Consumers are filling their virtual shopping carts to the brim, pushing retail online sales to an estimated $6.9 trillion in 2024. A comprehensive e-commerce content strategy can help you chisel out a piece of this lucrative market, boosting your brand’s visibility and persuading customers to choose your business for their needs.
To stand out, you need exceptional content for all stages of the buyer’s journey: articles that answer burning questions, convincing case studies, and irresistible product descriptions that compel conversions. A successful digital content strategy helps business owners understand customer needs, engage their curiosity, and leverage technology to make an impact in a highly competitive landscape.
The Role of Content in E-Commerce Success
Content is a powerful tool for enticing customers to your e-commerce store and encouraging them to take action. The most effective content strategies reel in your customer no matter where they are on their path to purchase:
- Awareness: At this stage, customers aren’t entirely sure they need your product. Your content positions you as a source of knowledge and addresses pain points. Introduce your brand with how-to guides, articles, problem-solving content, quizzes, and engaging social media posts.
- Consideration: Now, your customer is actively thinking about solving a problem, and your content explores possible solutions. A kitchenware store might publish blog posts about choosing between pressure cookers and slow cookers or the purposes of different kitchen knives.
- Decision: Your customer has decided on a solution, so it’s time to set your brand apart. Convince them with comparison guides, product pages, product demos, FAQs, testimonials, and landing pages offering free trials. You could also use augmented reality to help customers visualize a product’s appearance in their space.
- Retention: Once you make a sale, provide resources to continue engaging your customers. User guides, product tips, newsletters, and exclusive or personalized content encourage satisfaction and build loyalty.
SEO and Content Marketing in E-Commerce
Fuse your content marketing efforts with a solid SEO strategy to ensure your audience finds you. According to data from 2023, 39% of consumers start their e-commerce journeys on search engines such as Google or Bing. In fact, search engines are the first stop for online shoppers in the United States behind Amazon.
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps lift your content higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), which are the lists of webpages returned by a search engine in response to a user’s query. The higher your result, the more exposure you have and the more enticing your website is to potential customers. Once readers click through to your store, your content can work its magic. You can nurture prospects through every stage if you’ve matched content to the buyer’s journey.
How to integrate SEO and content marketing
Google offers many opportunities for your website to appear in search results. Your SEO content strategy can target:
- Organic search results: These listings appear below paid ads and include rich snippets that display images, videos, and star ratings.
- Featured snippets: Google sometimes displays an excerpt from a web page that concisely answers the search query. These results often get more of the clicks because they’re prominently displayed on the SERP.
- Google Images: In addition to crawling text, Google can index optimized images. For example, this enables someone to search for “heart-shaped earrings” and see relevant products in search results.
- Local searches: When you use local SEO strategies, your content displays for searches in a specific geographic region.
- Voice search: Speech recognition technology enables users to search by voice. Use long-tail keywords and a natural, conversational style to surface in these search results. Content that aligns with the way searchers ask questions, that is Who, What, Why, When, How, are more likely to win at voice search.
- Search generative experience: SGE uses artificial intelligence to present a snapshot of a topic. Optimize content for these search results with concise and unique answers to fill in content gaps.
Incorporating SEO tactics in your content strategy improves your chances of appearing in these search results:
- Perform keyword research to plan appropriate content.
- Provide superior user experiences with intuitive navigation and fast page loading times.
- Give search engines the confidence to recommend your content by demonstrating E-E-A-T principles.
Emphasize content quality
Before we get too immersed in SEO-speak, let’s shift the focus back to the content you’re publishing to win over customers. E-commerce content is all about communicating with humans whose problems need solving. SEO tactics and data-driven approaches are essential for search visibility, but your content must resonate with audiences to convert.
Make it a priority to create content that offers value to readers. Share your expertise generously, and offer substance and depth. Mix in original research and thought. It takes time and effort to produce high-quality, helpful content, but the end product intrigues your readers and improves your chances of converting.
Some marketers use artificial intelligence for content creation. While AI can help with research and ideation, it doesn’t have the same creative chops as a human. By all means, use AI to get started, but make sure the end result appeals to your customer’s curiosity, intelligence, humor, and emotions — something that usually requires deft human touch.
Developing Your E-Commerce Content Strategy
Finding and using relevant keywords effectively
Effective SEO content begins with keyword research, which is the process of finding the search terms your customers use and choosing ones to build your content around. Use keyword research tools to generate ideas and gather data to help you decide which search terms to pursue. Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, KWFinder, and AnswerThePublic are tools that identify high-performing search terms.
