The “face-to-face” model of marketing products is now obsolete: 88% of marketers agree that content creation is linked to high consumer credibility.
Now, more than ever, businesses need to consider content marketing as part of their strategy for sustained, organic growth.
This article will help you create an effective content marketing plan for your e-commerce in just 5 days!
Day 1 - Research your target audience
Every great structure comes from a strong foundation, and your content marketing strategy should be no different.
When you look closely at marketing blogs, you'll find phrases like "understand your customer" and "know your audience."
The abundance of such phrases serves to emphasize the importance of really knowing your consumer base. Without a comprehensive buyer persona , your brand won't be able to tailor content to match your specific target audience.
The rapid advancement of technology has facilitated the modern understanding of consumer behavior, allowing brands to realize what is important to their audience and the problems that, with respect to the company or its products, they can detect to rectify through of its content.
70% of B2C marketers already use social media to listen to their target audience and your brand can't afford to be left out.
Data analytics, keyword comparisons, and even feedback from sales teams can be used to understand your target audience.
Day 2 - Competitor Research
The 21st century is characterized by the saturation of consumer markets. Even industry niches that don't experience significant traffic are rife with competition. While this means there are more sellers of the same product/service, it also means there are more mistakes you can learn from.
Access popular content sources in your niche using tools like BuzzSumo . Analyze what your consumers give thumbs up to, what their criteria is for liking the content, how different pieces of content (eg visual vs. written) behave upon opening.
Competitor research helps organizations come to grips with common issues being faced in the industry and how producers are overcoming obstacles to producing engaging and popular content.
Content that provides an answer to every consumer is a myth. Check the comments section of popular content pieces in your industry and see what issues are being cited by consumers.
Even review sites like Amazon and Yelp can offer a valuable outlet for evaluating the problems your customer is facing and how your content can be modified to provide solutions.
Day 3 - Keyword Research
To be successful on the internet, you need to be aware of your search engine ranking (read: Google). Unless you've been living under a rock, you should know that search engines have taken over the e-commerce realm.
Over 65% of B2C and B2B marketers have used paid methods to drive traffic when organic search fails.
There are several valuable keyword research tools available, such as SEMRush, Ahrefs, and even Google's own Keyword Planner.
Your goal should be to leverage your buyer persona and find keywords [and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords] that your customers are using in their search queries and fill in the content snippets you're willing to write over a period of time. Let's say monthly or semi-annually.
Prioritize keywords that have high search volumes next to those with low difficulty scores, as these are the phrases that are typically among the first that consumers search for.
Day 4 - Create your complete editorial calendar
One of the most important steps in setting the framework for an efficient content marketing strategy: focus on your goals, align them with your audience, and formulate an editorial calendar.
Editorial calendars not only remind you of your priorities, but also encourage content producers to keep their focus on achieving goals.
It is the combination of all the previous elements established by the research of the audience, the competition and the keywords.
Combine the keywords you've researched with related keyword phrases used by consumers (the LSIs mentioned above) to assign content creation tasks on your calendar.
A list of keywords will help you with ideas for generating content.
Pick a few that stand out the most (by search volume or how relevant they are to your buyer personas) and simply search for them on Google. Use autocomplete in the search tab for inspiration, but also in the “People also ask…” section of search results.
Write some questions and come up with creative titles for the articles that will answer them.
This calendar is your ultimate guide to content creation throughout the year and will help you organize and streamline the entire process.
Day 5 - Content Promotion
The quality and merit of the content produced is judged based on the interaction of people with that content. You could write the most detailed book on consumer conversion, but if engagement fails, it's not good enough.
Contrary to popular perception, you should spend more time promoting your content than writing it, with some even saying that you need to spend 80% of your time promoting content.
66 % of B2B marketers and 68% of B2C marketers have used paid content distribution methods to broaden their horizons.
This highlights the importance of gathering the important external signals that translate to niche authority and brand visibility on Google.
Without a proper promotion plan, all previous work is in vain.
The increased exposure on the net has given rise to various promotional channels offered by organizations. The key is to understand which medium offers the highest ROI. You can use your competitor research to learn what media your competitors are using and avoid spending too much budget on something that just doesn't work in your niche.
If we were to break down each channel into categories, we would be left with three broad categories for content promotion:
- Own This includes your email list, social media followers, and newsletter participants. Tools like Hootsuite, Hubspot, and Buffer offer great marketing campaigns to ensure your content reaches your consumers while keeping an eye on engagement stats.
Create a social sharing plan and use it for every new piece of content you post.
- Won Earned promotion occurs when your content stands out in other parts of the web, due to its superior quality. Links through niche influencers, media pages or guest blog posts give considerable link-juice to your piece and your website as a whole.
It's a good idea to develop some related post topics for each new piece of content you create and work on your link building that way.
- Paid out Paid media includes PPC, social media marketing or sponsored ads, and remarketing, which is made easy with the help of tools like AdEspresso and Google Ads Editor. Facebook ads are very popular and used a lot these days, more so than other social networks.
When working with paid media, use your audience and keyword research to make sure you're targeting the right people and not wasting your money.
While every site makes sure you read the phrase “content is king”, what no one talks about is the importance of a comprehensive and detailed strategy. These steps will ensure that you follow a comprehensive content strategy, tailored to the needs of your e-commerce business.
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