Various content will accomplish different things for your ecommerce site.

In our years in the industry, we found that four specific types have proven themselves especially effective. You can write something that will highlight your credibility in the industry, attract users to your product or service, establish rapport with customer, or write something that will inspire action.

Read on below to learn more about these four types of content and how you can use them yourself…

1. Content meant to build authority and credibility

The goal of this type of content is to empower your audience with the information they need to succeed. This way, you’re not simply announcing your expertise, you are able to impart critical information and experience that you have actually built in the field by demonstrating it.

• Start by choosing a relevant topic that you are knowledgeable in. It has to be something that you can confidently claim to be an expert on. Be sure to focus on a specific topic in your industry or field. Try not to write generic articles that can be found elsewhere. Inject a lot of personal anecdotes if you can.
• Increase mileage for your topic by creating a series. It not only highlights your knowledge, but it also allows you to build anticipation about the topic among your audience.
• Once the series is completed, you can bundle the different series and offer it as exclusive, downloadable content. This helps you build your mailing list by offering it as an incentive.

2. Content designed to attract customers

Successful content means it needs to be attractive to your users. This type of content is typically available on your site as a blog post so that it can be easily shared. It’s also designed to boost your searchability. Quite simply, this is content that is meant to drive traffic to your site.

• Listicles are great, simple and easily consumable content that has been known to deliver great results. Well-written, high quality listicles are easily shareable and fun to read.
• If you have the option to create an accompanying visual for your content, infographics are also a great way to attract users.
• Another form of content that attracts users are slideshares. It’s a simple way to summarize content and show key information such as graphs or statistics and are also a great way to build links into your page.

3. Content meant to build loyalty among readers

This type of content is focused on establishing your businesses’ core audience, anchored on your identity and values. The goal is draw users who share the same beliefs as you. If a user believes a company shares the same values as them, it’s more likely for them to conduct business with you.

Basically, you do this by creating material that is built on,  how you as a business relate to them.

• OpEds, which are designed to share personal opinions and beliefs regarding a particular topic relevant to your users are a great way to do this. It highlights your personal values and is more likely to connect with a larger audience.
• Social cards that make a brief, simple statement about a specific topic is also effective. Be sure to make it clear, succinct and easily shareable.
• Remember that building an identity and using that to grow your community can be done by standing for something that you believe in. You stand the risk of blending into the crowd of competitors if you don’t highlight your focus of stance. There is a certain risk of course—there will be people who won’t agree with your personal opinion about something, but ultimately, you want to grow your community with likeminded individuals anyway.

4. Content that inspires customers to act

At the end of the day, your goal is to convert casual visitors to your site into loyal customers who keep coming back for your product or service. This means that you also have to take them into consideration, while writing something that would inspire them to take action. It can be asking them to comment on a blog post, share content, sign up for an emailer, take a quiz, answer a survey, or make a purchase. The list goes on and on.

• Don’t immediately start off with something major. Start small and work your way to the bigger things. For example, don’t go and demand them to make an immediate purchase right away. Start with asking them to comment on your blog if they have questions, or sharing an article if they find it interesting.
• The most obvious form of content that inspires action is promotional content. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be sales-y. You can create content that offers relevant information and then gently encourages them to take the intended action.
• Spell out the action that you want your audience to take. Don’t be afraid to explain that you want them to sign up for a newsletter or mailing list, to visit your website or even make a purchase. The key is in knowing when to pitch the idea so that it doesn’t feel like you’re imposing too much on your audience.

Remember…

Understanding your user is critical to making sure these four types of content work best for you.

The goal is to build a community of users who themselves will become fans and advocates of your product/service. And knowing how these individual types of content can work for your blog is key.

Eventually, you’ll learn to weave these different elements together in a single post to make your content work harder for you.

If you want to know how we can help you craft tailored content that converts, give us a call today.

And if you have any questions about this post, leave us a message below.