Promising keywords have enough search volume to send the right traffic flowing to your site. Target ones that are lower in competition so you can more realistically rank for them. Keyword competition is often rated on a scale from 0 to 100, and a lower score means less competition. You can pursue more difficult keywords, but it takes time to build up the backlinks and authority needed to knock competitors out of the top spot.
Add in some long-tail keywords with a lower search volume. Because they’re precise, they typically send highly qualified traffic your way that’s more likely to convert. For example, “women’s dress shoes” is broad.
But “women’s ballet flats” can help you reach someone who knows what they want to buy and is further along in the buyer’s journey.
Leveraging topic cluster strategy
Organize your e-commerce content into clusters, each focused on a specific topic. A topic cluster strategy gives your website structure and establishes your expertise.
- Sort your keywords into categories or themes.
- Create a pillar or overview page that anchors the cluster.
- Bolster the pillar page with detailed articles around subtopics.
- Interlink between the pieces in the topic cluster, guiding search engines and users to related content.
Audit your existing content, and place it in the appropriate cluster. You can then see what additional pieces you need to build out your topic.
SEO Strategies Tailored for E-Commerce
SEO best practices apply regardless of your business niche, but e-commerce sites need to pay particular attention to a few areas.
Product pages
Product descriptions generate excitement for an item and provide enough detail for customers to make a purchasing decision. Even if manufacturers provide product information, we recommend crafting unique copy rather than duplicating what other sites publish.
Incorporate keywords in the following places:
- Product name
- Page title and meta description
- Near the beginning of the product description
- URL
- Image file name
Take a look at this product description for wet cat food from Purina. It includes the keyword “wet cat food” in the product title and URL. The description also mentions “wet formula” in the first sentence. These tactics help search engines match the product to appropriate queries.
Category pages
Category pages serve as a home page for related products. Not all websites need a category page, but if you have enough products, it can help users navigate them. For example, Williams Sonoma has a category page for knives, distinguishing between paring knives, steak knives, carving knives, and cleavers. The page includes a few paragraphs of content that offer opportunities to rank for related keywords.
Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are at least three words long and are used to find a specific answer to a query. These phrases often have lower search volumes but can be lucrative if they have commercial search intent since the consumer may be close to the decision stage.
You can find long-tail keywords in keyword search tools or head to Amazon and try the autocomplete feature to see what people are searching for. If you enter “backpack with” into the search box, the autocomplete suggests “laptop compartment” and “wheels for adults.”
Incorporate long-tail keywords into product descriptions or blog posts to attract these customers and guide site visitors to a conversion.
Mobile-friendliness
Consumers aren’t just shopping on desktop computers. They’re also making purchases on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. In the United States, mobile commerce accounted for 43.2% of retail e-commerce sales in 2023. By 2027, m-commerce is expected to make up nearly 50% of U.S. e-commerce sales.
While sites optimized for mobile aren’t guaranteed to rank better in Google, mobile-friendliness is one of the search engine’s positive signals when it comes to page experience. To encourage conversions, optimize your e-commerce store for screens of all sizes to ensure customers have seamless experiences as they shop. Other ways to improve your mobile responsiveness include using image compression tools for faster loading times, and simplifying the navigation to improve usability.
Importance of Knowing Your Target Audience and Tips on Audience Research
Before creating content that engages your audience, you need to get up close and personal, understanding who they are, what motivates them, and how they behave online. Define each target customer with basic information such as age, marital status, income, job title, and geographic location.
You can create personas to make them seem like real people instead of a collection of statistics. This helps you create content in the right tone and format to engage these customers authentically.
Research your customer by:
- Talking to your product development and marketing departments
- Analyzing website traffic to see where visitors come from
- Surveying customers and offering discounts to encourage participation
- Listening in on social media, online forums, and message boards
- Asking sales and customer service teams what they’re hearing on the ground
- Analyzing competing brands to see where they engage customers
Content Personalization in E-Commerce
Consumers have plenty of options for where to spend their online dollars. Content personalization, which caters to audience preferences based on past interactions, can sway them to your brand. Customized content increases your brand’s relevance, improves user experience, and boosts your conversion rates.
AI and machine learning make personalization easier by analyzing customer data and helping you display information based on behaviors. Here are some ways to personalize content and encourage more engagement and sales:
- Product recommendations that pop up while customers browse: These are typically “You May Also Like” or “Other Customers Viewed” suggestions.
