Ecommerce Content Marketing 2021: Why eComm + Content = Perfect Match

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81% of consumers now research online before making a buying decision.

Experts believe that the eComm market will exceed $4B globally by 2021.

It's a great time to be in eCommerce. And eCommerce content marketing is the way to reach customers when they're doing that research.

But eCommerce is a unique beast. I don't have to tell you that. It has some unique challenges that ecommerce content marketing addresses like no other strategies can.

Let's explore why eCommerce and content marketing make for such a happy marriage and 5 eComm content marketing strategies you need to apply in 2021.

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Why Content Marketing & eComm Are the Perfect Match

How many times have you said to yourself "If I could just fix eComm's...?

• Dropshipping Woes

• Inherent Trust Issues

• Customer Loyalty Problems

• Returns That Cost You Too Much

• Expensive Customer Support

Which of these are standing between you and your ultimate success? How much are they trimming your bottom line?

Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Erase Dropshipping Woes

If you're dropshipping, you're competing with 100's or 1000's of sites selling the same products. Product descriptions duplicate. You have trouble distinguishing yourself from the competition.

Content marketing allows you to set yourself apart and build a brand with unique and compelling content that people love.

Eliminate Trust Issues

Who is the man behind the mask of your website?

It's hard to build trust in the eCommerce space. So many shops are bringing in low quality goods and are notorious for poor customer service.

Many ecomm sites are completely impersonal. There's no face of the brand or transparency.

Unlike some other industries, eComm sites often start out not from the ground They're buried beneath it. The burden of proof is on them to demonstrate that they create the right customer experience.

Content marketing addresses this like nothing else.

Resolve Customer Loyalty = 0

Some say there's no loyalty in eComm. Those who do would be sorely mistaken.

Content marketing engages your customer and potential customers. It generates reviews, promoter activity and increased revenues.

What's your customer acquisition cost? What if you could double or triple your customer lifetime value (CLV) by fostering loyalty?

What kind of ROI could you get on that acquisition expense?

This is what content marketing is all about.

Improve Return Rates

The bane of eComm. Returns cost you much more than brick & mortars. You may have offered free shipping. Now, to keep happy customers, you may need to offer free return shipping.

You end up not just losing the sale. You probably paid as much as the sale was worth in shipping and handling.

eCommerce content marketing fights this challenge at its source by educating consumers before they buy. Furthermore, it can educate them after they've bought it to avoid those returns because they can't figure a widget out.

And the great news is that consumers love to be educated. It's not a love-hate thing. When someone is interested in a product they will research everything they can online.

Provide the right content and you can slash return costs, customer care costs and marketing costs in half.

5 ECommerce Content Strategies You Need to Succeed

If you're running an eComm shop in 2021 without content marketing, you really should ask yourself what your barriers are and conquer them.

With these challenges comes great opportunity to excel in an eCommerce space by doing what your competition fails to do -- build a solid brand and following with content marketing.

Here are 5 areas of eCommerce content marketing you need to address in 2021.

Seek and destroy duplicate content

It’s inherent in eCommerce. There are only so many ways you can describe A, B, or C that site D, E, F may also offer the same or a variation of. But in order to soar in the rankings, you need a competitive advantage.

Unique and impactful SEO'd product descriptions can help you blow competitors out of the water. Use tools like Frogger and Copyscape to identify duplicate content on your own site and across competitor sites.

Do your keyword research before creating new content.

Hire a highly competent writer to rewrite all of your dupe content. “Re-write” isn’t a bad word in content marketing when it’s done right.

Don't make these common mistakes when hiring a writer and you'll be good.

Leverage more User-generated content

This is HUGE in 2021 Not only does UGC establish strong social proof. It engages your existing customers.

People love to share their new products with others. They love to be creative.

Make it easy for them with a platform that encourages and rewards people for creating videos, reviews, stories, fan-art, etc. around your product.

Expand your Understanding of SEO 2021

Realize that SEO for YouTube isn’t the same as SEO for Google for FaceBook for Pinterest. These are all search engines with specific algorithms that help your content rank or sink it to the bottom of the barrel.

Google SEO is the most common SEO, but it’s not the end all.

Learn more about SEO for other platforms you're on to maximise your exposure.

Apply SEO best practices 2021

SEO is, and always has been, about creating the right customer experience. Work to do this with every piece of content you create and distribute.

Quality over quantity. Create content that people are actually looking for. Make it shareable, linkable and "loveable". Focus on educating and delighting customers at the same time to when big.

Search engines are getting super smart. They’re much closer to rewarding sites purely on the strength of their CX/UX. Sites that neglect this will see their rankings plummet in 2021.

Retarget

People are going to question whether or not this falls under content marketing. I say that if you’re doing it right, with the customer’s overall experience in mind, it definitely does.

Retargeting (Remarketing) can increase content response by 400%. It definitely needs to be in the eComm arsenal.

Ecommerce Content Marketing

Ecomm -- it's a unique beast. But you can conquer it by understanding how people interact with your content.

To learn more about how I can help you start building an effective content creation strategy around your ecomm brand, reach out. I'd love to learn more about what you do.