LS Advanced ECommerce Marketing Ebook

Cutting-edge Content:
Advanced eCommerce
Marketing
Copyright © 2016 LemonStand eCommerce Inc.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher.
Made with in Vancouver
lemonstand.com
Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Chapter 1: Why Serious eCommerce Brands 5

Need a Content Strategy

Chapter 2: 6 Steps to Improving Your 18
eCommerce Content Strategy
Chapter 3: How to Apply Content Strategy to 38

Each Stage of the Sales Funnel
Chapter 4: A Complete Guide to Content Types 56

for eCommerce
Chapter 5: Advanced Content Marketing for 82

eCommerce Traffic and Brand
Recognition

Chapter 6: Practical Tips for Growing your 101
eCommerce Email List
Chapter 7: Content Marketing for Conversion in 116

eCommerce
Chapter 8: 10 Online Retailers That Are Doing 128

eCommerce Content Right
Introduction
Want to craft thoughtful and finely-tuned content that’s just right for your audi-
ence? Content marketing is the best way to establish your brand as an authority in
the webosphere, secure successful relationships with your customers, and create
buzz around your product or service.
This is the only guide you’ll need, so read on to become familiar with the latest
studies and best practices. Learn advanced techniques and wield this powerful
tool for serious eCommerce growth, and keep ‘em coming back for more!
Yours in content,
The LemonStand team

1
Why Serious eCommerce
Brands Need a Content
Strategy
Ross Paul
Ross is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and

VP Growth at LemonStand.
The importance of content marketing for eCommerce brands has been significant-
ly growing. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways for retail brands
to market themselves, namely because the customer chooses only to interact with
the content that interests them, as opposed to traditional marketing. To illustrate:
if you’ve never heard of LemonStand before reading this post, well, you have now
because of our content strategy.
In fact, statistically speaking, content marketing can increase your conversion rate
by almost 6 times. The average conversion rate of sites with content marketing is
2.9%, compared to the 0.5% average of sites without a content strategy.
Advanced eCommerce Marketing 6

That reason alone is enough to adopt (and perfect) a content strategy, but it’s not
the only reason. Every day, content marketing becomes more and more crucial to
a brand’s success, especially in the eCommerce sector. Tech and digital marketing
guru Marsha Collier sums up why the strategy works:
“ Content-based marketing gets repeated in social media and

increases word-of-mouth mentions; it’s the best way to gather
”
buzz about a product.
Tweet this quote!
That’s why we recently enhanced the LemonStand eCommerce platform with inte-
grated content marketing capabilities and unique features for bringing merchan-
dise and content together that will help retailers grow faster. After all, the amount of
time adults spend on digital media is steadily rising, and has almost doubled from
2.7 hours in 2008 to 5.6 hours in 2015. It’s easy to leverage some of that time into
content from eCommerce stores.
Are you an online retailer? Good. Let this be an introduction in how to build and
execute the best content marketing strategy for repeatable growth. To start things
off, we’ll explain exactly why serious eCommerce brands should invest in content
marketing.
Why Every Brand Needs a Content Strategy
The research keeps piling in to prove the effectiveness of content marketing. Just
look at these findings from Demand Metric:

• Content marketing generates approximately 3 times as many leads than
traditional marketing.
• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.
• 82% of consumers have a more positive opinion about a company after reading
custom content.
• 70% of consumers feel a closer connection as a result of content marketing.
• 60% of consumers enjoy reading related content from their brands.
• 70% of all people prefer to learn about a brand through articles than
advertisements.
• 72% of customers believe they form a relationship with a brand as a result of
custom content.
The beauty of content marketing is that it enhances every aspect of your brand.

There’s more to it than just increasing the bottom line; because the content speaks
directly to your customers, there’s a direct connection that appeals to them on a
deeper level than traditional avenues. This greatly improves communication be-
tween brands and clients, both in what you say and how strongly it impacts them.
Let’s take a look at what Inc. Magazine says are the universal benefits of content
marketing. We’ve listed them below.
Brand Awareness
As Demand Metric documented, customers feel a closer and more positive connec-
tion with brands that produce custom content, making content strategy an invalu-
able tool for strengthening customer relations.
The more successful your content, the more people will remember your brand and
create positive associations to it. If you go the extra mile to publish authoritative
content (which we’ll delve into later on) such as how-to guides, you can even be
seen as the go-to expert in your niche, which means repeat business every time the
customer has a relevant question.
Search Engine Optimization
Publishing textual content will, at the very least, boost your SEO. A subtle and clev-
erly conceived keyword plan threaded throughout your content will cast out more
nets to catch browsers and potential clients. Remember the operative word is “sub-
tle” — overloading your posts with keywords won’t go unnoticed, and may have an
adverse effect on your reputation.

Expand Your Customer Base
Social media is, after all, a great way to make new friends and meet people. Reach-
ing out to customers on social media, having your articles reposted, and guest post-
ing on friendly sites are all excellent strategies for attracting new business and
getting your name out there.
Even great content alone will achieve this. If your post shows value, it will be repost-
ed and shared. An introduction to your brand through a meaningful article makes a
strong first impression.
Relationships with Other Brands
Content marketing can yield better networking, among companies in your industry
and others. Opening up content exchanges and guest posting on other sites can
benefit both brands, improve SEO results, and establish social proof in the eyes of
your customers.
Influence Conversions
If people enjoy your content, they will feel a closer bond with the brand, trust them
more, and therefore be more open to conversions. A thoughtfully placed call to ac-
tion or product link can the be keystone to your entire content strategy by directing
users where you need them to go.
As we explain below, this is especially useful for eCommerce brands as you can
guide the customer through the buying process with the right content at each stage.
Using content marketing like this is so effective, we’ve even built features into Lem-
onStand that allow retailers to publish, link, and embed relevant content, such as

adding a product widget with a “Buy Now” button into a buying guide or blog post.
Build Loyalty
Great content brings customers back after a purchase and makes your brand useful
beyond just having products to buy. This helps you generate repeat purchases and
increase the lifetime value of your customers.
Compounding Returns
The deeper you get into understanding content marketing, the more you realize it’s
a strategy of compounding returns. Content you publish yourself never goes away
(unless you delete it), so if you continue to publish regular, your content strategy will
just get stronger and stronger.
This is doubly true to evergreen content, or content that is always popular. For ex-
ample, a fashion boutique might post an article about how to dress for your body
shape. This topic will always be relevant to shoppers, as opposed to a piece like
“the best trends for summer 2016,” which will fizzle out fast.
How a Content Strategy Can Help eCommerce Specifically
For eCommerce specifically, content marketing can make or break success. Here’s
what research from Demand Metric and ReferralCandy say about content market-
ing for eCommerce brands:
• 60% of people want to seek out a product after reading about it.
• 90% of people find custom and related content useful.
• 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

Every salesperson worth their paycheque knows that sales is about establishing an
emotional connection. This makes content marketing even more effective, given its
personal nature with the customer.
The content marketing personal link influences quite a few different aspects of the
sales process, providing multiple benefits:
Product research aids. Did you know that 81% of shoppers conduct online research
before buying? Even more interesting is that 60% of consumers start product re-
search on a search engine. That means companies with an effective content mar-
keting strategy have a better chance at attracting these shoppers to their site early
on in their process.
Content like buying guides or product reviews is just helpful to shoppers in gen-
eral. As mentioned above, if you show how useful you are in product research, you
can establish yourself as an authority and generate repeat visits and business.
More effective style of sales pitches. Customized content makes better sales
pitches because you’re teaching instead of selling. Your customers will appreciate
an informative and engaging piece of content much more than a direct sales pitch.
That’s the advantage of content marketing in a nutshell: it promotes your brand in
a more user-friendly way.
Enhances shopping experience. When it comes to shopping, many people —espe-

cially women — enjoy the experience along with the end result. Worthwhile content
enhances the experience all across the customer journey with insights and enter-
tainment. Even just the availability of relevant content gives users the option to
scale up or down the amount of time they spend shopping.

Show products in context. Personal and casual content has the ability to show
your products in context and demonstrate their value in more meaningful ways.
The stronger emotional tie lets the shopper imagine more clearly what owning the
product would be like for them specifically, usually increasing the urge to buy.
Another advantage is that the content can inform shoppers of how to use the
product, or features they may not have been aware of.
Product videos. One type of eCommerce content, the product video, has well-doc-
umented benefits on sales:
• 73% more shoppers will buy after watching a video.
• Videos appear in 14% of search results.
• Almost 46% of shoppers will buy a product in-store if a product video is
unavailable.
• 71% of shoppers believe videos explain products better.
• 57% of buyers are less surprised by products with videos.
• 58% of shoppers view companies with product videos as more trustworthy.
If you think product videos are effective on their own, imagine how much stronger
they are when incorporated into a greater product strategy.
The Will It Blend? video series from Blendtec is a praiseworthy campaign. Each
instalment features the company’s founder putting strange objects into his blender.
The appeal of watching a blender destroy fun objects made the show a smash suc-
cess, but the series also shows off the durability and strength of the product. The
“Justin Bieber” episode above earned more than 3.6 million views.
Timely boost at each stage of the sales funnel. Perhaps the greatest advantage of
content marketing in eCommerce is ushering shoppers along the sales funnel. This

is a complex topic, and we will discuss it more thoroughly in its own piece in the
future. For now, though, he’s an abbreviated explanation of what content marketing
can do for the sales process:
• Awareness — Getting your content out to new channels: posts shared on social
media, guest posting on friendly sites, or even just a potent SEO strategy.
• Interest — Informative posts: how-to guides, buying guides, quizzes, helpful
widgets. Social proof: user reviews, critic reviews, testimonials, case studies, or

simply base popularity with social media followers. Product information: product
videos, clever product descriptions, engaging product photos.
• Action — Campaigning: announcements for sales or everyday low prices. Facil-
itating buying process: more accessible CTAs, single-click buying, streamlined
checkout process.
• Customer Service, Loyalty, and Advocacy — Customer satisfaction: so-
cial media referrals, social proof on social media, faster and more efficient
customer service.
Because this topic warrants more explanation, we’ll touch on it a little later.
Content Marketing vs. Paid Advertising
Really, the title of this unfair. It shouldn’t be content marketing versus paid advertis-
ing because the two aren’t competing. They work best together; they complement
each other. We’re just going to compare them so you understand the true effective-
ness of content marketing.
As you can tell from the statistics above, content marketing seems to resonate more
with consumers than other forms of advertising. A late 2015 Nielsen Norman Group
study confirmed this assessment: recommendations from friends, editorial content,
and online consumer reviews — along with branded websites themselves — all
scored higher in levels of trust than all other forms of advertising.
Furthermore, Neil Patel praises the return on investment (ROI) of content marketing,
though he admits that your content strategy must be sound. He points out that paid
advertising will generate great but short-lived spikes in leads, whereas content mar-
keting produces a slower but more reliable climb.

