Content commerce: Content marketing meets e-commerce

Why you should consider drawing up a targeted strategy

Author
Portrait von Regina Moser | © punkt & komma
Regina Moser
Content editor

Content commerce is all about building a story around your products and embedding them in a larger context. The combination of product information and relevant content encourages online shop users to browse more pages, be inspired and discover something new. One way to do this is with product videos or tutorials.

The objective: to help users imagine what it would be like to own your product.

Good to know: Depending on the stage of the purchase process, you should use different types of content. For instance, expert information works well in the awareness stage, while best-practice examples are useful for the interest and desire stage. During the action stage, you should provide your users with targeted product information.

A positive side effect: Relevant content not only helps your customers in their decision-making. Successful content commerce also has a positive effect on your online revenues!

Good reasons for content commerce

Why not invest in Google Ads and avoid the effort of producing relevant content? Well, of course, it’s up to you whether you want to spend all your budget on ads. However, we predict that you won’t be successful in the long run. Don’t get us wrong: Google will be happy about your investment. But it will be even happier about relevant content!

Let us show you a few figures from HubSpot’s 2020 State of Marketing Report to get our point across:

  • 65 % of all page views in the e-commerce realm were generated by search queries. 33 % of them came from clicks on organic search results.
  • About half (49 %) of all people surveyed said that they use Google to find new products.
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Five tips for your content commerce strategy

Content commerce doesn’t work overnight. It has to be integrated into existing processes and systematically planned and executed. In short, in order to be successful in the long run, you need a content commerce strategy. When drawing up this strategy, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Objective: What do you want to achieve with your content commerce?
  2. Target audience: Who do you want to reach with your activities?
  3. Added value: What do you want to offer your target audience?
  4. Tactics: How do you want to support your personas in their purchase decision?
  5. Channel: At which touchpoints do you want to reach your target audience?
  6. Resources: What capacities do you need to generate relevant content?
  7. Target figures: How much budget do you need to implement your project?

The following five tips will help you formulate your content commerce strategy.

Content commerce tip #1

Know your target audience

Just like in content marketing, your target audience is key in content commerce. That’s also where your personas (prototype representations of your ideal customer) come into play. Keep in mind that you can only create relevant content once you have defined your personas!

By the way: It’s not just your company, your products or your services that change – the same is true for your personas! Make sure to reassess your personas regularly and to update them if necessary.

Our tip: Creating a persona is not rocket science. With our handy persona templates,  you’ll be done in no time at all!

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Content commerce tip #2

Address customers where they are accessible

Once you have defined your target audience and personas, you’re well on your way to content commerce success. Now it’s time to identify relevant touchpoints that your personas come across during different stages of the customer journey. Once you have identified these touchpoints, you can create adequate content for them. For instance, if your blog has turned out to be an important source of information in your customers’ purchase process, you can use it to support potential new customers.

Here’s an example: Let’s say your company sells ski touring clothes, and you regularly publish articles on ski touring on your blog. Then why not add a link to one of your articles to the corresponding products in your online shop? For instance, add handy gadgets like bottles, caps or other accessories to an article on how to prepare for a ski tour. Or how about a blog post with a packing list? In a next step, you can add links to the respective products in your online shop.

Content commerce tip #3

Customer reviews are good, content commerce is better

The advantages of online shopping compared to store-based shopping are evident: It allows you to shop from any location, at any time. However, what’s missing is personal advice from the staff on site – which is an important aspect of the purchase decision. Many online shops try to overcome this challenge by adding customer reviews. The problem: There’s not a customer review for every question or problem your users might have.

Another way to support customers in their online purchase are videos and tutorials. They often provide answers to questions that haven’t even been asked yet.

A nice example is the raised bed calculator featured in the online shop of Dehner Gardening Supplies. It provides users with a quick and easy way to find out what to plant by simply entering the bed’s inside dimensions.

Content commerce tip #4

Make it personal: personalisation & content commerce

Personalisation plays an important role in e-commerce. Based on artificial intelligence or administrator interaction, it is used to provide users with individual discounts, bespoke offers or relevant content.

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Content commerce tip #5

Choose and monitor the right KPIs

The question of all questions: How do you measure the success of content commerce? Many base their success entirely on the conversion rate. However, using this parameter as your only performance indicator doesn’t give you an idea of your optimization potential. Plus, the results cannot directly be traced back to the respective content.

To find out how successful your content is with your users, take into account the following parameters:

  • organic traffic for your main keywords
  • traffic sources
  • dwell time
  • page views per visit

These figures give you a rough idea of where your strategy might need a little tweaking. For instance, if the majority of your page visitors come to your online shop from Google, and you appear among the top search results with your main keyword, you’re headed in the right direction. Alternatively, if most of your page visitors come from social networks, you might want to focus on these.

Ein Screenshot von der Startseite von Google Analytics mit Angaben zu Nutzern, Umsatz, Conversion-Rate und Sitzungen

Fit for content commerce

Now it’s your turn! Bring together your products and your content and support your customers’ decision-making with the help of targeted content commerce!

And don’t forget: Use your performance indicators to re-evaluate and improve your personas and your content!

Do you need some help with that? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

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