The Importance of Ecommerce Content Marketing

Strategic ecommerce content marketing involves consistently creating and distributing valuable, relevant content. This is crucial to attract your target audience and drive traffic to your site. In turn, you can funnel this traffic to your product pages, resulting in sales and an increased conversion rate. 

There are many reasons why content marketing can boost your site:

• Improve your search engine rankings: By earning more backlinks you can improve your rankings, and drive more traffic to your ecommerce site.
• Expand your brand awareness: Compelling and valuable content can engage and reach more people, which boosts your brand awareness. On top of that, providing helpful content can also build trust with your audience. This will allow you to position yourself as the go-to solution for your audience’s needs. 
• Start conversations with potential customers: Spark curiosity among your customers with engaging content that addresses their needs, invites questions and fosters interaction.
• Feed your sales funnel: Valuable content attracts prospects, educates them on your brand, and nudges them down the purchase path, fueling your sales funnel with leads.

Despite being so important, only 37% of B2C brands had documented strategic content marketing approaches, while a further 36% had undocumented plans in 2023. Furthermore, only 25% of these businesses reported having very successful content marketing in the prior 12 months.

So the question is: how can you be successful?

The best way to start is by looking at other success stories in the ecommerce world. This will give you a good idea of how to replicate their triumph.

To save you time, I’ve rounded up some of the best examples from all types of ecommerce brands. So, if you want to drive your content marketing efforts in the right direction – read on!

7 Successful Ecommerce Content Marketing Examples

1. Blume

• Niche: Skincare
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: User-generated content via social media platforms; educational content.
• How you can replicate it: You must know your audience if you want to resonate with them, which involves extensive customer research.

As an online store selling skincare products, Blume is all too aware of the pain points and desires of its target market.

This is obvious when you look at their content, as it speaks directly to a common struggle – confidence (or the lack thereof).

It’d be easy to create content about their best-selling anti-acne products or pages of exfoliation tips. But by addressing emotional pain due to a lack of confidence from acne, Blume offers a unique selling point.

According to Harvard Professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our decisions are based on our subconscious, in which our emotions are heavily involved. So, creating content that hits these sensitive spots is a surefire way to guide the customer journey.

2. JOI

• Niche: Dairy-free milk alternatives
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: “How to” articles (recipes); blog posts.
• How you can replicate it: Create helpful articles that existing customers can use after they’ve made their purchase.

JOI is a great example of how to use content marketing to retain web traffic after a purchase is made.

Selling almond milk concentrate would be mind-numbingly boring if JOI just had a single product page with no logo or appealing messaging.

After all, how do you use almond milk powder anyway? We’ve heard of almond milk, but that’s just about it.

By sharing articles about dairy-free and vegan recipes using their products, JOI not only provides customer education but keeps their web traffic flowing – even after a purchase has gone through.

The results are evident. You suddenly want to take their quiz, start making their recipes, and try their almond milk yourself.

3. Bow Wow Labs

• Niche: Dog treats and safety tools
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: Educational blog posts..
• How you can replicate it: Subtly integrate your products into your educational content.

This online store sells safe treats and toys for dogs, including a flagship product that prevents dogs from swallowing dangerous sticks. With their focus on pet health and safety, Bow Wow Labs’ content attracts dog owners who want to learn how to take proper care of their pets.

To combat these problems related to dog safety, their content poses their products as a go-to solution – making potential buyers more likely to purchase items like their veterinarian-approved “Bow Wow Buddy”.

This tactic is effective because it focuses specifically on addressing particular customer pain points and hits the right emotional buttons. This goes a lot further than just writing a blog post about dogs and mentioning your products everywhere.

4. Soft Services

• Niche: Skincare
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: Customer education via a “mass index”.
• How you can replicate it: Educate your customers about their problems to help them feel more confident with their purchases and create a great user experience.

Knowing exactly how your skin works, what kind of problem you have, and which treatment you should choose is a tricky subject. This is where Soft Services has stepped in – to create valuable content that addresses these issues.

Instead of creating a blog, Soft Services has a “mass index” page compiling expert articles covering varying concerns like body acne or dry skin.