Then there’s the matter of banner blindness, where 86% of consumers have been
trained to ignore online ads. And this doesn’t even account for ad-blocking soft-
ware. It’s true that there are ways to get around banner blindness, but the point is,
customers don’t ignore content — in fact, they seek it out themselves.
Finally, customers spend far more time interacting with custom content than ads —
about 345 times longer. This equates to more time engaging directly with the brand,
and if the content is on your own blog, more time-on-site.
In defence of paid advertising, content marketing doesn’t usually yield the direct
results of paid advertising, and conversions tend to take longer. As Dan Norris,
co-founder of WPCurve, explains:
“ Some of our customers had been following my content for five years
before they signed up. Your ideal customers will hear about you over a
long period of time, through multiple sources, and that is
”
how trust is built.
Tweet this quote!
Content marketing often requires multiple touchpoints over a longer period of time,
whereas paid advertisements like Facebook ads or Google Adwords produce leads
almost instantly. That’s why we recommend doing both types simultaneously rather
than relying only on one.
In the grand scheme of things, you’ll need to do both and balance the investment for
what works best for your business. You can allot the necessary funds for a working

content strategy and reap the benefits that traditional advertising can’t offer: long-
term results, better customer relations, better branding, more time-on-site, SEO, etc.
But you can also work a content strategy into your existing advertising framework.
We’ll talk more about striking that perfect balance down the line.
Importance of Content Marketing Strategy – Takeaway
If you weren’t before you started reading, we hope you’re now convinced of just
how important content marketing strategy is for online retailers who are serious
about growth. Designing and executing on a solid eCommerce content strategy will
result in:
• Better branding
• Better customer relationships
• Less cost and more ROI than traditional advertising
• Better SEO
• Better access to product information
• More trustworthy than traditional advertising
• Boosts each stage of the sales funnel and ultimately helps you grow sales faster

2
6 Steps to Improving
Your eCommerce Content
Strategy
Ross Paul

There are tens of millions of online retailers worldwide and this number is growing
fast. With competition on the increase, developing a solid eCommerce content strat-
egy and executing on it well is one of the most important ways you can reach your
target customers more effectively and grow your business faster.
To give you an idea of just how important it is, we’ve included a few of the statistics
from the experts at Demand Metric:
• Companies with blogs produce, on average, 67% more leads than those without.
• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, and generates
approximately 3 times as many leads.
• 82% of consumers have a more positive opinion about a company after read-
ing custom content, and 70% feel a closer connection as a result of content
marketing.
• After reading an article about a product, 60% of people are likely to seek out
the product.
As a successful online retailer, you may have built your business based on more tra-
ditional marketing approaches. To take your business to the next level, you’ll need
to master the art of content marketing. And if you’re running a digital agency with
a focus on eCommerce, helping out your clients with content marketing is a great
source of retainer-based revenue if you do it well.

In this chapter, we’ll lay out a 6-step method for optimizing eCommerce content
strategy for your specific goals, industry, and resources to help ensure you can
maximize the results you get from your investment in content marketing.
1. Know Your Shoppers by Creating Personas

2. Define Content Goals
3. Organize Content by Channel
4. Team-building and Promotion
5. Use Customer Journey Maps to Create Content
6. Make a Calendar

You don’t need to be a natural-born Kardashian to produce content that your shop-
pers care about. All you need is to apply the same business know-how to content
marketing as you do to your online store and products.
Step 1: Know Your Shoppers by Creating Buyer Personas
“ There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the
company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his
”
money somewhere else.
- Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club
Tweet this quote!
The heart of all business is, of course, the customer.
Chances are, you’re not going to market your store to everyone. It’s hard to be the
Beatles of eCommerce, so it’s better to focus your efforts on only your target cus-
tomers rather than trying to please everyone. The more specific you get about who
you want on your site, the more effectively you can tailor your content strategy.
Nailing down your ideal customer can be one of the trickiest areas, full of abstracts,
guesswork, and dead-ends. That’s why buyer personas are so important — they
keep logical thinkers grounded in evidence-based data instead of shooting in the
dark. In fact, a Marketing Sherpa case study showed that using personas increased:
• time on site by 900%

• marketing-generated revenue by 171%

• the email open rate by 111%
• the number of pages visited by 100%
Check out our example eCommerce user persona for Geeky Jim.
Personas are fictional representations of real target users, written as documents

that can be referenced any time you’re making consequential decisions. Typically,
you should have one persona to represent each group of target shoppers. They can
be as simple or complex as you need, but in general should contain the following
information:

• Name and Photo — These help in imagining your personas as real people in-
stead of just data sheets.
• Demographics — Gender, age, income, location — any concrete data that can
better inform the type of content they want.
• Personality — Include a few metrics to describe the user’s personality, which
has a great impact on their behavior. Traits like “lazy,” “ambitious,” “skeptical,”
and “enthusiastic” all lead to different styles of content.
• Motivation — What do your shoppers want to accomplish? Do they enjoy the act
of shopping, or want to get it over with ASAP? Do they want to learn more about
the products/industry, or do they know enough already?
• Frustrations — The side of the coin opposite motivation. User pains are a great
influencer for shopping, i.e., what problems does your user have that your con-
tent and store can potentially solve. For example, maybe they’re too confused
about how a product works to buy it. Maybe they want more structure in their
life, and don’t yet know that your product range can help them get organized.
• Preferred Sites and Apps — Knowing where on the web your shoppers hang
out tells you how to reach them. Are they the Snapchat generation, or have
they just joined Facebook recently? How often do they post to Instagram? What
posts are they most likely to Like?
• Personal Quotes — Adding a personal quote or motto also helps to breathe life
into personas. Something like “If I don’t know something, I Google it,” sheds a
lot of light into both browsing and shopping behavior.
Before diving in head first, don’t forget the golden rule of personas: always use real
customer data. Personas are only as effective as the data. Extensive customer re-
search reveals without a doubt how your customers behave and, more to the point,
the most effective type of content for their group.
An in-person interview will give you a hands-on opportunity to directly ask your

customers the questions you want to know, as well as gently guide them to elab-
orate and go into detail. This requires an investment of your time, but it’s one
well worth making.
Step 2: Define Content Goals
The next step is to establish realistic goals for your content. What do you want your
content to achieve?
The beauty of content marketing is that it can be applied throughout the buyer’s
journey, offering different rewards at different stages. Here, we’ve listed some com-
mon goals in reference to the purchase funnel to help get you thinking:
Awareness
• Improve reputation for collaboration opportunities

• Improve search engine optimization
• Drive traffic to your blog
• Raise brand awareness
• Change brand image
Interest
• Drive traffic to your store

• Increase email sign-ups (accounts, newsletters, etc.)
• Increase social media popularity (followers, likes, etc.)
• Share brand news (events, new products)

Desire
• Promote a campaign (sales, deals, coupons, etc.)

• Aid purchase decisions (buyer guides, product comparison charts, etc.)
Action
• Drive traffic to a specific product page

• Embed buying options on external sites
Advocacy
• Improve customer service

• Improve loyalty/repeat business
• Increase word-of-mouth advertising
Try to be as specific as possible when deciding your goals. As with your target
customers, the more specific you are, the better you can customize your content
strategy.
Knowing your goals will help when it comes time to build your content — especially
when choosing the page that your content directs to. Keep this in mind when we
get to Step 4.
Step 3: Organize Content by Channel
Take your target shoppers, add your eCommerce content strategy goals, and the
result is a clear idea of what and where to showcase your content. Step 3 is the real
meat of your overall content strategy, where you get down to the nitty gritty and
start making the crucial decisions.

To start, we can divide content distribution into 4 channels: owned, earned, paid,
and shared.
Owned
Owned content is everything generated from your brand. This includes your site’s
blog and social media accounts, as well as the actual content on your site, such as
product descriptions.
When it comes to your blog, you’ll want to come across as an authority on your
niche. No matter your specific goals, you should aim at being a go-to source for

all things related to your product range. This can be more than just posting how-to
articles and guides, but also industry news and sometimes opinion/editorial pieces.
Home improvement store Lowes fills their Vine page with one-off tips handymen
will appreciate, such as “Get crafty when caulking by using a popsicle stick for a
smooth, professional finish.” These are usually accompanied by engaging anima-
tions, making them informative, fun, and relevant to their target customers.
As for social media, don’t forget to give as well as receive. Active social media is
more than just posting regularly — it’s also interacting with fans and other content
besides your own.
Earned
At this point, make a list of both the top sites in your industry, as well as the top

influencers for your type of product. After removing your direct competition, the
remainders will be your potential collaborators.
Author Jackie Collins promotes herself and Amazon, with a link to a product that
gives produces revenue for them both.
Later, you will want to reach out to them for mutually beneficial partnerships, in-
cluding article exchanges, social media promotions, and joint marketing campaigns
(such as a shared eBook. Cha-ching!)
Paid
Allocate a portion of your budget for sponsorship on sites popular with your target
shoppers. Aside from general advertisements, you may need to promote more par-
ticular content, such as a contest, promotional ebook or even a price promotion.

Even if you’ve got a limited budget, sponsorship doesn’t have to be expensive.
Most of the major advertising channels, and even many smaller networks, allow you
to start small and scale up as you uncover the most effective paid channels and
tactics for your business.

Shared
The last channel for content is providing your customers and visitors for the chance
to create their own. This goes beyond simply allowing comments and reviews —
smart marketers must take an active role to encourage visitors to interact.
One of the most effective methods, for example, is to offer contests or deals for us-
ers who post their products. In 2014, Starbucks hosted one of the most successful
user-generated content campaigns in history: the #WhiteCupContest, to see who
could create the best original design on their plain white cups — and submit the
picture of their entry on social media. In just three weeks, they racked up almost
4,000 entries.
Step 3.5: Choose a Tone
There’s something worth mentioning quickly here. While creating your distribution
plan, starting considering the tone of your content. Your content is the voice of your
brand, especially on external sites, so don’t take this decision lightly.

While you’re free to change up the tone depending on the type of content and
where it’s displayed, it’s best to stay consistent for stronger customer loyalty.
Knowing your customers is the biggest influence on tone. Do they want a young-
er, casual voice that uses slang and emojis, or a more professional and traditional
voice (better for high-end purchases to a more mature audience)?
The UK’s Missguided maintains the same casual, and at times edgy voice as its
young shoppers use themselves on social media. The tone remains consistent
throughout all of its content, from its product descriptions to its Instagram.

Step 4: Team-building and Promotion
Congratulations. You have your plan, and now it’s time to put it into action. Con-
tent marketing is not something you need to do alone, so get out there and start
making friends.
For your own content, this could mean hiring new staff. Depending on your strategy,
your team might involve different types of specialists:
• copywriters
• graphic designers
• photographers
• filmmakers (the size of the team varies)
• social media managers
• radio/podcast hosts
• shopping experts (for buying guides)

While it’s possible to start very small and simple, keep in mind that your results will
be heavily influenced by the amount of time, effort and money you invest. When
possible, work with experts who have a proven track record delivering on the types
of content that you believe will work best for your target audience.
Building collaborations with other sites and influencers requires a bit more effort
and even some finessing. Drawing on previous connections and networking is a
good place to start, so first reach out to any friends you already have in the industry.
You can even put out feelers for introductions to friends of friends.
For article sharing and similar partnerships, even cold emails can work well, given
that both parties stand to benefit. First and foremost, look within sites related to
your niche that are complementary to your own.
Getting influencers on board may take some elbow grease. A common tactic is to
give them a free gift of the product you’d like them to promote, but there’s no guar-
antee they’ll play ball (it is, after all, a gift). If they’re a social media influencer, offer
them the opportunity to increase their following, either by exposure on your site or
even a joint campaign.
For example, when the clothing retailer REVOLVE wanted to expand from the west
coast to the east coast, they threw an East Hamptons party and invited a handful of
top-tier fashion bloggers. By the end of the summer, most of the clothes (free gifts)
worn by the bloggers in their famous Instagram accounts had been sold out.
As for sponsorships, it’s pretty straightforward. You may already be doing some ad-
vertising, so this is about testing out different tactics and types of content to expand
on what you’ve done in the past.

5. Use Customer Journey Maps to Create Content
Now it’s time to construct the actual anatomy of your content posts. No matter
whether you’ve decided on blogs, videos, or a series of kitten photos, you can max-
imize your results by using user journey maps.
A customer journey map is an empathy exercise to help put you in the mind of the
customer as they experience your content. It lists out, step by step, what your cus-
tomer does (and thinks and feels) at each stage. Typically, user journey maps are
created using existing personas.
Below is an overly simplified example, but user journey maps can be more involved
and even include customer’s inner monologues.

