With social distancing in effect, online shopping has become the norm for many customers. However, due to the sheer volume of eCommerce websites out there, it’s important to differentiate your storefront as much as possible.
According to Fortunly, up to 82% of shopping carts are abandoned before checkout. Additionally, 50.5% of US customers would like to see more content on the items they are about to purchase before they commit. Just because a potential customer came to your platform, it doesn’t mean that their conversion is a guarantee. This is where written content comes into play, as quality product descriptions and blog posts can shift the tide in your favor.
Based on Small Biz Genius, 61% of customers abandon a purchase due to a lack of trust in the platform and its brand. This is exactly what a long-term content marketing strategy can help you with – so where do you start? How can you effectively write content for your eCommerce site in 2020 in order to continue its organic growth?
Benefits of Effective eCommerce Content Writing
Let’s discuss the benefits of content writing in eCommerce before we tackle the methodology itself. Whether you rely on Magento, Salesforce, or other back-end eCommerce platforms, you should still pay close attention to front-end content for your customers.
According to 99 Firms, 85% of customers like to research the products they are about to purchase online through content marketing. As of 2020, 52% of eCommerce platforms have shifted to omnichannel capabilities in order to satisfy the needs of their customer bases. Content which expands the value proposition of your products can ensure that occasional visitors become customers and that customers become brand advocates for your platform.
Blog posts, how-to guides, as well as aforementioned product descriptions and multimedia all fall into content writing intended for boosting sales. Writing tools such as Trust My Paper, Evernote, and Best Essays Education, as well as Grammarly and Top Essay Writing, can help you do that. Once you assemble a content marketing tool stack and commit to writing more structured product descriptions and blog posts, you will gain several crucial benefits:
- Competitive edge over other platforms
- Global SEO ranking and customer engagement
- Improved brand personalization and reputation
- Direct line of communication with your customers
- Increased overall sales and revenue generation
Effective Content Writing Methods for eCommerce Sites
1. Use your Landing Page Effectively
In order to take full advantage of your content writing, your sales strategy should start with the landing page. You can use your landing page to promote active deals through calls to action. A good example of this can be found in Book Depository, a global eCommerce storefront dedicated to literature.
Following their example, you can promote deals to your visitors at first glance without wasting the landing page on placeholder welcome messages. Think of ways in which you can write attractive sales offers and place them on your landing page to raise your conversion rates from the get-go.
2. Emphasize Benefits over Features
Depending on your target audience, you may want to keep the technical features of your products in the back-end. According to Hosting Tribunal, 30% of customers prefer shopping where they’ve already shopped before. It’s difficult enough to convince a lead to convert already, so be mindful of who you write for. While B2B customers prefer features over benefits, for B2C customers, it’s the opposite. Let’s take a look at a listing on Etsy.
As you can see, their strategy is to offer several paragraphs of content writing, which goes into detail on how you can use the product. While technical features do matter, they shouldn’t be front and center. Instead, write your product descriptions in an approachable, essay-like manner. Offer bullet points with practical applications and benefits of using your product before delving into raw technicalities such as dimensions, weight and etc.
3. Facilitate Written Content Skimming
People simply don’t like to read walls of text when it comes to digital content. This is especially true for mobile users with small screens. You can amend for that by letting people skim through content writing on your eCommerce platform in a number of ways.
You can highlight keywords, keep your paragraphs short, and use visuals to mix up the content. Likewise, numbers and bullet points can keep the flow of text manageable and enjoyable for reading. While it may seem counterintuitive to allow people to skim through content writing, the opposite is true in practice.
Samantha Timothy, Head of Sales at Classy Essay and Content Writer at Supreme Dissertations, said that:
Formatting your content writing so that it’s approachable will encourage people to stick around. Limit your content to several paragraphs of informative and practical data. This will allow potential customers to quickly spot the info they are interested in and consider the purchase more seriously as a result.
4. Social Proof through Influencers
Influencers can help elevate your content writing strategy tremendously. Depending on the niche you operate in, you are bound to find influencers willing to cooperate with your eCommerce platform for mutual benefit. In exchange for compensation, exposure, or free items, these individuals will raise awareness of your platform and products with their followers.
An example of this methodology can be found in Cherished Bliss, a lifestyle platform that partners with like-minded bloggers for guest posts. Their strategy is to sponsor influencers who offer insight and tips to their readers while also promoting their website on their own social media pages. You can have influencers test your products, create demo videos, or even write blog posts about their experiences with your items. This will add significant credibility and an aura of pro-consumer behavior to your eCommerce platform.
5. Refresh your Writing Regularly for SEO
Using the right keywords for your content writing plays a huge role in the overall ranking of your products online. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo rely on trending keywords to determine whether or not your products fit individual users’ search queries.
It’s good practice to use Google Adwords or equivalent platforms to find out which keywords are currently trending in your eCommerce niche. That way, you can easily update already published content with fresh keywords to maintain your ranking. While not related to writing per se, broken hyperlinks and missing or un-optimized multimedia can also detract from your SEO ranking. Do your best and audit your eCommerce platform regularly – your site will experience healthy levels of engagement going forward.
Playing the Long Game
When it comes to benefiting from eCommerce content writing, you will have to play the long game and dedicate time to do so. All of your product descriptions and blog posts should follow the same writing style, tone of voice, and formatting to allow for a cohesive experience. Be on the lookout for customer feedback and try to adapt your writing to the expectations of your follower base. Before you know it, you will have found the perfect middle ground between sales-oriented and user-friendly content writing.
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