Proven content marketing strategies for mobile commerce

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Daniel Bishop

Daniel Bishop - editor at Design Rush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies.

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The content marketing stays among top 10 eCommerce Trends in 2019. Online sellers use more advanced content strategies but also adjust them to users behaviors strongly related to mobile devices. Let’s review the most successful content ideas for eCommerce.

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More than 20 years ago, Bill Gates penned his famous essay whose title became one of the most quoted phrases on the internet – Content Is King. His visionary words are more relevant than ever as content still reigns supreme. As the eCommerce Trends 2019 reports states, content marketing is the fourth most important investment in eCommerce world globally.

It’s no surprise, as content marketing generates three times as many leads as paid search. That’s not all, as it costs 62% less than outbound marketing, while, again, generating three times as many leads.

Given that new online stores are springing up like mushrooms, it’s clear that you need proven marketing tactics to stand out and drive traffic to your eCommerce website.

Or you can tap into the magic of well managed content.

#1 Create a mobile-first content

Purchases from smartphones account for more than 30% of total US retail sales according to the Forrester’s 2018 Best Retail Practices: Mobile Web report. This stat translates into more than $1 trillion.

Besides, a growing number of people use their mobile devices for different business and entertainment purposes – from watching movies, reading news, to making financial transactions. In other words, it’s essential that you support mobile users on every stage of the buyer’s journey by optimizing online store with a mobile-first approach.

By taking the mobile-first approach you provide accessible content and help your customers to find inspiring ideas, product information and go to transaction page on any device (yes, also on tablets and desktop).

The best practices of mobile-first content include: optimizing your CTAs for mobile means making them as simple as possible and keeping the number of steps to a minimum, or making contact information clickable in the sense that it triggers opening an email box or a starting a phone call.

Tinders example of clear mobile-first content

Tinder’s PWA web page uses clear and short CTA’s, intuitive icons and easy to tap buttons (source).

#2 Engage with video content

Video plays an important part in the mobile content strategy, particularly if we bear in mind that 79% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product. Also, many people use their mobile devices to kill time while commuting, so make sure to provide them with interesting and useful video content, ideally with captions. This will allow them to watch it while on a bus or train to work. Another upside of captioning your videos is that it will improve your SEO and boost your rankings.

Only high-quality videos can be effective, so don’t go cheap on the visuals, voice-over, and music.

Finally, don’t get carried away when it comes to the length because the videos that perform best are those under 2 minutes.

#3 Keep your content interactive

Interactive content is a powerful engagement driver. The days of one-sided communication are long gone, and your customers don’t just want to read or watch your content. They want to be active participants, and that’s exactly what interactive content allows them.

Some of the most popular types of interactive content are:

  • Quizzes, polls, and surveys. These are not only super engaging, but they also serve the purpose of getting feedback, as well as collecting relevant and accurate data on your audience which will result in more personalized, targeted offers.
  • Interactive video. This format contains so-called hotspots which show additional information in the form of clickable tags.
  • Calculators. These are highly useful tools as they provide your audience with valuable information. Although they take some time to create, they will boost your engagement rates.
  • Infographics. Stats say that they increase website traffic by 12%. These colorful visuals can be even more effective if you make them interactive by embedding questions, flexible user paths, or flip tiles.

#4 Good ol’ email

No, this isn’t a mistake – email copy counts as a type of content too. And a very effective one for that matter, as it boasts an impressive ROI of $44.

By leveraging emails you can attract both existing and new customers to your online store.

Content Marketing for Mobile Commerce

The most popular email marketing tactic by the The State of Email Marketing

Say welcome to your new customers, retarget those who abandoned items in their shopping carts with a discount code, recommend similar products, cross-sell and upsell, or inform your audience about the new releases and products which are about to go out of stock.

Weekly newsletters can be a great way to inform your prospective buyers about your products or engage the existing ones with your compelling loyalty programs.

In order for this strategy to be successful, you need to segment your customer database and personalize your outreach. There are different ways to slice your contact database and entice each individual segment with a tailored offer. You can, for example, use the data about their previous purchases, the amounts they spent, or the products they viewed.

#5 The power of the tell-to-sell approach

While the B2B industry can greatly benefit from how-to guides, factually oriented content, and different reports, eCommerce businesses need storytelling in order to connect with their target audiences on a more profound, personal level.

This tactic is essential for building brand awareness and customer loyalty, as people want to read inspirational articles packed with an emotional punch that they can relate to.

In order to craft an engaging narrative which will reflect the core values of your brand and hit the right note with your audience, you should take a couple of factors into consideration.

  • How people feel using your product. Instead of listing features and specs of your products, focus on your customers’ experiences with your brand.
  • Sell dreams, not products. This is a principle popularized by Steve Jobs, and you can implement it in your storytelling by providing a context to the products you sell and painting the bigger picture. Explain how making a particular purchase will improve your audience’s lives.
  • Show that you care. Address some of your audience’s biggest pain points and present them with a solution. Don’t always push your agenda and promote your brand. Instead of that, make your stories about your customers and their needs, and be helpful.

Creating a genuine narrative can be complex and you might want to use support from digital marketing agencies specializing in content marketing.

#6 User-generated content

Talking about how good and useful your products can seem boastful. Interestingly, 92% of people are more likely to trust their fellow consumers than brands. So, just let your happy customers do the talking.

User-generated content sounds more authentic than all those polished and doctored taglines and phrases that brands use. Publishing case studies, testimonials, and positive experiences of your customers is much more convincing.

Make sure that your every product features comments and reviews provided by those who made a purchase. You can encourage this by incentivizing your customers and offering them a promo code or a discount in exchange for their feedback.

But whatever you do, don’t censure negative feedback or reviews which express dissatisfaction. People tend to get are suspicious if there are only positive reviews. But what you can and should do is always respond to every bad comment or review and try to fix the problem.

The content marketing offers numerous opportunities for mobile eCommerce to attract fresh prospects, as well as engage your existing customers and make them come back. Careful listening to your customers’ needs, creating content that answers their problems and then communicating it in your customers’ favorite channels is a key to the success.

Mentioned above ideas for mobile content marketing are proven strategies and can be used as long-term projects, but also as a base for various marketing campaigns driven by the newest trends.

Oh, and remember to use mobile-first solutions, like PWA or AMP, that will help you adjust your content to mobile devices and boost the content marketing activities success on mobile.

Create mobile-first eCommerce with Storefront Cloud. Learn more > 

Published December 13, 2018