1. Francesca the Fashionista is looking for a new pair of pumps that match her very
high criteria.
2. She goes to her favorite fashion site and browses through the article titles until
she finds one that stands out.
3. She reads the article, which includes images, descriptions, and links to all the
shoes mentioned.
4. She finds a pair she likes and clicks the link. It takes her to the product page.
5. Deciding the price is manageable, she successfully completes the purchase.
This may seem brisk, but there’s a lot of information we can get from this small ex-
ercise that will help adapt our content to specific goals:
• Which site to publish on (“her favorite fashion site”)

• How to title the post (something that sticks out to people looking for pumps)
• What to include in the post (images and descriptions)
• Where to direct the inbound link (the product page)
• It even adds some insight into other areas of business, such as pricing.
Get into the habit of mapping out the user journey for every piece of content you
put out there, even if it’s just a quick version like the above. Taking a moment to
empathize with your customer will always, always pay off.
6. Make a Calendar
Lastly, you need to publish content regularly and measure its impact. The amount
of content and the frequency you publish at will vary depending on your level of
investment. And remember, eCommerce content strategy is not something you
do once and then let stagnate — it involves constant maintenance, regular up-
dates, and vigilant scrutiny to see what’s working and what’s not so that you can
continuously optimize.

Keep a tight ship. Regularity is integral for social posting, and fans get irritated at
late and irregular posting. On the plus side, reliability and consistency are reward-
ed with loyalty. Mark all your post schedules on a calendar, and make sure nothing
slips through the cracks.
It helps to have a stockpile of content lined up in case of emergencies and unfore-

seen obstacles. It’s a nice safeguard against missing deadlines.
Map Out Your eCommerce Content Strategy Now
We hope you find our 6-step method helpful, and it inspires you to either get start-
ed, or step back for a critical review of your current strategy.
Next, let’s take a look at more detailed practices for executing on your eCommerce
content strategy at every stage of the buying funnel.

3
How to Apply Content
Strategy to Each Stage of
the Sales Funnel
Ross Paul

Content marketing may be effective for every industry, but it has one advantage
that’s unique to eCommerce: guiding shoppers through the sales funnel. Clever con-
tent can lead, influence, encourage, reassure, promote, inform, and nudge your cus-
tomers at every stage of the funnel.
Also known as the buying process or buying cycle, the sales funnel represents
the different stages a shopper goes through when making a purchase of any kind.
While the actual steps vary with different treatments of the topic, they tend to follow
some general ideas. We’ve found the four-stage AIDA categorization — plus a fifth
stage for post-sale — to be the most useful:
1. Attention — The customer goes about their everyday life and becomes aware
that your store or eCommerce site exists.
2. Interest — The customer is interested in a product, type of product, shopping in
general, or finding a solution to a problem, and conducts research.
3. Desire — The customer wants the product and is convinced it will help with their
problem.
4. Action — The customer builds the confidence around a purchase decision, in-
cluding shopping around for the best price or deciding not to buy at all.
5. Post-Sale — The customer reflects on their purchase. If there’s an issue, they
will interact with customer service; but regardless, there is an opportunity for
building strong brand loyalty and social advocacy.

For each individual stage, we’ll cover the customer’s frame of mind, your goals, the
types of content that work best, and the most effective tactics for delivering content
to your audience.
For more background on content marketing for eCommerce brands, feel free to
read our previous two articles in the series:
• Why Serious eCommerce Brands Need a Content Strategy
• 6 Steps to Improving Your eCommerce Content Strategy

1. Attention
The attention stage is characterized by how the customer becomes aware of, or
more familiar, with a brand. Brand identity plays a big part here, especially if this is
the first impression with the shopper. This stage can also involve a shopper becom-
ing aware of a problem they never knew they had, or that a solution to a pre-exist-
ing problem actually exists. It’s the broadest of each stage in the sales funnel, and
the style of the content should reflect it.
Note that this stage isn’t always necessary. For example, a shopper may have the
urge to buy new shoes, and go directly to their favorite online retailer after signing
on. It is, however, the most important stage for:
What the Customer is Doing:
• Browsing the web normally

• Using social media normally
Your Goals:
• Convert cold traffic into new customers

• Inform shoppers of a sale, a product, or campaign
• Build or change your reputation
• Have customers interact with your social media
Types of Content:
• Social media posts
• Blog, video, and podcast posts on popular topics
• White papers on popular topics

• SEO-laden posts on your own blog
• Guest posts on popular sites relevant to your industry
• Advertisements on popular sites relevant to your industry
• Feature by social media influencers
Best Strategies
Discuss popular topics that your potential customers are already searching for. Your
main goal is attracting attention. The features should be rather broad — you can
hone in on more specific topics later. Decipher which sites your target customers
go to and what they want to read about, then deliver.
For style, at this stage content should be high quality, memorable, and shareable.
Don’t be afraid to be funny or off-topic, like the Taco Bell/Old Spice Twitter ex-
change below.

Post about general and trending topics instead of only talking about your brand. So-
cial media is important here as a means to “introduce” yourself to new clients. The
more followers or interactions you have already, the better your first impression will
be. Social proof is a highly effective marketing tool, and your social media accounts
reflect that.
Short and visually bold content. This type of content isn’t necessarily better, but it
grabs more attention. Remember, new clients may not know much about you: visual
content engages them instantly, and the shorter length requires less of a commit-
ment for users who don’t trust you yet.
Focus on SEO. The goal here is to attract people to your site, so coming from a
search engine result is just as effective as from social media or a friendly site. Blogs
are a great vehicle for SEO, and you don’t have to sacrifice quality. When selecting
keywords, the popularity of the search is not always as important as the amount of
competition. Try to strike a good balance.
If you’re posting on external sites, make sure you’re sufficiently backlinking.
Avoid sales pitches. This is crucial for this stage. Customers hate being sold to,
especially right from the start. The sales funnel is a process, and there’s a time
and place for a sales pitch later. At the beginning stages, you want to build a
relationship.
2. Interest
The interest stage is an important transition: you are no longer a stranger, and the
shopper begins to build a relationship with you. Here you want to put your best foot
forward, and establish yourself as superior to your competitors.

What the Customer Is Doing:
• Evaluating possible solutions to their problems

• Researching
Your Goals:
• Demonstrate value
• Separate yourself from competitors
• Promote campaigns
• Acquire email address and/or signups
Types of Content:
• How-to guides
• Quizzes
• Lookbooks (fashion)
• Recommendations from social influencers
• Related videos (i.e., tutorials)
• Newsletters and emails
Best Strategies
Demonstrate value and set yourself apart from competitors. The attention stage
was about getting your name out there. Now, you need to give that name some
weight. Think of this stage as the shopper getting to know you.

Use your content to promote yourself a little so that your potential customers
understand your value. Content strategist Zach Miller gives a three-point strategy
for value propositions:
1. Define the customer’s pain points (and empathize)

2. Provide resources to alleviate these pain points
3. Guide the customers to subsequent steps with clear calls to action
Content here needs to convince your potential customers to shop with you instead
of your competitors. However, resist the urge to mention your competitors directly,
as it comes across as petty.
Establish yourself as an authority on your niche. This is one of the most effective
strategies for content marketing. Giving your users all the information they need on
your specific niche gives them a reason to continually check back to your pages for
new information.
Research the types of topics customers are searching for with SEO tools, then have
an expert create the content. The customers of Lowe’s buy supplies from their store
or site when they have a construction project, so Lowe’s targets this group of DIY’ers
directly with video tutorials on building common home additions, like a fire pit.

Offer incentives for emails and signups. Newsletters and emails can be great tools
for generating interest and getting the word out there about promotions and cam-
paigns. But you may need to sweeten the deal in order to get visitors to give you
their email address.
It’s standard to offer exclusive deals or coupons within newsletters, but a more im-
mediate gift works better. Offer shoppers a free gift or discount just for signing up.
For social media, offer a discount, coupon, or free gift for “liking” or signing up, like
an exclusive deal for social media friends and followers.
Longer content, more details. Don’t forget this stage is about providing information,

so naturally you’ll want to give shoppers longer and more descriptive content. This
means longer articles, longer videos, and more technical coverage for both. Short
content is better for piquing an initial interest, but now that you have their attention,
you want to fan that interest by giving them more in-depth content.
Just remember to keep the tone casual. You want to remain friendly and engaging;
you don’t want to sound like a boring lecturer.
3. Desire
According to a Mintel report studying American consumerism, 69% of the partici-

pants seek out opinions before making a purchase. If you could provide the content
that they’re seeking out, you have an immediate lead and are just one or two clicks
away from a sale.
The desire phase brings the shopper to the front door of the sale, heightening their
craving for the product and giving them the information they need to buy with con-
fidence.
• Deciding whether to commit to buy

• Evaluating different buying channels
• Compiling a shopping list
Your Goals:
• Aid buying decisions

• Strengthen buying desire

• Present your brand as the best option
Types of Content:
• Buying guides
• Product reviews
• Testimonials
• Product descriptions
• Product photos
• Product videos
Best Strategies:
Show off reasons to buy. Reiterate why shoppers should choose you over your
competitors, whether it be lower prices, better quality products, etc. Your content at
this stage should reflect the unique selling points of both your product range and
your brand itself.
Showcase features, delivery deals, price breaks, sales, and discounts with com-
plete visibility. If you’re running a special campaign, mention it.
Provide the research shoppers are looking for. This stage is all about research.
You can win the shoppers’ gratitude by giving them the research they’re looking
for without hassle. This involves specific advice, technical how-tos, and preliminary
pricing alerts.
Typically, shoppers are looking for information on:
• How strongly price corresponds to quality

• What features are more important than others

• How to use the product
• Environmental or ethical concerns (i.e., Fair Trade)
Make sure you develop and study buyer personas to understand what information
they’re looking for and what format they’d prefer it in.
IKEA goes above and beyond, with individual buying guides on every category of
furniture they sell.
Address shopping concerns. Even if you have a spotless record, other sites defi-
nitely do not, so you can’t blame your customers for being weary. Address their
concerns upfront and reassure them that nothing fishy will happen. While these
are normally site design decisions, it doesn’t hurt to mention them in your content
as well.

Some common consumer fears about eCommerce are listed as:
• credit card information being stolen

• inaccurate product depictions
• no sales assistance
• problematic product return policies
• unable to track order
It’s also a good practice to display your security icons so that users know the
site is secure. But to go further in easing your customer’s anxieties, be forthright
about your return policies and delivery options. Don’t make them search for this i
nformation.
Persuasive copywriting. The tone you take with your content should ramp up near
the end. When it comes to making sales pitches, you can use special persuasive
writing techniques to get shoppers excited about purchasing. We suggest Jeremy
Smith’s five classic persuasion techniques to help get you started.
And don’t neglect the importance of microcopy. How you phrase your buttons and
CTAs can make or break a sale, especially if the wording is vague or confusing.
4. Action
• Developing confidence around what to purchase

• Shopping around for the best price
• Calculating how much they’re willing to spend

Your Goals:
• Promote your store’s advantages

• Facilitate purchasing
• Drive traffic to a specific product page
Types of Content:
• Pricing guides
• Product reviews
• Helpful widgets (i.e., price calculator, sizing chart)
Best Strategies:
Product videos. As we highlighted in the previous article in this series, product vid-
eos can have an immense effect on eCommerce.
• 73% more shoppers will buy after watching a video

• Videos appear in 14% of search results
• Almost 46% of shoppers will buy a product in-store if a product video is unavail-
able
• 71% of shoppers believe videos explain products better
• 57% of buyers are less surprised by products with videos
• 58% of shoppers view companies with product videos as more trustworthy
If you’re targeting millennials, product videos can provide a significant boost in

engagement.
Embed CTAs and buying options in content. The less steps shoppers have to take,

the better. If you embed buying options directly into late-funnel content such as a
price comparison guide, your shoppers can buy when their desire is the highest.
This strategy also works well with special deals. For example, if users click directly
to a checkout page from a certain piece of content, a special deal is automatically
applied.
Provide all the necessary buying information. Some content is mandatory, and with-
out it shoppers will abandon their cart even if they still wanted to make a purchase.
Sizing charts and delivery options should be within reach at all times. North Face’s
sizing chart includes exact measurements, circumventing some of the doubt inher-
ent in buying clothes online without trying them on.

