In my previous article we looked at creating a solid foundation for your eCommerce social media marketing by:
- Setting clear objectives
- Understanding your audience
- Selecting the right networks.
In this article I’m going to focus on the content that is going to power your social media.
In marketing we regularly hear the phrase “Content is King”, but is this true?
While content is very important not all content is created equal, good content is about quality not quantity.
Quality Content
What makes up quality content varies from one eCommerce site to the next, for example the content used to promote a beauty website should be very different from the content for a DIY online store.
What makes content good quality is:
- Relevance to your products, customers and potential customers
- Easy to read and share
- Appealing to look at
- Works across multiple devices
- Helps the reader and the brand
- Is unique and not duplicated
Quality content isn’t always a long article it can take many forms from quick tips to video.
Planning Social Content
For successful social media campaigns you need to plan your quality content in advance.
Start by creating a week by week breakdown by social channel with spacing for how frequently you plan to post each day (don’t forget weekends). I like to plan a month in advance and will use the data from orvious month’s to adjust posting times and frequency.
Then draft out:
Content Type
article, quick tip, quote, video, image etc…
Post wording
this can be rough to start with
Hashtags & Tags
look for popular related tags or start creating your own
You can start with rough ideas and flesh out your content as you refine your plan. By sure to use lots of different types of content to test what works best with your audience.
As I said in my previous article don’t use the same post on every network. You should tailor what you say to the social channel even while promoting the same content.
Be sure to add notes to your plan about key events related to your products or audience. Also include content related to your campaigns and promotions.
You can also look for content trends that your audience like to follow like #motivationalmonday.
Within your plan make sure to leave space to check for and react to trending topics that effect your business and audience.
Some of the best content on social media is planned, but still feels of the moment!
Aim to spend a good amount of time on your content planning it will save you time later on.
Ready in Advance
Now you have a clear plan of all the content you need, ideally a month in advance you need to get it created.
This way you will always have content approved and ready to go when you need it. Not having content preped in advance leads to poor quality as you rush to find something to post. I have seen a number of businesses social media grind to a holt due to lack of content.
Look at your plan and see how you can group similar content together for quicker creation, for example if you plan a series of quotes its best to get these created in one go.
Once the content is created get it checked for any errors or mistakes these can put off potential customers.
Once your completely happy store the content and mark in your content plan to show which content you can ready for posting.
If your using a blog (which we recommend) you can often schedule the content on your blog so it will automatically go live when you want it.
Images and Video
Social Media loves images and video so try to include them in your content as much as possible. It can be tempting to use stock images, but actually real unique pictures and video work so much better and have a greater appeal.
Focus on creating your own quality images and including them in relevant posts where ever possible to maximise your reach and engagement.
You can also ask your audience to share images and videos of them using your products (if appropriate), this will open up the range of images and video content you have to work with. Why not reward the best ones with a free gift or discount.
Be sure to take advantage of image based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. These channels are great for brand and product awareness and we have seen them generate significant sales for a number of brands.
So now you should have your foundation structure to your social media marketing, what next?
The next step is to get active on social and this is so much more than just posting content. Discover just want you need to do in Social Media for eCommerce – Being Social
Is your social media marketing working for you?
If not we can help, including strategy planning, creative content and winning campaigns.
Call: +44(0)1227 68 68 98
