Chapter 4: Marketing Your Store
10 min read time
44% of buyers consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a brand. But before writing a blog, the first step is choosing the right topic.
Begin by deeply understanding your audience's interests and challenges. Use tools like Google Trends to identify current topics, and analyze successful competitors. Questions like - Are there recurring themes? What is the structure of their blog posts? Where is a white space? - can help you identify your place to create content.
Pro Tip: Don't hesitate to engage directly with your audience through surveys or social media to gather firsthand insights.
Let’s start with the content marketing plan:
Use that information to structure your content to align with the buyer's journey, offering value at every stage, from broad insights appealing to a large number of potential customers, to specific solutions dedicated for your main audience.
Let’s break it down with an example. If you’re running a fashion business, then this is how you could think:
Google receives over 74,000 searches per second, so if you want to reach your ideal customers, you need to spend time on SEO.
Chris A Tweten, CMO of Spacebar Collective says, “The craziest part of SEO is the lifespan of content. A potential client reached out to us after reading a 2 year old blog, that would never happen with social media content.”
Here are the most important actions you have to take to master start with SEO:
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find popular search terms by your audience, and then strategically place them in your blog titles, headings, and throughout your content. This helps your blog align with what people are actually searching for.
Example: If "sustainable summer dresses" is trending, create a post titled "Top 10 Sustainable Summer Dresses for 2024: Style Meets Eco-Friendly Fashion." SurferSEO or Clearscope can help you optimize your blogs easily!
Organize your content with a clear, easy-to-follow structure. Use headings (H1 for the main title, H2 for major sections, H3 for subsections) to break up your content. Keep paragraphs short and focused. This helps you optimize your content for both humans and bots.
Example: For a post about accessorizing, use an H1 for "How to Accessorize Any Outfit," H2s for categories like "Jewelry," "Bags," and "Shoes," and H3s for specific tips within each category.
Create clear, concise URLs that reflect what your blog post is about. Include your main keyword in the URL, but keep it short, aim for 2-5 words. Well-crafted URLs improve your SEO and give readers a quick preview of your content.
Example: For a post about the latest jean trends, use "www.yourfashionblog.com/2024-denim-trends" instead of "www.yourfashionblog.com/post12345."
Optimize images by adding descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords. This practice improves accessibility for visually impaired users and helps your images appear in Google Image searches, potentially driving more traffic to your site.
Include internal links to your other blog posts and product pages. This keeps readers on your site longer and helps search engines understand the structure of your website. Do the same with high-quality external sources, it’s improving your site's credibility.
Example: In a post about fall fashion trends, link to your earlier posts about specific items like "How to Style Ankle Boots" or "Choosing the Perfect Autumn Coat."
Ensure your fashion blog loads quickly and works well on mobile devices. Fix any broken links promptly. Use a sitemap to help search engines crawl your site more effectively.
Example: Compress your fashion photos to reduce page load time without sacrificing image quality.
If you’re looking for an SEO ranking tracker, check the one made by Chloe Christine here.
Content marketing is not just about publishing any content; it's about creating content that your audience finds value in.
In fact, Brooklin Nash says, ‘Creating truly helpful content is like offering a freemium product. If you guide folks on their journey, they'll buy when they're ready. In contrast, creating content just to generate leads means pushing folks before they're ready—and it'll be hard to win back their trust.’
Here are some examples of good content:
How-to guides provide value to your customers while subtly promoting your products. These guides should be detailed, easy to follow, and directly related to the challenges your audience faces.
Example: Lume Cube’s guide “Light Painting: The Beginner's Guide” includes step-by-step instructions and subtly promotes Lume Cube’s products as tools for achieving professional results.
Case studies build trust and credibility with potential customers by showing real-life examples of how your products have helped customers achieve their goals. Focus on the challenge the customer faced, the solution, and the results they achieved. Use data and testimonials to make the case study more engaging.
Example: Klaviyo's case study "MESHKI Drives 240% Year-Over-Year Growth in Global Klaviyo-Attributed Value" shows how Meshki used Klaviyo’s email marketing and automation platform to increase their online sales.
Keep your audience updated on the latest industry news, this helps position your brand as a trusted source of information. Share regular updates on trends, technology, and regulation changes that could affect your customers.
Great blog content is just the start. To really boost your e-commerce store's visibility and drive conversions, try transforming your blog posts into these engaging formats:
With 91% of businesses using video marketing, it's a must-try. Turn your blog posts into product demos, how-to guides, or behind-the-scenes peeks. Keep them high-quality and always include a clear call-to-action.
Example: Transform your "5 Ways to Style Our Bestselling Jacket" blog post into a quick, trendy TikTok video.
Make your data pop by turning it into eye-catching infographics. These are perfect for sharing complex info in a digestible way.
Example: Turn that blog post about "The Evolution of Online Shopping" in a killer timeline infographic for Pinterest or Instagram.
With podcast listeners expected to hit 71 million by 2025, it's a growing opportunity. Convert your blog content into episode topics, or use blogs as starting points for deeper discussions.
Example: Your "Top 10 Home Office Essentials" post could become an engaging podcast episode featuring tips from remote work experts. Take advantage of AI and turn it into a podcast in a few seconds with NotebookLM by Google.
Remember, the goal is to repurpose your blog content in ways that cater to different audience preferences and platforms. This approach helps you reach more potential customers and ultimately drive more traffic back to your e-commerce store.
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