Ecom Revolution
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There may be hundreds of tactics that you could consider content marketing. So the six content marketing tactics briefly described here are certainly not an exhaustive list. But this short list does, perhaps, represent some of the best, easiest to understand, and most common content marketing options for small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses.

 
Martin (Marty) Smith:

Commerce - Community & Content rubicons Are CSF's
No way you win online these days without crossing one of the toughest rivers in my Director of Ecommerce tenure -- making content, commerce and community sing happily around the campfire. Good tips here and I will weigh in soon. 

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Marco Favero's curator insight, February 11, 2016 3:52 PM

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Here are 5 tips to increase e-commerce sales through quality customer service and relevant content, targeting the 2nd step of the consumer conversion funnel
Martin (Marty) Smith:

Content Is the KEY To Tomorrow's Commerce
There is NO DOUBT in team Curagami's (http://www.Curagami.com) mind that content holds the key to conversion and SEO in tomorrow's ecommerce world.

We would order these tips differently:

1. Product Reviews (the most power UGC on our site curate the heck out of these and find your Ambassadors here too).

2. Clear returns & Free Shipping policy - we added free shipping, but having pages dedicated to both of these ideas means you may not have to pay Retail Me Not for your traffic.

3. Product Descriptions - use keywords you see customers using in reviews and use the keywords tool to test words against each other.

4. Photo & Video Quality - looks are overrated on an ecommerce site. Sounds strange to write that sentence, but if your customers trust you, you use User Generated Content and offer the right shipping and loyalty environments your pictures can be something you are always working on. Better is better no doubt, but a site with moderate images and the right reviews, shipping and returns can outsell a site with beautiful pictures and the wrong policies.

5. Customer Support - best way to show customer support is via your existing customers. This is why reviews are so important. Reviews are the unvarnished voice of the mob, your customers.

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Content Curation is the "new marketing" & this post shares 6 reasons curating content should be your online marketing's elephant.

Finding the need to curate content acute as we develop HackHeadphones on Shopify. Why create new content when everything we need can be curated from sources such branded websites (using videos from Shure.com), Amazon and other "portal" sites.

We are making sure to give credit where it is due and someone might throw a flag, but bet we can negotiate mutually beneficial terms since using content with attribution is closest thing we have to advertising these days.

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CrowdFunde & Content Curators
When we started CrowdFunde, our startup to help B2C online retailers and B2B content marketers know how to use content to achieve their goals, we realized we would need a lot of help. As the tool took shape it was clear the guiding hand of a great content curator would be a CSF (Critical Success Factor).

As we explained on CrowdFunde.com great content curators do three increasingly important things:

* Find next generation of trending content.
* Fit seemingly disparate content into an evolving “jigsaw” of themed content curation.
* Help readers, followers and other contributors understand macro concepts.


I've worked with great curators on Scoop.it and the POWER and PRESCIENCE of that experience is why discovering and hiring 10 great content curators (to start) is one of our most important "Launch Goals".

The cool thing is, in many cases, we may be paying a hard working content curator to do what they love and what they are already doing for FREE. While no one is going to get rich on what our little startup can afford to pay there is a lot to be said for being part of a new company, a company dedicated to helping Internet marketers get to know their customers, be able to talk to and learn from their customers.

If you are a great content curator we hope you will APPLY and share our search with your friends.

Thanks, Marty and Phil

APPLY
http://form.jotform.us/form/40948367508162

LEARN MORE
http://www.crowdfunde.com/top-curator-contest-crowdfunde-hiring/



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A blog about ecommerce marketing, running an online business and updates to Shopify's ecommerce community.

Great Peg Corwin Insight

Creative ways that ecommerce sites are using content marketing:


 - Make how to videos

 - Answer FAQs in clever ways

 - Use photos 

 - Get a blog and be a media outlet

 - Stay in the know


Quote: "Content. It’s the material you create to inspire existing customers and the audience you hope to reach (your next customers are out there somewhere!) Ecommerce sites across the web are taking advantage of content’s power."


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Marty Note
When I was a Director of Ecommerce I LOVED #contentmarketing, but it rarely loved us back (lol). An ecommerce site is divided between right brain creative (buy) and left brain engineering (Q&A, content marketing).

