How To: Build A Successful Ecommerce Content Strategy

There’s an idea in certain circles that a great product should be able to sell itself. A kind of Field of Dreams approach—“if you build it…they will come.” Unfortunately, in the real world, that rarely works. You’ll have a much better chance at success if you’ve got a solid ecommerce content strategy behind the product or service you’re trying to sell.

It’s estimated that there are more than 30 million ecommerce sites out there, many of which are backed up by professional help from a B2B ecommerce agency, an in-house marketing team, or ad hoc freelance support. That’s a lot of noise to cut through. 

And there’s much more to ecommerce marketing than product descriptions alone. In an increasingly crowded market, effective marketing copywriting, supporting content, and optimizing SEO for ecommerce are all vital parts of differentiating your product(s). 

But fear not, because you don’t need an ecommerce agency to get started.

Let’s get into some of the basics of building an ecommerce content strategy that can help your store get noticed. We’ll cover things to consider as you get started, introduce some relevant tools, and talk about the best ways to measure (and iterate on) your successes.

Understand (and segment) your audience

There’s nothing strategic about a scattergun approach. When asked who your ideal customer is, “anyone with money” is not the correct answer! If you take the time to understand who your customers are—the “who, why, where, and how”—you can create content that appeals to them. 

That means higher click-through rates, more engagement, and, often, a higher volume of sales. There are various tools out there that can help you map out the journeys of first-time buyers, repeat visitors, and those who are just browsing or comparing different offerings on the market. 

As you get more strategic, you can even start to use behavioral triggers, such as cart abandonment or looking at multiple products, to tailor content dynamically. That’s something we expect to see a lot more of as we move through the digital age, facilitated by the rise of AI.

Tools to consider:

• Google Analytics – Learn more about where your users are coming from
• Hotjar – Visualize customer journeys using heatmaps and behavior analytics
• Klaviyo – B2B CRM platform useful for segmenting audiences and personalizing content

Pay-per-click (PPC) & search engine optimization (SEO)

To improve your SEO for ecommerce, your focus should always be on driving sustainable traffic—traffic that has a decent chance of converting—to your site via the likes of product descriptions, landing pages, and blog posts, written to attract your ideal customers.

Target long-tail keywords of 3+ words, as specific as possible to your product(s), as you work toward ranking for more competitive short-tail keywords of 1 or 2 words. Fair warning: ranking for short-tail keywords can take a while and a lot of effort! It’s far from an exact science.

The more organic traffic you can drive successfully, the less you might feel inclined to spend on PPC. But PPC and SEO can complement each other; although they aren’t directly related, you can think of them as cousins. 

Using PPC advertising is a great way to test page messaging, promote new products, and run seasonal campaigns. But you can also use PPC to inform your SEO efforts by identifying high-converting keywords or phrases, then building them into your SEO strategy.

Tools to consider:

• Google Ads – Set up and manage PPC campaigns
• Ahrefs – Conduct keyword research, tracking, and competitor analysis
• Yoast – Generates suggestions for on-page SEO optimization

Social media, email marketing, SMS

Your ecommerce strategy shouldn’t begin and end with your site or online store. Because you’ve already analyzed your audience and given thought to potential buyers (see above), you should also know where they hang out online and how to reach them there.

Create new content tailored to different channels—short videos for TikTok and Reels, product carousels for Instagram, for instance—but don’t be afraid to chop up longer-form content like blog posts into something snappier for social media. Or tease your latest content via email blasts.

Email marketing (and SMS) is a great way to get a lot of eyes on your content quickly, as long as you have something interesting to say. Be careful not to overload subscribers by contacting them too often—try a couple of emails a week and a couple of text messages a month.

And, as your list grows, you might consider hiring an email marketing agency for ecommerce.

Tools to consider:

• Buffer – Plan, preview, and schedule social media posts in advance
• Mailchimp – Email marketing and automation platform (that now has SMS too)
• Textmagic – Business text messaging for marketing, reminders, and notifications

Track, Track, Track!

If you’re not tracking the results of your ecommerce marketing efforts, you’re not being very strategic. When you know what type of content is working, you can double down on it and produce more of it. Or—if it’s not—nix it from your strategy and try a new approach. 

Quantitative data—such as open and click rates or visits from SEO/PPC terms—is great, but don’t forget about qualitative data, too. That could mean social shares talking about how much they love your brand’s tone of voice, compliments on technical writing explaining how to use your product, or positive reviews highlighting your out-of-this-world customer service.

Tools to consider:

• Google Analytics – Measure time spent on pages, engagement rates, etc.
• Shopify (or similar) Analytics – Look at which product pages are resonating and making sales
• Hootsuite – Offers real-time social listening to track and analyze references to your brand

Leverage Your Success

As the sales start to roll in, so too (hopefully!) will the positive reviews. Kind words about your products and/or customer service are a great ego boost, but they can do much more than that.

Consider, with permission, using reviews and user-generated content (UGC) on your website, on social media, and even in your ads. If you’re well-reviewed on sites like Trustpilot, Google, or Which?, highlight it on your site to build the trust of potential customers. 

Tools to consider:

• Canva – Graphic design platform, with lots of templates, for creating social media graphics, etc.
• Yotpo – Ecommerce platform that displays reviews and facilitates loyalty plans
• TikTok – Source videos featuring your products (such as unboxing videos) and engage with influencers

In an ideal world, your content strategy will evolve and adapt with your business. Creating content that appeals to your target audience is a great way to build brand loyalty, generate repeat business, and encourage word-of-mouth referrals from happy customers.

With the right tools, and a strategic approach, content marketing for ecommerce can become a legitimate growth engine for your store. The more value you add to the journey of potential customers, the more likely they are to buy from you. And buy again. And buy again…