While your primary goal may be to generate sales, an ecommerce site should be more than just a catalog of products. You likely already have sources of content right at your fingertips and don’t even realize it. Perhaps your website offer tips, a Facebook page, or product reviews. You can repurpose all of these things and integrate them with your ecommerce store to provide a better shopping experience for users and increase your sales.
Think Integration, Not Ads
Overstock.com is an excellent example of a website that merges great content with product placement. The website publishes guides to offer users information and promote their products. For example, one guide called “How to Create a Feng Shui Garden” offers excellent outdoor decorating tips and the sidebar shows sale items that users can purchase to create their own Feng Shui garden. The products complement the article and vice versa.
Product Descriptions
Write your own customized product descriptions instead of reusing those supplied by the manufacturer. There are a couple of good reasons for this. For one thing, by writing your own descriptions you are creating unique content for your ecommerce pages. The other advantage is manufacturers’ descriptions are often full of hype or don’t offer enough details. Write clear descriptions that give shoppers useful information about the products.
Allow Feedback Options
Many online shoppers will tell you the first thing they look at when comparing items is product reviews. Letting your customers rate and review products provides value to them. It is also a great way to add content to your ecommerce site. As people write about their purchases, they will naturally use keywords associated with the products without consciously thinking about it. This will help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and give users valuable advice.
Link to Your Other Content
If you have a YouTube channel that demonstrates products, embed the video on the product’s page and, in return, include a link to the product page on YouTube. Likewise, if you write about products on your blog, add link relevant links to the products and include a natural link to the blog post on the product page. This type of reciprocal linking shows users that you do more than just sell products, you offer tips, guides and information to make the most of their purchases.
Social Media
Advertising is good, but recommendations are even better. Add options for users to share their purchases and/or reviews on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites. Some people like to brag about what they’ve bought, while others just like to share links to products they like. Both ways, it builds good word of mouth exposure for your website and social media content won’t hurt your SEO either.
Having a content strategy for your ecommerce stores is as important developing content for any other website. Websites full of pictures of products with bland descriptions aren’t very engaging to your visitors. You need to offer more than just merchandise, it’s also good to offer value to your customers. Give them something to read, a way to engage with your site, and above all else, a reason to remember your brand the next time they go shopping online.