5. Post-Sale
• Reflecting on their purchase

• Seeking customer service to resolve an issue
Your Goals:
• Improve customer service

• Improve loyalty/repeat business
• Increase word-of-mouth advertising (social media referrals)
• Convert fans in social media
• Positive product reviews
Types of Content:
• Surveys
• Email correspondence
• Invitations to review
• Rewards/gifts
Best Strategies:
Customers appreciate transactional emails. Sending an email after a sale shows

your brand’s human side — that you don’t just care about the money, you care
about customer satisfaction.
Transactional emails not only establish a more personal connection with the cus-

tomer, they confirm the details of the sale, including delivery, and place that infor-
mation in the customer’s inbox for quick reference.
They also provide an opportunity for a specialized call to action, such as an invita-
tion to rate or review the product, which we discuss below. Delta includes a survey
right in their transactional email, making it as easy as possible by clicking within the
email — you don’t have to visit another site.
Invite customers to rate or review the purchase. This isn’t the first time we’ve men-
tioned how important customer reviews are, but after the purchase it’s time to think
seriously about them. Customers aren’t prone to leaving reviews, especially if it will
take a few days or weeks for delivery, so you may need to be proactive.

One of the best ways is to just ask. A well-timed email can arrive after the product
has arrived, right when the customer’s excitement is highest. Embed the CTA right
in the email, because you want to make the reviewing process as easy as possible.
For more advice on eliciting user reviews, read these ten tactics from Econsoltan-
cy’s David Moth.
Building the Perfect Content Marketing Sales Funnel
Content marketing isn’t just about advertising and brand awareness — in the hands
of a master, it can shepherd customers through the sales funnel with surgical pre-
cision. Keep these key points in mind when revisiting your own content strategy:
1. Attention: General and popular posts meant to be seen. Be fun and engaging,
and don’t give a sales pitch.
2. Interest: Informative and practical posts meant to generate interest. Establish
yourself as an authority to become the go-to source for any questions about
your niche.
3. Desire: Useful posts meant to both help the customer in the buying process and
demonstrate your value. Now is the time to start in with some (light) sales pitch-
ing, but above all, present content that the customer will find useful.
4. Action: Persuasive posts meant to facilitate sales. Alleviate last-minute fears
and hit home why the shopper needs this product (videos do wonders for this).
5. Post-Sale: Reassuring posts meant to boost customer satisfaction and therefore
brand loyalty and social advocacy. Use this opportunity to encourage user re-
views, which are invaluable for future business.

4
A Complete Guide to
Content Types for
eCommerce
Matt Ellis
Matt Ellis is a freelance writer and online content strategist, specializing

in web design, eCommerce, and digital marketing.
When it comes to content strategy, different types of content are the different tools
in your toolbox. You have to know when and how to use each one, otherwise you’ll
try to hammer a nail with a screwdriver.
This chapter acts as a complete reference guide to the types of content at your dis-
posal for constructing the content strategy for your online store. Each entry includes
a description, a list of advantages, some best practices, and a telltale example.
Think of this guide as a quick-reference catalog for different types of content, to

help make sure you always make the best choice for whatever your content strat-
egy calls for.
Blogs and Articles
The most popular and versatile type of content, blogs and articles, are like the gold
standard for content. They can be used at almost any stage of the sales funnel, and
can range from informative to strictly entertaining. You can even guest post your
blogs on other sites to spread your brand to new audiences.
Blogs can cover a variety of formats: breaking news posts, how-to guides, referenc-
es guides, and even editorials or opinion pieces. Because they can be so informa-
tive, blogs are a great way to establish yourself an authority on your niche, as we
explained earlier.
Moreover, blogs are great for SEO. They’re a wealth of words that, in the right hands,
can be tailored to attract the attention of search engines. According to a Writtent list
of statistics, companies that blog have an average of 434% more indexed pages.

The same page also cited that blogs that post daily also get five times more traffic
than blogs that post weekly or less.
Advantages
• Versatile — any format or tone

• Boost SEO
• Frequent informative blogs on your niche establish you as an authority
• Guest posts get your name to new audiences and improve SEO (despite the
critics, online marketing expert Neil Patel still supports guest blogging)
• Produce 67% more leads on average than sites without blogs
• Provides shoppers with information that encourages a sale
Best Practices
Short paragraphs. A blog with lengthy blocks of text looks intimidating and can
scare off readers before they even give it a chance. Pauline Cabrera gives 10 com-
pelling reasons to keep blog paragraphs short.
Catchy titles. Often, users will decide whether or not to read a blog based on its title
alone, especially if the title is the only information they have. Blog title writing is a
skill in itself, with its own best practices.
Images. A page filled completely with text can be boring, so it’s best to break up the
monotony with images. These images can also help with SEO, as long as they’re
tagged properly.
Post regularly. Posting on a regular schedule creates a rhythm and encourages vis-
itors to check back more frequently. Posting irregularly or infrequently annoys fans

of your blog. Learn to keep a set publishing schedule.
Example
Men’s clothing retailer Indochino uses their blog to establish themselves as an au-
thority on men’s fashion. Among their topics are style advice, shopping advice, and
fun quiz-like posts related to both fashion and James Bond, another popular topic
among their target shopper.
Buying Guides
Buying guides are content that answers the most commonly asked questions about
buying a product or type of product. They can be written in a blog format and also
as comparison charts or pricing charts. They are especially useful to eCommerce
sites, as they attract new shoppers looking for assistance, establish authority on the
topic, and usher shoppers further along the sales funnel.

Advantages
• Uses links to direct shoppers straight to product page

• Establishes you as an authority
• Provides users with the information they need to complete a purchase
• Keeps users on-site while they research
• Attracts new shoppers searching for information
• Promotes products shoppers may not know about
Best Practices
Know what your shoppers are looking for. To decide what to include in your buy-
ing guide, discover what information your users want to know before making a
purchase. Conduct some research of your own through user testing, interviews, or
search engine research.
Target “inquisitive” SEO keywords. Buying guides are great for attracting new shop-
pers. Target keywords that potential customers are searching for and then provide
them with that information.
Example
As an affiliate, fitness site Wear Action shares some of the profits from any sales
they direct toward Amazon. With their FitBit comparison chart, they’re able to quick-
ly answer shoppers’ questions through a visual aid and send them straight to the
product page with a single click.

Lookbooks (Product Image Galleries)
For all visual markets — but especially fashion — lookbooks, or product image gal-
leries, are a great way to “inspire” desire in a product. Lookbooks are a series of
stylistic photos depicting the product, sometimes in a collage format. Their advan-
tage is twofold: first, the artistic nature establishes a deeper emotional connection

with the shopper than basic product photos; and second, the shopper can better
see the product in context.
Advantage
• Entertains while aiding the shopping process

• Establishes an emotional connection with the shopper
• Shows products used in context
• Strengthens brand’s reputation
• Opens opportunity for collaboration with social influencers
• Material for social media
• Improves SEO for image searches
Best Practices
Create an experience. Lookbooks work because they enhance the shopping expe-
rience. Play into this by designing your lookbook in the right style and tone that your
shoppers are looking for (i.e., nightclub scene for sexy dresses, or friends at a park
for youthful casual wear).
Showcase featured products. You can give specific products extra attention
by featuring them in a lookbook, especially if you’re repurposing the photos for
social media.
Example
BB Dakota is a master of the lookbook. Their blog “Journal” features regular photo-
shoots of celebrities and models, shot by top-tier photographers, for content that’s
as fun as it is promotional. The lookbook posts end with a Shop the Look section,

which gives direct links to the featured items’ product pages.

Social Media
Another core component of any content marketing strategy is social media content.
Not only do social media posts promote your brand, they also synergize with your
other content posts. A Facebook post can advertise your blog articles, and your
blog article can include a Facebook call to action.
The style of posts can determine and strengthen your brand’s reputation; career
advice makes you seem professionally valuable, while just-for-laughs posts make
you seem relatable and funny. Moreover, a strong social media presence also pro-
vides social proof, boosts SEO, provides the opportunity for unique promotional
campaigns — the benefits are countless.
Advantages
• Drive traffic to the main site

• Attract new customers
• More personal relationship with customers
• Boosts SEO
• Customer research: know what types of customers your business attracts
• Promotion for sales campaigns and events
• Generate media coverage
• Social proof
• Faster response to problems or complaints
• Increases brand loyalty
• Match competitors’ social media presence
• No cost

Best Practices
Engage in conversations. The upper hand that social media has over other types of
content is direct interaction with customers. Sure, there are comments and reviews,
but response times lag compared to the immediacy of social media.
Always engage directly with customers to take advantage of the two-way conversa-
tion. This requires more than just responding to customers’ questions or complaints
— it’s also about starting conversations by posing questions to your followers.
The 70-20-10 Rule. Most professional social media marketers adhere to the 70-20-
10 rule for deciding which type of content to post:
• 70%: Relevant to brand or business, but not self-promotional. For example, a

camera eCommerce site could post a lot of award-winning photography, but not
product pictures of their own cameras.
• 20%: Shared. Still relevant to your niche, but doesn’t originate from you. For ex-
ample, you could post industry news so your followers look to you to stay up to
date. Reposting others’ content is a great way to make friends, too.
• 10%: Self-promotional. Only 10% of your posts should be direct sales pitches or
promoting your own goals.
No matter what, every post on social media should be 1. relevant to your industry,
and 2. relevant to your follower’s interests.
Focus on the platforms with your demographics. Different social media platforms
attract different demographics, so invest more in the ones with your ideal shoppers.
Here are some statistics from Jennifer Khumalo at Merrie Marketing:

• Facebook: Ages 25-54 (60% female)
• Twitter: Ages 18-29
• Pinterest: Ages 18-35 (80% female)
• YouTube: All ages
• LinkedIn: Ages 30-49
• Instagram: Ages 18-29
• Google+: Ages 25-34 (67% male)
Choose campaigns that encourage user involvement. Social media opens a lot of
doors for creative campaigning, as Starbucks proved with their famous White Cup
Contest. Offer some incentive for users to engage with your social media, whether
a coupon code for becoming a follower, or a contest for publishing content with one
of your products.
Lean on visuals. Social media feeds favor visuals, and posts with images get 94%
more views. To step up the use of visuals in your social media posts, read these 6
tips from Donna Moritz at Socially Sorted.
Don’t underestimate Instagram. Instagram works especially well with eCommerce

as a means to promote both the brand and individual products. Read our earlier
post to learn 6 ways to maximize an eCommerce site’s impact with Instagram.
Use a posting tool. Knowing when to post is a skill by itself, but there’s always a risk
of forgetting. Tools like Buffer or Edgar help schedule and post for you, so nothing
slips through the cracks. All you have to do is input your own posts, and they’ll pub-
lish it on their own.