- Personalized email campaigns: Offer discounts on birthdays or let someone who hasn’t shopped for a while know that you miss them. You can also segment your email lists based on behavior, like recent purchases, or industry, like B2B, so you can personalize your outreach.
- Dynamic website content: Content changes depending on location or user behavior. If you notice someone keeps viewing the same product, you might have a pop-up offering a discount to nudge them toward a sale.
- A/B testing: Gather data on how different landing pages or ads work to assess the most effective copy to convert sales.
Utilizing Emerging Technologies
At its most basic, digital marketing in e-commerce consists of static pages of product images and descriptions. But with technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality, you can help your website come to life. You can’t replicate in-store service, but you can engage your customers online and offer a unique digital experience.While customer preferences are always changing, websites can meet those demands by creating personalized shopping experiences.
Conversational commerce
AI chatbots can be programmed to answer questions in real time, such as how long shipping takes and what your return policy is. This removes friction by preventing cart abandonment and helps keep customers on a website. Italian designer Ad Hoc Atelier uses a chatbot that triggers when a visitor leaves their cart. The company reduced its cart abandonment rate and increased its conversion rate by engaging customers.
Video commerce
Clothing brand Free People makes products shoppable on livestreams. The hosts provide product demos and model clothing, and shoppers can ask questions and make purchases. According to a case study, Free People gets an average of 2,000 viewers per video with a conversion rate that’s three times higher than average.
Virtual try-ons
Augmented reality, popularized by Snapchat filters, can be creatively applied to e-commerce stores. Zenni Optical has a try-on feature that superimposes eyeglass frames on your face to help you pick a style you like.
In Germany, H&M took this a step further. Customers were invited to make an avatar with a body scanner so they could try on items virtually at home.
Leveraging Social Media for E-Commerce Engagement
Social media is an important content distribution channel for e-commerce brands. According to data compiled from a 2023 survey, 50% of shoppers worldwide learned about products on social media.
While social media can send users to your online shop, nearly 60% of shoppers buy products directly through networking platforms — a practice known as social commerce. Salesforce estimates that in 2024, 64.6 million users will shop on Facebook, 46.8 million on Instagram, and 40.7 million on TikTok.
Your brand can make the most of social media by:
- Building a community of followers: You can market directly to your audience through social posts. Take a look at H&M’s creative TikTok video. It grabs attention with an “invisible” model and provides product ideas in a viewer’s feed.
- Encouraging engagement: Your post can appear in other people’s social feeds through shares, likes, and comments.
- Placing social ads: Paid advertising gets your content in front of a wider audience.
- Partnering with creators: Consider collaborating with influencers or businesses with a similar target audience to help promote your brand.
Innovative Monetization in E-Commerce
We’ve focused primarily on traditional product sales, but modern e-commerce offers additional opportunities to generate revenue for brands and content creators.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliates are third parties who promote a brand and receive payment in exchange for clicks or sales. This is a win-win situation: Brands tap into a fresh audience and boost sales. Affiliates can generate revenue by reviewing a product, hosting a contest, or offering a promo code to their followers.
Subscriptions
If you sell items customers need to replace regularly, a monthly or quarterly subscription encourages customer retention. Consumers commit to a recurring purchase in exchange for a discount, free shipping, or other incentive. Similarly, content creators can build subscription models that offer exclusive or enhanced content offerings.
Blockchain technology
While blockchain technology is commonly linked to Bitcoin, it has other applications. A blockchain is a transparent ledger where transactions are shared within a network, verifying ownership and the movement of goods.
The technology is in its early stages regarding retail applications, but we’re beginning to see its potential. In 2021, H&M launched an innovative clothing rental service in Berlin that used blockchain to track who had borrowed items.
Similarly, in the automotive sector, BMW Group used blockchain technology to make its supply chain more transparent and traceable. This means they can track where materials and parts come from, all the way to the finished car, and this ensures that everything meets ethical standards.
Measuring Success: Analytics and KPIs
You’ve put your online retail content strategy into action, and now it’s time to see if it’s driving awareness, traffic, and sales. Track key performance indicators to learn where to fine-tune your strategies for more impact and which tactics successfully yield results.
Common KPIs to track include:
- Keyword ranking: Where are you landing in the SERPs for your target keywords? Keywords that aren’t getting traction may need better optimization.
- Referral sources: Where are your visitors coming from? This metric tells you how users find your site and which content distribution channels work best.
- Click-through rate: If you’re not getting clicks from the SERPs, adjust your meta title and description or optimize for rich snippets.
- Page traffic: Which content pages perform the best, and which need more optimization?
