You’ve heard it over and over again: content is important when it comes to running an online store. It can help you attract more visitors by building a solid SEO foundation, creating a cohesive brand, and giving your site an established look.
But it doesn't stop there—content can also be your best salesperson. Ecommerce businesses don’t have the same opportunity to answer customers’ questions the way a brick-and-mortar business does. But if you create compelling, helpful content for your shoppers, your content will drive sales for you. Here are some tactics for creating content that converts.
1. Take your visitors through the AIDA funnel
If you recall Marketing 101, there’s a well-known model for creating effective messaging that sells: AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
- Attention: Get your visitors to focus on you. There are a lot of distractions online, so it’s important to get customers’ undivided attention. This means writing eye-catching content that makes them want to read more. Use headings that get people’s attention and prove that it’s worthwhile to continue reading.
- Interest: You don’t have a long time to get your visitors interested in what you have to say—again, the Internet is full of distractions—so get to the interesting stuff quickly. Do this by cutting down on needless introduction and focusing on your customers and their problems.
- Desire: Tell your customers why they should want your products. Will your products make their lives easier, more fun, or safer? Explain how that happens and give them a glimpse of what their future is like with your products.
- Action: Close the sale with your customer by telling them exactly what to do next. This might include buying now, calling for more information, or even joining your social communities. Once you’ve told your visitors what to do, make it easy for them to do it.
Note: AIDA is important, but you don’t want to focus on it to the exclusion of other conversion tactics. There are plenty of other ways to use content to sell your products, and it’s important to find the right combination of these techniques for your customers.
2. Speak directly to the customer
Think about the last time you were in a local brick-and-mortar store. The sales person probably greeted you, made you feel welcome, and offered their assistance, right? Try to emulate that with your store’s content. Use headlines that make the customer feel important with a “you”-based headline, such as:
“You Deserve the Best Cat Sweaters”
“Choose a Cat Sweater You’ll Love”
“Looking for a Cat Sweater that Will Look as Great as It Feels?”
The goal here is to get the visitor to agree with your headline and want to read more. Loading a headline with “you” (whether it’s stated or implied) helps your customers feel a more personal connection to your store and makes it more likely they’ll read on.
As you write more content on your category and product pages, find ways to work your customers’ needs, wants, and goals into your copy, and you’ll be able to drive more conversions in your store.
3. Make your content the expert
Chances are that the visitors to your store will have a question or two about your products. They’ll want to know the fabric your apparel is made from, or the different uses for the gadgets you sell. Whatever their questions, let your content be their expert source of information.
When you write content for category pages, think about the questions people might have as they look at that section. Give answers about which products might be best for their needs or which subcategory will help them narrow their search even further.
For product pages, focus on giving answers directly related to that product. You might want to tell visitors the best place to use that product, how long they can expect it to last, what materials were used, etc.
The goal here is to give them the information they need on the page they’re viewing so that a hunt for information doesn’t interrupt the customer’s buying process. This means telling them about your policies for shipping and returns, as well as anything else relevant to that page.
4. Address your customers' concerns
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and imagine what might be keeping them from converting in your store. Maybe visitors aren’t sure if they trust your store with their credit card information. Perhaps they’re not confident that this will be the product they need. It might be that they just don’t know if they’ve found the best price.
Whatever is standing in the way of you making the sale, address it. Whether it's in your site's FAQs, product descriptions, or knowledge base, you want the right information to be available in the place they're most likely to look.
Tell the customer about your SSL certificate and any other signifiers of trust your store has earned. Discuss the appropriate uses of your products and point out the inappropriate uses. Tell them they’ve found a great price or a better value. Bottom line: you want to use your content to make customers confident that buying from you is the best choice.
5. Use content to cross-sell and up-sell
Many solid ecommerce platforms have cross-selling and up-selling features built in; however, content can take your store’s cross-selling and up-selling abilities to the next level.
Cross-selling your products should come pretty naturally. For example: if you’re in fashion, recommend accessories that go particularly well with each specific product. For technology stores, you can recommend complementary software and hardware. Know your products and help your customers understand which ones go well together.
Up-selling requires a more delicate approach. One good tactic is to tell your customers about the features the more expensive product offers that the product they’re looking at doesn’t offer and let your customers make their own decision. Giving your customers too hard of a sell for a different product might sour them on the whole purchase process, which isn’t worth it.
Don’t stop with on-page content
As you get more confident in writing, use these tips to help people who aren’t your customers yet. Through blogging, interacting in forums, and building a community on social networks, you can turn information-seekers into customers by using many of the same strategies you used on your website. By following these tips, you can add quality content to your store and convert more customers. So get started today!
Conversion-focused content is essential for businesses in the ecommerce industry. If you are planning to start—or already run—an online store, consider using Volusion’s performance-focused ecommerce platform to build and grow your brand. Try it free for 14 days—no credit card required!