Example
Given GoPro’s product line, almost all of its social media content is videos. Their
YouTube channel has several successful subchannels divided by subject, includ-
ing extreme sports, American football, animals, and even their own user-submitted
award selections to promote engagement.
Infographics
Since they first started receiving attention around 2010, infographics have steadily
risen in popularity. Their usefulness lies in expressing complex data in a manner
that’s fast, processible, and even fun. They also benefit the companies that make
them: on average, businesses that market with infographics see a 12% traffic in-
crease.
More than just a visual aid, infographics make otherwise bland data like statistics

into something entertaining and easier to digest. Their potential affords them a
degree of creativity in addition to providing genuinely useful information. On top
of that, they’re easy to share and go viral, making them a nice addition to the right
brands’ content strategy.
Advantages
• Provides customers with information they need

• Easily shareable and embeddable
• Increases new traffic and brand recognition
Best Practices
Narrative flow. The beauty of infographics is they’re more entertaining than just cit-
ing facts and data. Design yours with a coherent narrative flow, for example, divide
it into topical sections that each build on the previous one.
Promote it. Your infographic will require an extra push to get it passed around and
shared. Neil Patel gives some suggestions to make your infographic viral:
• SEO-laden release post

• Structured social media releases
• Manual outreach to influencers and key players in your industry
• Submit your infographic to directories:
- Infographics Archive
- Daily Infographic
- Infographics Showcase

Use time saving tools. You don’t need to be a Photoshop expert to create an ef-
fective infographic. These 10 free tools let you make visually stunning infographics
using template- and generator-style time savers.
Example
The bridal eCommerce store Weddington Way handles infographics smartly. They
target a relevant topic that many of their shoppers — especially men planning
to propose — have questions about. Even though they don’t sell diamond rings,
this infographic still attracts the attention of their target clientele: people planning
weddings.

Podcasts
Podcasts are just another way to offer your expertise to your target audience, just
like blogs or infographics. But the important thing to remember is that different peo-
ple have different preferences — some prefer reading, others prefer listening. You
don’t have to choose between visual, textual, and audio content; it’s better to have
them all to attract all types of shoppers.
Think of podcasts as an episodic variation of talk radio. A podcast for an eCom-

merce site might feature a charismatic host discussing industry news or topics, or
interviewing relevant guests, in periodic instalments.
Not only are podcasts becoming increasingly popular each year, but marketers are
investing more in this format due to their unique audience: studies show podcast
listeners tend to be well-educated and also use social media more.
Advantages

• Targets specific type of customer with affinity for social sharing and greater in-
come
• Repeat traffic anticipating new episodes
Best Practices
The right equipment. The content of your podcast won’t matter if your microphone
makes it indecipherable. You don’t need to break the bank for a sufficient micro-
phone, as long as you shop wisely.

Structure each episode. Structuring a podcast is a little more difficult than other
types of content because most people don’t have the experience with audio pro-
gramming than, say, writing an article. Stephanie Ciccarelli of Voices.com prescribes
this outline for a standard 20 minute form:
• 30-60 sec.: Specific show intro — who you are and what this episode is about.
• 30-60 sec.: Show jingle or theme song.
• 3 min.: Topic 1
• 3 min.: Topic 2
• 30 sec.: Interlude (music, advertisements, etc.)
• 3 min.: Topic 3
• 3 min.: Topic 4
• 2 min.: Closing remarks — thank yous and a preview of next episode.
• 2 min.: Closing jingle or theme song.
Not all podcasts should be 20 minutes. The ideal length depends on the subject
matter, the audience, and the frequency of your posts.
Trial runs. Especially if you have no experience in radio or public speaking, you’ll
want to do a few trial runs before launching your first podcast. This will help you
solidify your style and tone, plus knock out any technical kinks.
Submit to iTunes. iTunes is one of the best ways to get your podcast heard. Read
these guidance suggestions from iTunes itself to make sure your podcast is suitable
for submission.
Include a transcript. To increase your SEO and appeal to shoppers who prefer read-
ing and browsing over the commitment of listening, include a transcript of each
episode within the post.

For a fee, a service like Transcribe Team can handle this for you.
Example
By selling a product that’s also periodical — not to mention highly debatable — Mid-
town Comics will never run out of topics for their podcasts. Each week they discuss
the new comic releases and sometimes bring on writers and artists to join the dis-
cussion, with the comics they discuss available to buy on their site. Notice the link
directly below the podcast to the Batman comic they’re discussing in this episode.

Videos
The Guardian once wrote: “Video is the future of content marketing. That is, if it’s
not the here and now.” Their bold claim was backed by Cisco, whose research
proclaimed that videos will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017.
Modern and highly visual, video content has a reach unlike any other content. It’s
incredibly flexible in subject matter, style, and length, making them suitable for virtu-
ally any marketing goals or industry. How-to guides, regular series, product videos,
even cat videos can all give your brand the benefits it needs.
Advantages
• Attract new business

• Strengthen bonds with existing customers
• Deeper emotional bonds
• Can be repurposed on a variety of platforms
• Shows products in action
• Flexible
• Easily shareable on social media
Best Practices
Product videos. Regardless of your overall content marketing strategy, every eCom-
merce site should have product videos. The statistics are overwhelmingly positive:
• 73% more shoppers will buy after watching a video.

• 71% of shoppers believe videos explain products better.
• 58% of shoppers view companies with product videos as more trustworthy.

How-to videos. How-to guides establish your brand as an authority, no matter if
they’re written or filmed. Some procedures are just explained better on video than
in text, and some audiences (such as younger groups) prefer videos.
Include a transcript. Because search engines aren’t yet as skilled at handling vid-
eo as text, including a transcript of your video boosts your SEO. Plus, it appeals to
some users who prefer reading to watching.
Example
Makeup is, of course, an industry steeped in visuals. That’s why the cosmetic web-
store Jane Iredale has an entire page of makeup video tutorials. This is a sought-af-
ter topic for loyal and new customers alike, and the site brings in new traffic simply
by providing resources people are searching for.
More often than not, each video gives the brand a chance to feature specific prod-
ucts, which are highlighted in a split-screen next to the action.

Email Marketing
While a little different than the other types of content marketing on this list, email
marketing is still a worthwhile avenue — especially for eCommerce, where it ac-
counted for over 7% of customer acquisition in 2013. Moreover, 33% of consumers
cite email as their biggest influence in online spending.
Email serves a variety of purposes. For starters, it can be a source of communicating

directly to your shoppers about new deals or campaigns, even with personalized
recommendations. A newsletter with broader range keeps your entire customer
base informed on periodic updates and can entice sales through specialty coupons.
At a more advanced level, emails can even be used to collect customer data; for
example, you can email a shopper about why they abandoned their cart to improve
your site design in the future.
Advantages
• Direct communication with shopper

• Customer segmentation for more accurate targeting
• High personalization levels
• Customizable for different stages of sales funnel
• Low cost
• Synchronized to other channels, like your blog and social media
Best Practices
Optimized subject lines. Statistically, the subject line has the greatest impact on the
success of an email marketing campaign. There are a lot of intricacies to consider

when composing a subject line, so read John McIntyre’s piece at the Digital Market-
er for a thorough treatment.
Personalization. Take advantage of email’s capability for personalization. For exam-

ple, look at what the customer has bought in the past and customize their recom-
mendations. Some areas to look into for speaking to specific customers:
• Products browsed and purchased

• Usual price ranges
• Frequently visited categories
• Geographic location
• Date of last order
• Age
Transactional “series” emails. As opposed to the direct emails that are sent to ev-
eryone, transactional emails are sent only when triggered by a customer’s action (or
lack of an action). These types of emails are also personalized, and therefore more
effective. Crush Campaigns recommends these 4 series campaigns:

• Welcome — Whenever a new customer registers or signs up for a newsletter,
send them a welcome letter thanking them and reiterating the advantages.

• Follow Up — One of the most important types of emails, a follow-up after a pur-
chase is the perfect opportunity to elicit the ever-so-valuable product reviews
and ratings. Try to time your email around the time of the product’s delivery,
when your customer’s excitement is at its height.

• Abandoned Cart — If the user has placed an item in the cart and then aban-
doned it, send a friendly reminder as a way to encourage a sale, or use the
chance to collect user data about why they decided against buying.

• We Miss You — When a customer hasn’t bought anything in awhile, try to entice
them with a special coupon, free shipping, or personalized recommendations
for new products.

Example
Playing into the Pokemon Go trend and the knowledge that most of their customers
are likely gamers, Firebox’s timely Pikachu-themed email offers to solve Pokemon
Go player’s number one problem: the game drains their phone battery. After grab-
bing the reader’s attention with a colorful representation of the game’s iconic char-
acter, the email offers battery chargers to solve the user’s biggest problem without
them even asking.

5
Advanced Content Marketing
for eCommerce Traffic and
Brand Recognition
Ross Paul

After launching their first video on YouTube, the previously unknown startup Dollar
Shave Club racked up more than 12,000 signups in just 48 hours. That’s the defini-
tion of an overnight success for any business that’s trying to increase eCommerce
traffic.
By now, the video is a viral marketing legend, so successful that the company was
recently acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. But don’t let the irreverence of this feel-
good video fool you… it was a calculated, well organized, and masterfully orches-
trated endeavor.
The Dollar Shave Club video is the perfect example of just how powerful content
marketing is. There is no direct call to action in the video. It’s more-or-less just a
commercial so entertaining, people wanted to show it to their friends — and, in do-
ing so, gave it more exposure than if it were aired on national TV.
This article presents advanced content marketing techniques to increase eCom-

merce traffic and improve brand recognition. Here we focus only on the top of the
sales funnel, the stage with the largest pool of people that give it its natural “funnel”
shape.
This content is meant for growing traffic — not directly pitching a sale. Remember, a
good first impression now can lead to the sale of a lifetime later.
Why Top-of-the-Funnel Content Is Different
If you skipped past our earlier piece about how content differs through each stage
of the sales process, we’ll briefly explain again why the top of the funnel is so dif-
ferent.

Unlike the other stages, where content marketing goals are more specific, the main
goal here is attracting attention. This is far more difficult than it sounds, considering
the amount of competition and distractions you’re up against.
Your content should revolve around brand awareness, brand reputation, and intro-
ducing yourself to new customers. In addition, you can also promote specific cam-
paigns or products/services, but you must do so respectfully — at this stage, sales
pitches are a mistake.

What to Post to Increase eCommerce Traffic
Because the pool of readers is so wide, you should stick to broad and popular top-
ics that appeal to the masses.
For example, the Dollar Shave Club video had jokes that everyone could laugh at,
not just their target customers of adult males who shave. As a result, the video was
shared by women and non-shavers as well, which ultimately raked in more views
from adult males who shaved.
A study of social media shares in 2014 revealed what type of content gets shared
the most:
1. Lists (22.45%) — Less of a “type” and more of a format, lists seem to comprise
the most shareable posts. Ex: The 10 Biggest Things You Need to Know about
the iPhone 7. Threadless.
2. “Why” Posts (22.32%) — Coming in a very close second are “Why” Posts, con-
tent that makes an assertion and explains why. Ex: Why You Need: Flora Reme-
dia. Free People.
3. Videos (18.94%) — While product videos are especially important, standard vid-
eos on more general topics appeal to a wider audience for getting your name
out there. Ex: Putting PhoneSoap to the Test. Phonesoap.
4. How-to Posts (18.42%) — How-to Posts narrowly fall behind videos. These are
basic instructional and guide pieces. Ex: How to Ace This Winter’s Menswear
Trends. Indochino.
5. “What” Posts (17.88%) — While still popular, “What” Posts, like news articles, fall
in last. These are posts that describe or explain an issue, though less opinionat-
ed than “Why” Posts. Ex: The Return of the Stiletto. Dune.

You’ll notice that the competition between the different types is close, with each
one taking in around a fifth of the total shares.
Just as important as the type of content is the emotion it elicits. OkDork conducted
a similar study on the emotional character of the 10,000 most-shared posts:
1. Awe (25%)
2. Laughter (17%)
3. Amusement (15%)
4. Joy (14%)
5. Anger (6%)
6. Empathy (6%)
7. Surprise (2%)

8. Sadness (1%)
9. Other (15%)
As you can see, Awe, Laughter, Amusement, and Joy clearly distinguished them-
selves over other emotions, meaning that positive feelings are more often shared
than negative ones.
Anatomy of a Shareable Post
Just what is it that makes a post go viral and pushes its ranking high enough in
search engine results to consistently increase eCommerce traffic? There is no one
set formula, except to say “high quality.” Really, the anatomy of a shareable post is
the anatomy of a good post, for which the criteria varies.
That said, there are some tips and techniques that are proven successful, which
we’ll explore now.
Headlines
According to Harp Interactive, headlines account for up to 50% of a blog’s effective-

ness. As the deciding factor in whether or not to read the piece, the headline will be
read by 5 times as many people than the actual post. Here are some takeaway tips
for crafting shareable headlines:

Numbers. Titles with numbers in them create 73% more social shares and engage-
ment. Not just any numbers, either… odd numbers have a 20% higher click-through
rate. Presumably, odd numbers seem more realistic, and therefore more trustworthy.
Unique Rationale. Neil Patel suggests using what he calls a “unique rationale,” which
means giving people a reason to read your post that only you can provide. Using
words like tips, lessons, ways, and secrets all implicitly explain their own value.

