I need to publish content that attracts users to my eCommerce store, but… What do I say? What do I talk about? What tone do I use? Where do I share it? How do I reach the people I’m interested in?
If these are some of the questions you ask yourself every time you want to post content on your blog or social media, take a look at these tips to help you create content focused on attracting quality traffic to your eCommerce store.
The first thing to keep in mind when planning content for your users is that it should match their tastes, interests and needs.
Creating content just to fill pages and posts, with no connection to your eCommerce store, is wasted effort. On the other hand, if you offer your audience content they care about, they’ll trust you and place you top of mind as an expert and influencer in the sector. Just make sure your content is unique, truthful, entertaining, useful and different from your competitors’.
It should also be contagious content that makes readers feel the need to share it with their community so others can enjoy and learn from it too. That way you’ll extend your reach and bring your content to many more people, among whom you may find more potential customers.
Steps to create content that drives traffic
The first and most important thing is to find that idea, that story that hooks your users. You’ll need a topic related to your eCommerce products or services, your followers’ tastes and hobbies, or current trends and news. For the latter, I recommend Buzzsumo, a tool that lets you find the most shared content on social media for any keyword or topic you choose.
You can also use Twitter to see the current Trending Topic. Look at user communities related to your sector to see what followers are talking about, their concerns, interests and so on.
Research your competitors, watch other companies that run a successful content and digital marketing plan. Analyze your own content to see which pieces were shared most and follow that pattern. Search, analyze, research and find your next viral content.
Remember the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Now’s the time to use it.
Images, infographics, videos and charts make an article more enjoyable to read and much more visually appealing.
That’s why, when writing your content, I recommend using these visual resources to help your users understand your explanations, and also to catch their attention with the beauty and visual harmony of your article.
If you think an image can complement your explanation, don’t hesitate to add it.
Besides images, it’s also important to take care of style, writing and the title.
Your article’s writing will strongly influence the decision to share it.
Some people can turn content on a boring topic into something fun and entertaining thanks to their writing style and tone. If you’re one of them, congratulations; if not, you’ll need to work a little harder to get there. How? Use Storytelling (tell a story), use metaphors, speak the way your users speak (one-to-one), avoid convoluted or complex expressions, and so on.
Step 3: Make it easy for users
It may seem minor, but adding small tweetable snippets, fun and creative images for Instagram or striking infographics for Facebook to your article can help users share your content more easily.
Making things easy is always appreciated, so if readers find ready-made elements to share with their circle and the content is interesting, I can assure you you’re halfway there.
Adding share buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn beside or at the end of the article can also be a good way to encourage users to share the content
Something that may seem silly but can really increase how often your content is shared is simply asking. Yes, it’s as simple as asking your users to share your content.
It’s not about “If you liked it, share it,” but about making them understand that the content you offer is unique and useful, and that their circle should get to see it too.
Another option is to offer regular quality content in exchange for a share.
Step 4: Make Google like your content
Of course, we couldn’t leave Google out: however hard you try to please your users, you’ll also need to please Google so your content shows up in search results.
Keep in mind that your content must be SEO-optimized: choosing the right, relevant keywords to rank your article is important, and your title, URL and images (for basic SEO) should be edited, optimized and geared to Google.
Each social network has a different user profile, different characteristics and different features that you should take advantage of to boost your content even further. Once you’ve created quality content that interests your users and can help bring quality traffic to your eCommerce store, don’t throw all that work away. Choose wisely which social networks to share it on and adapt it to each network and user profile.
Each piece of content should be tailored to the platform it’s published on. In other words, a Facebook post won’t have the same characteristics, tone, format or style as one on Twitter or Instagram.
Before creating each piece of content, think about which users it will reach, what format it will take and what features each social network offers. That’s why I recommend taking a look at the social networks your ecommerce should be on and the benefits each one offers.
I’m sorry to tell you that the trick of posting the same content on every social network (duplicate content), thinking it will increase your reach and impact and save you time to create more content, doesn’t work.
If you post the same thing everywhere, your audience will get bored and have no reason to follow you on every platform. If your products win people over with their looks, use Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook; if your services are tied to news and current affairs, use Twitter or Facebook; if your users are millennials, use Instagram and Twitter; if they’re adults or seniors, use Facebook.
Choose the platforms where your target audience is, write the way they would, and show them what you think they need, want and would like to see.
Having the right content is pointless if it doesn’t reach the right person.
Don’t forget that at TLGCommerce we specialize in social media and online marketing, so we’d be delighted to help you build an SMO strategy and a content strategy your audience will love. Increase your ecommerce traffic with quality content on your social networks with TLGCommerce’s digital marketing team. And above all, if you learned something from this post, feel free to share it!
Images: Superuuppies, Marketingdirecto, Leverage, Criterion, Purotip.