The more content we put on a product page the worse it converted. Video and reviews were the single exceptions and videos took some serious tweaking until we got it right (short, product as hero, VO narration, show the product working and bring in review summary from our Buzz Team).

Never forget the first 5 minute video we testing with a hard rock score that was WAY too loud. I could watch conversions tank in real time (advantage of having 14,000 unique visitors a day). That video lasted less than a day, but it taught us to shorten and quiet our content.

Eventually we found a formula that put new life in best sellers and rocketed any product with momentum. Video wasn't a miracle worker. When we tried to rehabilitate a product long gone from the Best Seller list video alone wasn't sufficient.

Big Trend Train Running - CONTEXT
As I was leaving Ecommerce three years ago context was starting to play an increasing rule in the increasingly visual language we needed to speak. Saw a great example of this in the DWR.com catalog.

The Design Within Reach Catalog features a Food Truck with DWR chairs, shelving and lighting. Amazing how much more interesting these "high design" products looked in a real world setting.

DRW.com is so Bauhaus WHITE it hurts the eyes and the pretension can be a bit much. Buy mixing high and low art the FUN factor goes up 10x and their products LOOKED LIKE something you might want in you home (instead of an operating theater lol).

One of the BIG implications of our visual marketing trend is more relevant context like DWR's food truck meets the Bauhaus two page spread. BIG MISS by DWR for not sharing that print spread online. MISS by Fox Restaurants creators of the wood fired pizza food truck called the ROCKET (picture above) too since a page about their DWR shoot would have earned social shares, praise and UGC (User Generated Content).

A cool food company like http://www.foxrc.com should know better!

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Peg Corwin's curator insight, January 26, 2014 1:27 PM

Creative ways that ecommerce sites are using content marketing:


 - Make how to videos

 - Answer FAQs in clever ways

 - Use photos 

 - Get a blog and be a media outlet

 - Stay in the know


Quote: "Content. It’s the material you create to inspire existing customers and the audience you hope to reach (your next customers are out there somewhere!) Ecommerce sites across the web are taking advantage of content’s power."


If you like this scoop, please consider a thumbs up or share.


IndyWeek.com Give Guide
The linked post is the "inside baseball" story of how a local free print publication created the first Indy Give Guide (http://give.indyweek.com/ ). The "Give Guide" is way to help local nonprofits raise funds and it is content, social and ECOMMERCE gold.

I am writing almost a bog post a day about the Guide and driving social links to our Story of Cancer Page http://give.indyweek.com/Nonprofits/Health-and-Wellness/Story-of-Cancer-Foundation ). Every Ecom Director's ears just perked up (lol).

Cause marketing done right rocks social maketing and an Ecom merchants register like no other conent marketing. The IndyWeek.com give guide is cause marketing done right because:

* Low cost, Big Reward (traffic, brand awareness, SEO).
* Emotionally resonate especially at this time of year.
* Focused altruism that builds a strong network of contributors for future years.
* Helps first and figures out money later (perfect for our Thank You based economy).

If your band, company or website hasn't figured out how to create something as cool as the IndyWeek.com Give Guide steal the idea and mashup a great and related list of nonprofits in your business vertical.

If you sell HVAC you might create a guide based on your customer's favorite charities. If you are a B2B agency ask your customers who they give to and mashup a guide from those connections.

The IndyWeek.com GiveGuide is a great example of how a little creativity and the right altruistic idea can make a HUGE difference in your Website's authority and SEO AND it helps local charities feed hunger tigers and cure cancer so that is cool too :).

Story of Cancer Foundation page on GiveGuide
http://give.indyweek.com/Nonprofits/Health-and-Wellness/Story-of-Cancer-Foundation

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Five Quick Content Marketing Tips For SMBs
SMBs (Small to Medium Sized businesses) are feeling overwhelmed. Instead of saying, "You Must Know Everything." maybe we should start with five quick tips:

SMB Content Marketing Tip 1: There Is No THEM
SMB Content Marketing Tip 2: Email Marketing With Personas
SMB Content Marketing Tip 3: Blog Q&A Content
SMB Content Marketing Tip 4: Conversations Not Lectures
SMB Content Marketing Tip 5: Have Fun and Create Fun

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Martin (Marty) Smith

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