Power Words. Some words are more effective than others. When he analyzed the
headlines for the most click-worthy sites, Buffer’s Kevan Lee found these words
used most often:
• You & Your — speak directly to reader.

• This — denotes specificity.
• What, Which, When, Where, and Why — to pose questions that the post
answers.
• The Most or Best — superlative, but also invites an argument.
• How to — demonstrates value by offering to teach.

Content
If a good headline gets your post read, then good content gets it shared. Content is
still king in the web, and people share the content that moves them the most. The
trick is to have quality posts that both engage the reader and remain relevant to
your brand.
Relevant Interests and Pain Points. Armando Roggio advises you to pay attention to
your industry to find where your shopper’s interests and pain points are. For exam-
ple, Patagonia is a specialized clothing store for outdoor sports like surfing, climb-
ing, and snowboarding. Their blog The Cleanest Line has articles on each of these
topics, plus their brand’s overarching concern about environmentalism.
They feature news, how-to, and human interest articles on these topics, which ap-
peal to more than just Patagonia shoppers. Everyone interested in outdoor sports
might stumble into the Patagonia online store by way of their blog, and once they’re
on the site, maybe they’ll do a little shopping…

Avoid Clickbait. It’s not about hits, it’s about establishing a connection with your
target customers. In this sense, clickbait is the opposite of quality — you’ll likely
annoy more of your visitors instead of enticing them. Neil Patel warns “don’t B.S.
your readers”; a reputation of making promises your content doesn’t deliver is hard
to live down.
Controversy. Topics that are shocking, debatable, or otherwise outside of the norm
tend to attract attention. As long as you’re respectful and can back up your head-
lines with quality content, controversial topics can get you noticed amidst the sea
of your competitors.
Images
You always want to include a powerful image with your posts: that’s a hard-and-fast
rule you can use in any situation. We’ve collected a series of statistics explaining the
magnitude of benefits visuals have on content marketing:
• Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media. (Buffer).

• People are 80% more likely to read content with colored visuals. (Xerox).
• Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more interaction than text-only posts.
(Buzzsumo).
• Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than those without images. (Buzz-
sumo).
• The word “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by 19% and click-
through rates by 65%, while reducing unsubscribes by 26%. (Syndacast).
• Pages with images or videos draw almost twice as many (94%) more views than
pages with only text. (Business 2 Community).
• Article with images every 75-100 words get shared twice as much as articles
with fewer images. (Buzzsumo).

• 93% of human communication is visual. (Business 2 Community).
When it comes to content marketing, the old adage proves true: a picture is worth
a thousand words.

Off-Site Marketing Tactics
If you’re trying to build your customer base, you can’t always wait for them to come
to you. Here are some of the experts’ best tactics for marketing off-site.
Link Building
Link building is a method of improving your SEO and new traffic by putting links
on external sites. The placement of backlinks, or inbound links, on the right sites
can earn you prestige in search engine algorithms, which factor in the quality and
amount of these links when rating sites.
Outside of SEO, each link you have on an external site creates an opportunity for
someone to click and visit. If these inbound links exist within quality content, you
give new readers incentive to check out your site.
Here are some keys to success:
Link to your unique assets. Do you have a product no one else offers? What about
a how-to video on an in-demand topic? Audit your unique assets so you can give
other sites a good reason to feature your link.
Target places where you target shoppers go. Location, location, location. For what-
ever your industry or product is, research the most popular blogs, online forums,
directories, and communities. For more thorough results, check your competitor’s
backlinks by reverse-engineering their URL in a tool like MOZ Open Site Explorer.
Ask for opinions in other blogs’ comments sections. There’s a fine line between
asking for advice and spamming. Reach out to the community to get their opinions

on your site, product, or some content you posted; that’s a justifiable excuse to put
your link in the comments section.
Guest blog. Getting your link on popular blogs is always helpful, both for SEO and
exposure. If you have any friends in your industry, try exchanging blog posts on
each other’s websites. You can even make new article exchange friends on sites
like Blogger Link Up and MyBlogGuest.
Even more effective is reaching out to the bigger and more popular sites in your
niche, especially if their main purpose is blogging and not eCommerce. It’s okay to
send these sites a cold email, like the template below:
Hello [name of blogger],
[Short introduction]
I’d like to share my knowledge with other people on the topics of [your topic]. Last few days I’ve been writ-
ing an article on [your topic]. I noticed that your readers are interested in [the topic]. I think I can contribute
to your blog by talking about the following points:
[A brief list of things you are going to write in your post]
I think this material will be well worth it for your readers, what do you think?
Best Regards,
[your name]
Reclaim brand mentions. If other sites are talking about you already, request a back-
link. These 5 free tools can help monitor who’s mentioning your brand, but you can
also try a reverse search on your product images.

For more advice on link building, EcomHacker gives 44 expert tactics for
eCommerce brands.
Influencer Outreach
We touched on the importance of influencer collaboration in 6 Steps to Improving

Your eCommerce Content Strategy, but here we’ll go into a little more detail.
Getting a high-profile influencer to talk about or even share a picture with your
brand’s product is more than just exposure — it’s social proof. Leagues of new peo-
ple (likely your target customers, if they share the same interests as the influencer)
will not only discover your product, but they’ll also associate it with the influencer
in the future.
Here are some strategies for reaching out to influencers and opening up collabo-
rations:

Free Gifts. Giving an influencer a free gift (or discount or coupon) is a common tactic
for getting them to either review your product or simply showcase it in their social
feeds. Just remember, there’s no guarantee here. It is, after all, a gift.
The bigger an influencer is, the more of these gifts they receive. Try to stand out by
adding a personal touch. We recommend this format for gift emails:
Hello [blogger’s name],
[A short introduction to you and your store].
I’m approaching you because [rapport creating reason].
I’d like to ask what you think of our store.
Last but not least, I’d like you to give us an address where we can send a small gift we’ve prepared for
you. We think you’ll like it.
Best Regards,
[Your name]
Interact with the Influencer’s Content Regularly. Influencers are running their own
businesses too, so they appreciate the attention and support they get. If you inter-
act with and share their content regularly, they’ll start to notice your name, giving
you a chance to break the ice.
Daniel Knowlton advises you to be creative when interacting with influencers. Di-
rect video messages, customized photos, boomerangs, and gifs will stand out from
everyone else’s text messages. He also says interacting every day — for Twitter, at
least — is “ideal.”

Tag Them in Your Own Content. Knowlton also suggests posting about the influ-
encer and then tagging them. You could even mention them in a blog post, then
tag them in the social media announcement. Tagging ensures they receive a noti-
fication and at least notice you. You can then use a tool like ContentMarketer.io to
market to all of the mentions in the post.
Collaboration. Work with an influencer, or perhaps a group of influencers, in a mu-

tually beneficial campaign such as a contest, giveaway, or artistic collaboration. For
example, feature the influencer as a model in your product photos, or give them
creative control in a new product design.
At the very least, initiate an affiliate or referral program that gives them a commis-
sion on assisted sales. For professional influencers like fashion bloggers, this is one
of their main sources of income.
Social Media
Social media channels are one of the best ways to improve both brand awareness
and customer relations, among many other advantages.
While managing a brand’s social media is a skill on its own, DIY business people or
short-staffed companies may find tools like Quuu helpful. In conjunction with a Buf-
fer account, Quuu “hand curates” your social media content based on your industry.
Skyscraper Technique to Increase eCommerce Traffic
Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique is a direct and powerful link-building method

based on taking other successful posts and releasing even better versions of them
— like building an even taller skyscraper. Dean lists the three steps as:

1. Find link-worthy content. What articles have garnered a lot of backlinks? What
post did your target customer base find so useful or valuable, they continually
shared it?
2. Create an improved version. What makes your version of the content better than
the original? Are you updating old information, adding new insights (like person-
al experience), improving the visual design, or maybe you’re just fleshing it out
for a longer, fuller post? This technique works best when you manage all four.
3. Reach out to the right people. Send a message to everyone who linked to the
original version and tell them you’ve written something better. Then, reach out to
new channels in the same way we suggested above in the Guest Blog section.
The beauty of the skyscraper method is that the content subject matter has already
been proven to be popular. All you’re doing is giving people something they already
want, but in a better way. Done well, this is an easy to research way to increase
eCommerce traffic. Just make sure that your post is completely original, copying
someone else’s content without permission and attribution is not only unethical, it
could get you blacklisted by search engines.
Repurpose Content to Increase eCommerce Traffic
Different people prefer different types of content: millennials prefer short-form vid-
eos, educated users prefer podcasts, etc. For eCommerce stores with a wide cus-
tomer base, it’s best to provide something for everyone instead of just something
for a few people.
If you have a piece of high-quality content that’s proven to be in demand, try rec-
reating it in different formats, aimed at different channels. Kevan Lee of Buffer ex-
plains some different ways to repurpose content:

• Infographics: Whether raw data or an opinion piece, you can always make your
point with slick visuals in an infographic. As we’ve mentioned before, infograph-
ics are, as a content type, one of the most conducive to sharing.
• eBook: If you have a series of well-written posts on a related topic, collect them
together into a free, downloadable ebook. These compilations are a lot more
convenient than scanning through months of old posts, plus they give you the
opportunity to collect email addresses.
• Email Series: Likewise, you can release your posts periodically as an email se-
ries, for multiple interaction with customers over time.
• Answer on Quora: If you have a post with in-demand information, chances are
someone has posed a similar question on Quora. Rephrase your post in your
answer, of course backlinking to the original for more information.
• Slideshow: Sites like SlideShare appeal to fans of presentations, both speakers
and attendees. Plus the individual slides are a great visual aid for processing
data piece by piece.
• Video: We’ve spoken a lot about the advantages of videos over written content
by now, you can see the value having both a video and textual account of the
same topic. Videos also open up doors for video-only channels like YouTube or
Vine.
• New Blog or Article: If you have a successful blog post, try rewriting it in a differ-
ent way. For example, if you wrote a great Why Post, redo it as a List Post. This
allows you to republish the content on a new site for solid link building, or give it
a breath of new life on your own site. It’s like applying the Skyscraper Technique
to your own material.
We hope you feel better equipped with more ways to get your name out there and
increase eCommerce traffic.

6
Practical Tips for
Growing Your eCommerce
Email List
Matt Ellis

Before we talked about how email marketing is effective. Now, we’ll talk about how
to do it effectively… namely eCommerce email list growth.
No matter how diverse or experimental they may be, each and every email market-
ing strategy needs one thing: an email address. This chapter explains how to use
content to build your brand’s email list.

Think of building your email list as a stage in the sales funnel, the Interest phase, af-
ter Attention. Even the simple act of receiving an email — a sign of trust from a new
shopper — is crucial to the sales process. We’ll start by explaining why.
Why eCommerce Sites Need Email Lists
It’s hard to go directly from a new visitor to a sale, and eliciting a person’s email
address is often the stepping stone for turning them into a customer. It’s that inter-
mediary step that says, “I’m interested in your brand, but I’m not ready to buy yet.”
WPBeginner lists out the benefits of email correspondence in a broad and clear-cut
way:
• Personal Connection to Shopper — Emails speak directly to your shopper, un-

like most other forms of content like blogs or videos. This intimacy builds a clos-
er relationship between them and the brand.
• Improved Targeting — You can customize the email directly to the recipient, let-
ting them know about deals or products relevant to them based on their brows-
ing or purchasing history.
• Higher Rate of Interaction — Because emails are so personal and go directly in
the shopper’s inbox, the chances of the shopper actually interacting with it are
greater.
• Regularity — A shopper may go to your blog once and never return, but period-
ic emails can keep your brand in their mind.
There’s also a little known psychological benefit as well. In his seminal book on
social psychology The Social Animal, Elliot Aronson describes the phenomenon
where small investments such as giving an email address create stronger and more
positive bonds.

