“Create content to keep your customers engaged”  

Sounds familiar right?  

And you should. But this is just one of the many applications of content. I often see people who are just getting started with something, may it be SaaS product or a new Shopify store, that just start producing content without an end-goal in mind. Content is so incredibly powerful; you just have to look at it from all sides and determine how to balance each contributing factor.  

Let me illustrate.  

Content educates your customers  

There is so much information available on the web nowadays, few people will make uneducated purchase decisions. In fact, 81% of shoppers research their products before making a purchase decision (https://transaction.agency/ecommerce-statistics/81-of-shoppers-research-their-product-online-before-purchasing/). Here’s where your choice comes in: do you let people educate themselves on other people’s websites which will try to convert the reader for themselves, or do you do so on yours?  

The choice seems obvious.  

By creating content about your product on your channels, you are in the driver's seat. Perhaps there’s a combined value of your product assortment that people need to know about, perhaps your product works best for a certain target group and not so well for others. By being transparent and open about your offering, you’ll gain people’s trust. In the end, trust is the ultimate sales driver.  

On that note

As I said, your content should have an end-goal. Here’s mine: I want to educate the readers of this article on the potential pitfalls of blogposts. Let’s take Shopify as an example:  

One of the most effective ways of marketing in Ecommerce is content marketing. Shopify’s blog feature is perfect for this. However, what I see happening a lot of times is that people pack their blog posts with links to a bunch of their products. Often times a reader will even click on the first product link they see. But this isn’t always the most desirable outcome. Clicking on this link means that a reader will leave the blog post, missing out on information about this product, other products, or how they combine in value.  

We noticed this problem especially with Shopify blogs. So, what we did was to create a solution to it, which enables readers to keep reading the blog and view product information via a pop-up on mouse hover, with an add-to-cart function. This way Shopify merchants can educate their customers on products and drive sales conversions in the process.  

Content nurtures customer relationships  

When someone is consuming your content, they are getting to know you. You have their undivided attention (for a couple of seconds at least). By engaging with your audience on a more personal level and letting them get a glimpse of who the person/company is behind the content creates trust. And trust, as we all know, is the foundation of every good relationship.  

Content improves your SEO ranking  

By writing content, you can drastically improve your SEO ranking. If you write great content, other people will want to use it for their blogs and backlink to you. But even by creating multiple internal links, you can increase Google’s crawlability of your domain, thereby boosting your chances of being found.

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