The articles immediately show a table with information about a specific symptom. The content explains the symptom’s definition, causes, treatments, and potential prevention with the help of certain products. Basically, this mass index serves as a “skincare” Wikipedia.

This content is specifically designed to teach Soft Services’ target audience about their problems. This builds trust, which then helps encourage more customers to make an educated purchase decision.

5. Casper

• Niche: Beds and bedding accessories
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: User-generated content (reviews, photos, videos and testimonials); blog posts.
• How you can replicate it: Use your customer reviews to your advantage and display them prominently on your product pages.

Let’s face it, how often are you actually going to buy a bed? Maybe once every eight years? A bed is also no small purchase, so you want to make sure that you’re really getting the best one.

The natural starting point is checking out the company’s current customer reviews.

This is what Casper has leaned into with its content marketing campaign. While you’ll find web pages for their blog, buyers’ guide, and quizzes, their reviews page is arguably where they shine. And it’s not just written reviews; there’s video content from social media influencers too.

Reviews create a sense of social proof and customer loyalty. Potential buyers see themselves reflected in these satisfied customers, making them more likely to trust and purchase Casper products.

6. Away Travel

• Niche: Luggage and travel accessories
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: User-generated content via social media marketing.
• How you can replicate it: Follow a storytelling approach to inspire potential customers and give more meaning to what would otherwise be a “boring” niche.

You usually only buy luggage when you’re planning a trip. So, what better way to inspire potential customers than to encourage them to book that trip?

This is exactly what Away Travel is doing through its posts on social media. Instead of waiting for their customers to come to them, they create enticing posts that always keep travel at the forefront of their audience’s mind.

Think about it this way: it’s a Wednesday morning and you’re in the middle of the busiest week of your life. You open up Instagram and the first thing you see is your friend posting their holiday pictures in Bali. You can’t help but want to book a holiday ASAP.

What’s interesting is that Away Travel doesn’t post any of this storytelling on its website. Instead, they are very active on Instagram and other social media platforms, often relying on influencers to make their content for them.

7. Allbirds

• Niche: Eco-conscious active footwear
• Ecommerce content marketing strategy: Social media marketing (videos, pictures and infographics).
• How you can replicate it: Research which social media platforms are most used by your target audience and develop a unique voice on these that your target market can resonate with.

Sustainable, eco-friendly and unassuming shoes aren’t the sexiest niche out there. Allbirds know this all too well, which is why they haven’t relied on simply filling their Instagram page with their products, followed by a boring caption on the product specifications. 

Instead, Allbirds has developed a rather unique and humorous presence on their social media platforms, specifically Instagram and Facebook, that resonates with their audience. 

They especially excel in creating funny pictures and videos that are accompanied by quirky captions. Just take this Instagram video, for example, where they make light of uncomfortable situations to promote their comfortable shoes. The video also ends with a catchy phrase: “Life is uncomfortable, but your shoes don’t have to be”.

This strategy allows Allbird’s content to be both fun and engaging, which makes the brand stand out in an otherwise boring niche. 

Allbirds has also wisely chosen which social media platforms it uses for its content marketing. According to Similarweb, the majority of Instagram (31.2%) and Facebook (28.1%) users are between 25 and 34 years old. And guess what? A majority of Allbirds customers (32.9%) fall into this age gap. 

It’s not a coincidence; it’s the result of carefully formulated and researched content marketing campaigns. 

FAQs

How can I get started with ecommerce content marketing?

• Identify your target audience: Understanding your target audience guides your content marketing strategy to attract the right people, ensuring relevance, engagement and conversions.
• Create a content calendar: Plan the topics you’ll want to cover and set publishing dates.
• Choose the right content formats: Choosing the right content formats ensures your message engages and resonates with your audience effectively.
• Promote your content: Share your content on social media, email it to your subscribers and reach out to influencers to promote it.

What type of content is the most effective for ecommerce websites? 

Usually, a mix of content formats works best when it comes to content marketing. For example, you could include how-to guides, listicles, blog posts, user-generated content, videos, pictures, reviews and infographics on your ecommerce site. 

Conclusion

Content marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula. Learn from these diverse ecommerce success stories, tailor your approach to resonate with your audience, and build a content strategy that ignites customer engagement and drives sustainable growth.