Essential Types of Content for Your E-commerce Websites
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Content marketing can help you boost engagement and conversion rates as well as establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Understanding the different types of content that you should produce and how they play a part in your overarching strategy can help you stand out among your competitors and improve your rankings as well.
Let’s take a look at seven essential content formats your ecommerce website needs:
Detailed Product Descriptions
Let’s start with the most obvious type of content: product descriptions.
In order for them to see high conversion rates, you need to find the right balance between informativeness and creativity.
Let’s learn from an example. This female dress form product page from Dress Forms USA ticks a lot of relevant boxes:
- It describes who the product is for
- It uses a casual, easy-to-understand voice
- It highlights the benefits of using the product
- It provides specifics, like materials and sizes
The description itself isn’t too long, so shoppers won’t need to spend too much time reading through it.
Source: dressformsusa.com
Sephora has some great product descriptions you can learn from as well:
- They highlight the product’s key features
- The description is written in a Q+A format, so it’s easy to skim through
- They don’t go overboard with unintelligible industry terms
Source: sephora.com
Streamlined Landing Pages
The landing pages of your ecommerce website need to be easy to read, use relevant keywords and address the issues and needs of your audience.
Think of them as enhancements for your product pages. They need to tell the story of your brand and the benefits of working with you, and they need to speak to your audience in a relatable way.
Your goal is to craft landing pages that aren’t overflowing with information. Remember, your visitors are spoiled for choice. They know that there are plenty of other stores they can visit. You need to clearly communicate what sets you apart.
Note that you naturally won’t be able to appeal to everyone, so focus on your most relevant audience segments.
For instance, Outreach Board, a guest blog planner, has done a great job of describing what they do and how they can help their audience. They have three sections on their main landing page, and they cut right to the chase: this is what you can expect, and this is why it’s important.
In-Depth Informative Blog Content
Your website’s blog should aim to attract audiences in all stages of the sales funnel. You shouldn’t think of it merely as a medium for promoting your products. You also need to create highly informative content that will drive traffic and help establish you as an authority and expert.
Focus on creating topic clusters that are in some way tied to your products. Create one pillar post that answers the top-level query, and then create numerous smaller posts that can easily be linked together and that will answer all the specific questions a visitor will have about the topic.
Focus on content quality over quantity. Take time to do research and really dive deep with your posts. Read the top-ranking content and figure out what is missing from it. How can your unique experience add to it?
This post that defines link building by Siege Media is a great example of quality content writing. It features plenty of relevant internal links, but most importantly, it truly provides a relevant answer to the question posed in the title.
Notice how the post also naturally mentions the brand’s services without being too pushy.
Visually Appealing Data-Driven Content
Speaking of content for your blog, you can also consider investing in an engaging, interactive, visually appealing piece that will serve as a link and click magnet.
Here’s an example to show you what you are aiming for. This interactive infographic on the habits of creative people is tied to the brand’s overarching theme of productivity. It’s informative, data-driven, and, most importantly, fun.
Source: podio.com
The benefit of creating this type of content is that it will be remembered longer than your average blog post. It will also be shared on social media, you are likely to generate a lot of organic links with it, and you will consequently be raising brand awareness.
Make sure the topic of this content aligns with your products. You shouldn’t mention or promote them too directly, but you do also hope that visitors will check out the rest of your website. If they do so, they shouldn’t feel completely lost and should be interested in what you have to show them.
Fact-Based Conversion Boosters
Aim to create at least one page whose goal is to help you boost conversion rates. Depending on the nature of your product, this can be a white paper, a case study, or a science-backed article that describes how your product is made.
This page is aimed at visitors who would like to learn more. Those who are curious and want to be in possession of all the facts before they make a purchase. Don’t bank on everyone seeing this page, but it will help you prove your credibility and authority to your audience, and it will make you much more reputable in the eyes of search engines as well.
A good example is this science page by Somnifix:
Source: somnifix.com
They have taken the time to explain how their product works and how it will benefit the user’s health. They back up their claims with references to studies and journals and help first-time potential shoppers understand what they can expect from the product and how it will benefit them.
Customer Testimonials
While product reviews are a vital part of every ecommerce website, you should also aim to include customer testimonials. They should ideally speak of the quality of your overall service and not just the quality of the products you sell.
After all, there is more to doing business with you than merely choosing a product. There’s the shipping, the customer service, and the potential returns. If your products are great, but your team is very unpleasant, not a lot of people will want to work with you.
Check out Vivion. Their homepage features numerous quotes from satisfied customers, who highlight important facts about the brand: the added value, the reduced inventory costs, and the turnaround time. This is not something the brand itself can simply mention but it is of vital importance for customers who are considering a conversion.
Source: vivion.com
Basecamp is also a delightful example of cleverly organized testimonials. They consist of a couple of words, but they all serve to describe just how good the tool is and how using it can boost your productivity and organization.
Customer Care Content
Finally, you should also aim to incorporate content that aims to help your audience and answer some of their most common questions. You don’t need to create a dedicated FAQ page, but you should address the most common conversion obstacles and issues somewhere.
This will reduce the customer service inquiries you get, and it will also show your audience that you care about their experience.
I Love Parcels has a great help page that provides information on all the most relevant queries the brand is likely to get. They address deliveries, product details, and product quality, as well as installation steps and advice.
Aim to compile a list of real-life questions your customers have already asked, and be as concise but detailed as you can. Pay special attention to the formatting of the page, as you want it to be skimmable and very easy to read.
Wrapping Up
Source: freepik.com
Before you start creating any of these content types, take some time to analyze the needs and pain points of your audience. This will help you align your goals with theirs and ensure that you are answering their questions in the most relevant way possible.
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