- Impressions: How many people are viewing your product pages?
- Time spent on page: Are users spending time engaging with your content? If they abandon the page quickly, your content may need adjusting.
- Add-to-cart rate: Combine this KPI with impressions to gauge whether the content on your product pages is convincing people to purchase.
- Conversions: Assess how well your site drives desired actions, such as subscribing to mailing lists, adding products to wish lists, and making sales.
Knowing which KPIs to track is the first step. The next step is to understand how to accurately measure them, and this is where analytics tools come into play.
Analytics tools
You may need a few analytics tools to obtain a complete picture of your content’s performance. Google Analytics is ideal for monitoring page-level activity and user behavior on your site, while Semrush or Moz can provide in-depth insights into your keyword rankings and search performance. Platforms such as Instagram, X, and LinkedIn provide data on user engagement, but it’s easier to use a tool such as Buffer to compile data and generate all-in-one reports on channel performance.
Adapting to Consumer Behavior and Trends
McKinsey & Company notes that customer expectations change with each new successful digital venture. Online shoppers embrace speed and convenience, thanks to the bar set by Amazon, while short video snippets have been popularized by TikTok.
Brands need to be open and responsive to changing customer preferences to stay relevant. You should keep a pulse on digital marketing trends and developments in your industry, but you can also look to your customers for signals.
Regularly check in with your customers through reviews, feedback, and surveys, or practice social listening. These tactics dig up real-time insight into how your customers are feeling.
Artificial intelligence is a powerful partner when it comes to anticipating customer behaviors and preferences. Predictive analytics uses various inputs — including customer demographics, website analytics, and interactions at different touchpoints — to find patterns in behavior. AI then predicts what a customer might purchase or do next. As data is updated, the AI is better trained. These insights help you create content and marketing messages that precisely meet customer needs, improving their experience and guiding them toward conversions.
AI helps us predict and fulfill customer needs, but it also highlights our responsibility to use technology ethically. We need to make sure our approaches are aligned with what customers expect in terms of ethical and sustainable practices.
Ethical Considerations and Sustainable Practices
Let’s step back for a moment and look beyond financial transactions. Your overall business practices influence how audiences view your brand and impact your bottom line. Consumers expect companies to conduct themselves with integrity and a sense of responsibility. According to a 2023 survey, 45% of respondents considered themselves ethical or sustainable consumers.
Ethical conduct
When it comes to your e-commerce content, set high standards. Create fair, well-researched, and accurate content, and disclose any conflicts of interest in what you’re writing about. You can expect diverse audiences to visit your website and social accounts, so be inclusive and sensitive with your language. Finally, as brands ramp up data collection, be clear in your privacy policies about how and why you’re gathering information.
Sustainable practices
Consumers, especially younger generations, are increasingly concerned about social issues and how brands impact the environment. Among Gen Z, 62% prefer to buy from sustainable brands, and 73% are willing to pay higher prices for sustainable products.
Engage ethical consumers with content about your sustainability initiatives and practices. This includes information about materials, production processes, and packaging. If you have eco-friendly programs in place, such as REI’s online store for used gear, create content to promote and highlight the benefits of these practices.
Additional Resources and Tools
Successful content marketing for e-commerce involves many components, but an array of tools are available to make the process easier. Whether you’re tackling the work in-house or outsourcing to a content strategy service, check out some of the following resources to help get your campaign off the ground.
- Semrush: Perform keyword research, discover content ideas, and improve your site’s on-page SEO.
- Keyword Insights: Generate keyword ideas, and create topic clusters with a click.
- CoSchedule: Organize your content strategy and manage deadlines.
- Alchemer: Collect feedback across channels to understand customer needs.
- Make My Persona: Build buyer personas to inform your content strategy.
- Feedly: Monitor developments and trends in your industry.
- Google Search Console: Monitor site traffic and the keywords visitors use and find issues that may impact your site’s SEO.
Drive Results With a Dynamic Content Strategy (and a Helping Hand)
Customers find their way to your website through content: insightful tips and articles, convincing product pages, clearly presented case studies, and your brand story. But to really pull in your audiences, your content must offer unique value and insight.
Your e-commerce content strategy begins with keyword research and a deep understanding of your audience and the buyer’s journey. You can then develop highly targeted content that encourages engagement.
Consider our e-commerce writing services to produce professional, results-driven content that’s optimized for search engines and your readers. Find out how our experienced team of writers, editors, subject matter experts, and content managers can fuel your online visibility and help your business hit its growth goals.