The theory is the person needs to validate their behavior to themselves, so small
“favors” encourage thinking along the lines of “this online store must really be worth
it if I gave them my email.”
Of course, once you have their email, you can begin your email marketing cam-
paign. We’ve already discussed the best practices of email marketing, so we’ll con-
tinue strictly with list growth.
And one of the most important components of convincing someone to share their
email address is giving them a good reason to.
Incentivizing
There’s an old saying, “nobody does something for nothing,” which has the same
meaning as the more casual “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” If you want an
email address, your best strategy is to offer something up in return.
Everett Sizemore, the Marketing Director of Inflow, lists some of the most compel-
ling incentives for eliciting user emails.
Free Products. Giving away free gifts may be one of the oldest tricks in the book,
but the reason it’s used so frequently is because it works. Offering prospective
customers a free sample of your product, or even free shipping, is worth a lot more
than an email address — and customers appreciate this, boosting their brand loyalty
from the start.

While these free samples usually aren’t free for the online store, they can some-
times be free products passed along from the manufacturer, or bonuses for a price
break when ordering in bulk. In any case, the shopper is still expected to pay the
shipping fee.
Free Resources. If you don’t want to give away an actual product, you can always
give away free resources, namely ebooks, white papers, reports, toolkits, or video
tutorials. This avoids the hassle of shipping fees, and gives the user instant gratifi-
cation with an immediate download.
In-depth buyer’s guides are always appropriate for eCommerce sites, but specific
instructional material can be more effective. Try a guidebook on the common pain
points of your related industry. For example, if you’re selling yarn and craftware,
offer an ebook on knitting techniques.

Craftsy, above, regularly offers free resources on their site. Not wanting to take
away from their online classes, these resources mostly include pattern books (as
well as giveaways for free products). They even have a weekly Freebie Friday, a
clever strategy for keeping shoppers coming back periodically.
Discounts. If the return on investment for free gifts is too risky, discounts are the
next best thing. A discount is a standard reward for email signups, especially for

new visitors — the site detects the absence of cookies and offers a discount on their
first order.
Loyalty Programs also fall under discounts. If you have such a program, mention it
early on both for the benefit of the customer and to incentivize them to sign up as
soon as possible.
News and Notifications. For brands that have already proven their value, the reward
of staying updated is enough to collect an email address. Typically this is by way of
a periodic newsletter, which keeps shoppers informed on new specials, deals, or
campaigns.
Another similar strategy is notifications about when an out-of-stock product is re-

stocked. If a user is already on the product page, chances are they’re at least a little

interested and will want to know when the product is available again. Include a call
to action right there on the page.
Contests. You can even offer contests or giveaways specifically to build your email
list. This is another common tactic, where the cost of entry is the email itself. This
strategy can also be co-opted for social media, where the entry cost is asking the
user to follow you.
For more information on the specifics, Gleam wrote a thorough guide on contest
promotion.

Access to Site Features. Last, some eCommerce sites require email registration for
full access to all the features on a site. This works best for features like wishlisting or
personalization recommendation, in which the value for signing up is self-evident.
Reviews, too, often require email verification.

You can also be creative with this. For example, Polyvore has a feature where you
can create a collage or outfit of your favorite clothes, but you can only publish and
share it with friends if you sign up or log in.
Calls to Action
No matter which incentive you choose, you’ll need to pay extra attention to how you
present your call to action. Just as with sales, there’s a whole series of CTA tactics
proven successful in building email lists.
On the Digital Marketer blog, the founder and CEO Ryan Deiss lists his favorite es-
sentials for displaying a CTA for incentives (which he calls “lead magnets”). We’ve
adapted them for eCommerce and referenced them below:
• Be Specific — Customers prefer to know exactly what they’re getting into. Let
them know in no uncertain terms what they’ll get if they hand over their email,
including specific percentages, discounts, and/or length of time. Avoid vague
descriptions like “a free gift.”
• Focus on One Incentive at a Time — An extension of “being specific,” hone in
on one incentive per CTA. It’s better to promote one big reward than several
unrelated small rewards.

• High Perceived Value — One side effect of giving products or resources away
for free is that they appear cheap. Undermine this assumption by raising the
perceived value of the reward you’re giving your shopper in exchange for their
email. The most straightforward way is to simply list the actual value (“valued
at $X”), but you can also add mystique through more graphic descriptions or
testimonials.
• Quick Turnaround — Remember that email addresses aren’t the end goal. What-
ever you’re offering, make sure your shoppers come back for more sooner rath-
er than later. In other words, keep your eBooks short, announce your contest
winners soon, and have regular if not frequent sales events to keep your corre-
spondence regular.

Which Content Works Best for eCommerce Email List Growth?
Now that we’ve examined the best tactic for list growth, let’s talk about how to fit it
into your existing content marketing strategy.
Blogs. We’ve mentioned how blogs are one of the best content types for attracting
new business and traffic. As an early-stage vessel for ushering new shoppers fur-
ther down the sales funnel, blogs make a great opportunity to attract a signup.
Emily Dowdle suggests these two tips for boosting the email conversion rate of
your blog:
• Make signup options mobile-friendly. Don’t neglect all your potential customers
that are reading your blog articles on mobile devices.
• Include multiple CTAs. Give readers more than one opportunity to sign up. Com-
mon CTA venues include at the end of the blog post, a sidebar widget, and opt-
ins upon entering and leaving the site.

Social Media. Another way to reach new audiences, social media is an ideal channel
for letting those who are unfamiliar with your brand know about the incentives for
signing up. The goal for email list growth is to get new shoppers to give their emails.
Stuart McKeown, a co-founder of Gleam, advises posting lead generation cards on

social media, especially Twitter, that promote certain deals on signup. If the incen-
tive is good enough, your followers will share it with non-followers — not only intro-
ducing your brand, but suggesting an email registration right away.

Surveys and Quizzes. A more off-beat but still useful method for attracting emails is
through surveys and quizzes. Digital Marketer’s Deiss points out how a quiz that’s
relevant to the shopper can entice and engage them so much that they’ll gladly
provide their email address for the results.
In eCommerce, this strategy works well when combined with a buyer’s guide. For
example, an online shoe retailer could offer a quiz about which shoe would work
best for you (or even a more playful personality test, “Which Shoe Are You?”). The
results would then be emailed directly to the shopper, with direct links to the corre-
sponding product pages.
What does it take for you to part with your email address? Have you ever seen any
truly respectable eCommerce email list growth tactics, or maybe some laughable
attempts?

7
Content Marketing for
Conversion in eCommerce
Matt Ellis

What’s the point of building an elaborate eCommerce content strategy if you can’t
close the sale?
Your eCommerce content marketing should be designed to guide shoppers

throughout the entire sales funnel, but from a business standpoint, the end goal is
always that last little step where they click “complete order.” We’ve already talked
about how to generate traffic with content, and now we’ll explain how to convert
that traffic into sales.
Which Content Works Best for Conversions?
Different content serves different goals, and content types like blogs or infograph-
ics don’t work as well for conversions as they do for generating traffic.
So what does work for conversions? If increasing sales is your top priority, focus on
product videos, buying guides, and product page descriptions.
In this chapter, we’ll explain everything you need to know about all three. For each
one, we include a description, explanation on why they’re useful for conversions,
best practices, and some examples from brands that do them right.
Product Videos
We can’t talk enough about how great product videos are for sales. Just look at
these impressive statistics:
• 73% of U.S. adults are more likely to purchase a product online after watching a
video (Animoto)
• 58% of consumers consider a brand more trustworthy if they feature a video

(Animoto)
• 96% find videos helpful in online shopping decisions (Animoto)
• 71% prefer videos over text in explaining products (demoup.com)
• Videos appear in 14% of search engine results (Search Engine Land)
• Videos increase time-on-site by 88% 9 (Buffer)
Click to play an example video from Sweaty Betty.
Product videos take away a lot of the fear in shopping online, mostly in buying a
product you’ve never seen in person. More than a text description or even a photo,
videos show the product in a realistic setting with multiple viewpoints, and can even
include a visual explanation of how the product works.
A 2013 Multichannel Merchant study recorded that 65% of consumers say that vid-
eos can help them better imagine using a product. This instills a confidence in the
shopper before they buy (or convinces them not to buy), and in some documented
cases like Ice.com has reduced returns by 25%.
But remember that product videos have a different set of best practices than video
for more generalized content. Both have different goals, and while generalized vid-
eos aim more at entertaining and driving traffic, product videos are geared more for
informing and educating the viewer on the product, in addition to entertaining them.
Click to play an example video from AO.com
We’ve collected some of the best practices for product videos from Jason Law-
rence at PracticalEcommerce, Shopfactory, and an Animoto study on video for small
business:

• Use a script — Plan out your video in a script beforehand and then follow it to
keep your production organized. A well-written script from the start makes sure
you say everything you need to say, including a list of features and explanation
of use.
• Stay under a minute — The ideal range for a product video is 45-60 seconds.
• Include a 360° shot of the product — This is one of the main advantages of vid-
eo over static images. To get this shot, try placing the product on an automated
turntable and keeping the camera stationary on a tripod.
• Keep the same style across different products — As a means to build your brand,
use the same style in every product video, including related backdrops, lighting,
tone, and even an announcer if applicable.
• Outsource — You wouldn’t want a film graduate managing your business, so
consider hiring a professional videographer. Treepodia, Tongal, SmartShoot,
and even Fiverr are all sites that can help brands meet professional filmmakers.
No matter how you do it, videos are simply the best form of content to reassure
shoppers, promote a product, and bridge the gap from “interested” to “ready to
buy.”
Buying Guides for Content Conversion
As Sarah Arrow of Sark eMedia points out, “an educated customer is a better cus-
tomer.” They’re able to make better decisions, and make them with more confi-
dence. They’ll be happier with their purchase, and, as a result, fondly remember just
how and who educated them.

Buying guides are great for conversions because the reader is already prepared
to buy. Giving shopper the final information they need removes the last obstacles
before a purchase. At the same time, your buying guide keeps them on your site,
preventing them from finding that information elsewhere and essentially handing
your competition a sale.
Another benefit of buying guides in relation to your brand is that they establish you
as an authority on the topic. Buying guides confirm that you are the source to go to
when the shopper needs help, a great advantage for repeat business and customer
loyalty.
The drawback is that you actually need to provide the information shoppers are
seeking, of course. To start with, Arrow breaks up buying guides into five separate
types:

1. First-time purchase guide
2. After-care guide
3. Comparison guide
4. Additional products (upsells)
5. Advanced/Pro-user guide
Once you determine the type, Write.com suggests answering the following ques-
tions in your writing guide to hone in on what your shoppers need to know:
• What can your shoppers do with the product?

• What are the different end goals of the product?
• What problems does the product solve?
• Are there different solutions for the same problem?
• What important or unique features stand out about each product?
• What are the benefits of those features?
• Are there any situations that make one product more advisable over another?

