also to market it to generate more revenue. Call us on 0115 971 8908 to discuss your project and we’ll be happy to help.
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