When it comes down to actually writing the guide, we’ve compiled some best prac-
tices from Arrow, Write.com, and Mel Henson at Smart Insights:
• Conduct a search for your product type and the keyword “problem” — This
search reveals the frustrations and confusion most people need cleared up re-
garding the product type. It also sheds some light into who are the other author-
ities your guide will compete against.
• Include call to action links — The key component into turning your buying guide
into a sales generator. Make sure all mentions of each product have the corre-
sponding link to their product page, or even a direct “Add to Cart” option.
• Incorporate SEO — Buying guides can also help your SEO at the same time. Use
keywords in titles, headings, and subheadings, plus link to relevant pages aside
from specific products, for example category pages. You can easily do that with
LemonStand’s new content feature.
• Authoritative tone — If you’re too casual or humorous, shoppers won’t take what
you have to say seriously. The tone doesn’t have to be dry, but it does have to
assertive and trustworthy to be effective. Remember, this is an informative doc-
ument.
• Avoid bias — Earning your readers’ trust is more important that an upsell, or
even successfully closing. Remove any bias and write for what the reader wants
and needs. Putting the reader ahead of the brand is the best strategy for your
brand anyway.
• Share it — Send the buying guide to your email subscribers, publish it on your
blog, promote it on social media, and guest post it on friendly sites. The more
visible it is, the more effect it will have on sales, not to mention the SEO benefits.
Buying guides are more important as a means to build relations with the customer
than for promoting individual products. Write them to aid your shoppers, and save
the sales techniques for the product page descriptions.

Product Page Descriptions
Just because you have a product video and some top-notch images doesn’t mean
you can neglect your product page copy. In addition to providing the shopper with
information to help their buying decisions, your product description is also one of
the last chances you have to win them over.
Of all the three items in this article, product descriptions are the most straightfor-
ward. They rely solely on the fundamentals of communication to both inform and
persuade. That simplifies their creation somewhat, but also puts extra pressure on
your basic writing skill.
Your product descriptions should aim to accomplish two goals:

• provide the necessary product information in an engaging way (in other words,
don’t just list out the facts)
• demonstrate the product’s value in a way that persuades the shopper to buy
While a great deal of a product descriptions effectiveness lies in writing skill, there
are other aspects to consider as well. Here is some advice on description writing
we collected from sources like Derek Gehl at Entrepreneur, Dan Shewen at Word-

Stream, Mark Hayes at Shopify, and Scott Martin at The Daily Egg:
• Feature benefits in a headline — Headlines are one of the most prominent —

and most read — elements on a screen, so take advantage of them in showing
your product’s value. Don’t talk about what the product is, talk about what it
does for the owner.
• Structure as “problem => solution” — A classic persuasive technique that trans-
lates well to eCommerce, begin your product description by voicing a problem
your typical shopper may have, and then explain how this product solves it.
• Focus on shopper with second-person perspective — This handy rule of thumb
can be applied with a little effort but makes a big difference. Use the second-per-
son perspective (you and your) to keep the focus of the narrative on the read-
er. This perspective has a greater effect on reader, and creates the impression
you’re speaking to them directly.
• Spice up formatting — It’s a sad truth that your product descriptions are the
underdog when competing for the attention of shoppers. To avoid your visitors
scanning and glossing over the vital information, try spicing up the format of the
text by varying the length of paragraphs and incorporating subheadings, italics,
and bold.A surefire formula for all product descriptions: a paragraph of prose
followed by a bulleted list of features. Looking around, you see this formula rep-
licated again and again.
• Use the voice of the customer — Avoid the dry, “product box descriptions” and
write your own flashier version personalized to your reader. If you have perso-
nas, break them out to determine the right fit of language. You can even use
words and phrases described verbatim in user interviews and focus group test-
ings.
• The 4 magic words for content conversion — Mark Hayes discusses four “mag-
ic” words proven to be extra effective in the results of behavioral, psychological,
and neuroscientific tests. Use them as a shortcut to persuasive writing (an aid,

not a crutch!): 1. You, 2. New, 3. Free, 4. Guaranteed.
• Similes and Metaphors — A literary technique for improved writing in any ven-
ture, similes and metaphors tend to have a more emotional effect on the reader.
These poetic devices can suggest ideas and especially feelings in a more direct
way than a blatant description.
• Stories — Another roundabout way to establish a connection with your reader is
to frame your product description as a story, with a real or imaginary character,
or even the ambiguous “you.” This narrative device paints an entirely new en-
vironment to show off the product’s benefits in a way a basic description can’t
match. J. Peterman is the master of this style, as you can see below:
• Be specific — Rule 16 of Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr.’s legendary man-

uscript on writing, suggests a writer “use definite, specific, concrete language.”
Specificity may be a practical tactic for vigorous and entertaining writing, but

it can also help for eCommerce as well.Rely on facts, figures, and statistics to
prove your point, rather than vague statements like “moms love it.”
Have you ever read a piece of content that made you decide to buy a product on-
line? What type of content was it? What made it so effective? We hope this chapter
has you thinking differently about crafting compelling content.

8
Practical Tips for
Growing Your eCommerce
Email List
Alicia Doiron
Alicia is the Marketing Strategist at The Jibe. She’s extremely

passionate about eCommerce and has worked in the industry for 10 years.
She brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and enjoys to help
online businesses reach their goals.
The world of eCommerce is changing; consumers expect more. Free and same-day
shipping, a seamless checkout experience, immediate answers to questions, and
above all, to be entertained; which is what we’re addressing in this chapter.
It’s no longer enough to have a website with pretty pictures and fun descriptions.
Leading brands know this, and are using content to build strong, lasting relation-
ships with their customers.
The following companies are doing just that, and helping to push eCommerce for-
ward and lead the way as to what is possible with content in the process. While
they aren’t doing anything really all that groundbreaking – no virtual reality stores
here – they are doing things that thousands of eCommerce stores aren’t: providing
simple content that their audiences are eating up.
1. Net-A-Porter
Net-A-Porter really knows what they’re doing. On par with the likes of Vogue and
Vanity Fair, comes their very own monthly online magazine, The Edit. The magazine
allows readers to tap, scroll and click-to-buy as they flip through the pages.
Unlike a traditional paper magazine, where one would have to search for products
online afterwards, Net-A-Porter allows readers to make a purchase right away. The
magazine is the perfect marriage between luxury branding and eCommerce con-
tent.

2. Huckberry
Huckberry have always been advocates of providing quality content and products
for “the every man.” For the dudes out there that like to look presentable but aren’t
interested in high fashion; they’re into fitness, but aren’t climbing Mount Everest any
time soon.

3. Petit Vour
Petit Vour, a cruelty-free cosmetics company, does a great job of using educational
content to promote their products. There’re tidbits scattered throughout their store
addressing the responsibility of buying cruelty-free cosmetics, as well as reviews
for those who may be skeptical about the quality.

4. Alfredo Gonzales
Alfredo Gonzales is quirky and so is their content, which really adds to their charm.
There are many elements to keep visitors engaged, such as video, stories, and
lookbooks. But where they really stand out is with their interactive workshop and

custom box features. With the interactive workshop, customers can use Alfredo’s
sock customizer to design their own socks which will then automatically be upload-
ed to the AG Hall of Fame, where other sock artists can then vote on whether or not
the sock will be the next winner. This contest happens a few times a year.
The custom box feature allows customers to drag and drop socks from a clothesline
into a box. Customers have the choice of purchasing either 2 or 5 pairs of socks and
giving their box a name.
It’s a truly unique online store that makes buying something as simple as socks
pretty fun.

5. The Loppist
The Loppist introduces hand-picked fashion, home and art products from emerging
designers to the world. It’s a little like Etsy except there is major focus placed on
getting to know the artists and hear their unique stories; creating an instant connec-
tion between maker and buyer.
But The Loppist is more than just an eCommerce store: it’s a haven to discover the
avant-garde. They’ve got music lists from up and coming bands, interviews with
artists, quotes, and a carefully selected news section of interesting stories pulled
from across the internet.

6. Herschel Supply
Herschel manufactures high quality backpacks, bags, travel goods and accesso-
ries. They take a minimal approach to their design, which makes sense taking into
consideration the many different content elements they use such as video, stories,
and lookbooks to entertain their audience.

7. Lush
Like Petit Vour, Lush creates cruelty-free cosmetics and uses content to educate
their customers on the importance of doing so. They engage with their audience
through videos, articles, interviews, and lookbooks.
Once or twice a month they’ll have a campaign going where they focus on one
thing and use different forms of content to sell their products. You can see an ex-
ample of a Lush hair campaign above. They’re masters of the soft sell; never pushy
and always helpful.

8. PhoneSoap
When was the last time you cleaned your phone? Have you ever washed your cell
phone? Does it matter? Yes it does, and PhoneSoap does an excellent job of suffi-
ciently grossing visitors out enough through video to at least have a person consid-
ering making a purchase.
But their intent isn’t really to shock, it’s about educating people on how bacteria
spreads, why it’s bad for you, and how it can be prevented. Plus they’ve teamed up
with The Discovery Channel to bring their audience a video proving the effective-
ness of their product.
9. My Own Bike
A lot of online bike shops are pretty boring, especially since picking a bike usually
involves a lot of customization. This is not the case with My Own Bike. They use

interactive content that allows visitors to completely personalize their bike. It’s fun
and lets their audience relive the nostalgia of being a kid again and picking out
their first bike. They even showcase how others have customized their bike in case
anyone needs a boost of inspiration.
10. ThinkGeek
While ThinkGeek isn’t doing anything all that different in terms of design or inno-
vative content, their copywriting is genius. Where so many other eCommerce sites
miss the mark, ThinkGeek hits the bull’s eye every time. Their writing style fits per-
fectly with their audience, namely, geeks who love geeky stuff.
That said, they are creating some pretty cool geeky videos. They’ve got a YouTube
Channel showcasing their products being used in hilarious ways. When Father’s
Day was right around the corner, they produced a new video as an ode to Geeky

Dads. They embedded the channel right on their homepage encouraging visitors to
check it out and as a result have over 175,000 subscribers.
The common denominator between the above stores is that they took into consid-
eration their customer’s needs and interests to help improve their online experi-
ence. There is no need to be a Shakespeare or Spielberg when it comes to content,
in some cases a simple explainer video will do just fine.
While the possibilities that surround content and eCommerce are endless, and in
order to stay relevant online retailers must use a bit of imagination and implement
some sort of interesting content.

Conclusion
We hope through our strategy, guides, and examples of the content frontrunners in
the industry, you’ve come away with some fresh and implementable ideas for your
own eCommerce store. Remember that different is better, and content always has
been, and continues to be, king.
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Chapter 1: Why Serious eCommerce Brands 5

Chapter 3: How to Apply Content Strategy to 38

Chapter 4: A Complete Guide to Content Types 56

Chapter 5: Advanced Content Marketing for 82

Chapter 7: Content Marketing for Conversion in 116

Chapter 8: 10 Online Retailers That Are Doing 128

The LemonStand team

Ross is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 6

“ Content-based marketing gets repeated in social media and

Tweet this quote!

Why Every Brand Needs a Content Strategy

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 7

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 8

Search Engine Optimization

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 9

Relationships with Other Brands

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 10

How a Content Strategy Can Help eCommerce Specifically

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 11

Enhances shopping experience. When it comes to shopping, many people —espe-

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 12

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 13

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 14

Content Marketing vs. Paid Advertising

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 15

Tweet this quote!

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 16

Importance of Content Marketing Strategy – Takeaway

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 17

Ross is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 19

1. Know Your Shoppers by Creating Personas

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 20

Step 1: Know Your Shoppers by Creating Buyer Personas

Tweet this quote!

The heart of all business is, of course, the customer.

• time on site by 900%

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 21

Personas are fictional representations of real target users, written as documents

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 22

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 23

Step 2: Define Content Goals

• Improve reputation for collaboration opportunities

• Drive traffic to your store

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 24

• Promote a campaign (sales, deals, coupons, etc.)

• Drive traffic to a specific product page

• Improve customer service

Step 3: Organize Content by Channel

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 25

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 26

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 27

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 28

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 29

Step 3.5: Choose a Tone

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 30

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 31

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 32

Advanced eCommerce Marketing 33