As much as I’d love for the term “Content is King” to die it doesn’t look like it’s going to, at least not anytime soon. The reason I want it to die is not because I don’t believe in content marketing but it’s more of a cliche and companies have lost sight of why they should publish content. Sure content is king but what does that even mean?
Did content acquire a noble title and some lands?
Content becomes “King” when it’s unique and it’s valuable to your readers.
Ideally your content is the first step in their research about a particular product or interest and you are interesting enough to convert them into an email subscriber.
There are some eCommerce companies that are killing it with the their content marketing, driving tens of thousands of potential customers per post. When analyzing these stores there are 8 main examples of content strategies eCommerce companies are using and I’ll cover them all with examples so you can start developing your strategy.
1. Video Content:
Video content is fantastic because not only can you rank on the first page with a well crafted video you can/should also embed it on your blog. The trick here is to know that the video and blog post should have unique title tags and meta descriptions. You can get a nice intro done for about $50.00 for branding and read everything you can on Wistia to start producing amazing videos today. These can also be made into how to guides for the double whammy. (Some people rather read it others rather watch it)
2. Interview Content:
Interviews are perfect if you bring in an extremely relevant guest that has a social following, that way when they promote it to their following it will bring in 1st time visitors. Hopefully you’ll convert them into customers or at the bare minimum email subscribers. Interviews can also be published as podcasts and transcribed into great content posts.
3. How To Guides:
For this I always recommend the double whammy if resources allow and create a badass video to go with it. I highly recommend creating in depth guides making sure that it’s the only guide your customer ever has to read.
4. Free Downloads:
Create free downloads is not only fun but it also helps grow your email list tons! Invest a month in creating something truly fantastic for your customers. Please don’t have them sign up for another boring email list. Earn their email with an incredible content piece.
5. Contests:
Host them on Instagram, Snapchat and when you want to plan something EPIC use Gleam.Io.
6. Newsjacking:
Reporting the news in a unique perspective that is relatable to your audience is content gold! If you’re quick to the punch you’ll have other blogs linking back to you.
7. LifeStyle:
Writing content catered around the lifestyle of your ideal customer is one of the best ways to create a loyal following. Stop selling your product, sell the lifestyle your product creates.
8. User Generated Content:
Done right this is one of the most brilliant ways to get FREE content that would cost hundreds of dollars to generate and probably still wouldn’t be as good as if it was user generated.
Video Content:
ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek creates unique products that stimulate the imagination from gadgets to collectibles you’ll find their products fitting for home or the office.
With over 164k YouTube subscribers they have learned how to harness the power of video while bridging the gap between online and offline experiences.
Using their blog to attract new customers, top quality talent and to have some good old fashioned geeked out fun. It’s no wonder their blog alone attracts over 4 million visits a month.
Reebok
With over a one hundred year history Reebok was originally J.W. Foster and Sons, later renamed Reebok and operating as a subsidiary of Adidas since 2005 Reebok know how to craft content for the athletic goods niche.
With video content marketing campaigns generating 11 million + views, we can all learn something from being more human.
Interview Content:
Dollar Hobbyz
The world’s largest RC shop is no stranger to content marketing. What they do a fantastic job at is bridging the offline world with online through well crafted interviews. Their latest interview was with the director of (MESArc) Math Engineering Science and Achievement with RCs.
Conducting these type of interviews not only gets you amazing content it also allows for you to make these lasting connections with the community.
Dollar Hobbyz’s posts get shared hundreds of times and attract dozens of comments from loyal members of their RC community.
It’s no wonder their VP of marketing William Harris recently published How To Crush Content Marketing for eCommerce.
Hammock Town
Full disclosure Hammock Town is a side project of mine, we sell unique hammocks and hammock tents for the modern day adventurer. In the last couple years hammock clubs have been founded across universities in the USA. Interviewing the presidents of these clubs gives great info for our readers looking to start a club of their own.
How To Guides:
Gardeners.com
Earning between 600k – 1 million monthly visits Gardeners.com know what they are doing with content. Sharing great pieces such as “How to Invite Mason Bees into your backyard” generates hundreds of social shares.
Mod Cloth
ModCloth whom sells women’s clothing and accessories does a fantastic job in putting together content that inspires them to craft outfits.
Posts like the one above Rainy Day DIY: The Cutest Cornhole Game, don’t promote their clothe but fit extremely well within their demographic.
How do you build a great blog? Deliver value and do not expect anything in return. Acquire email addresses and by continuing to deliver great content a tip from Carl at Mailcharts is to get people in the habit of opening up your emails. Send 4 content emials for every promo email. What will happen is when you send a promo email your customers will already be in the habit of opening up your fun emails the promo is not going to be pushy at this point.
Free Downloads:
Tortuga Backpacks
Tortuga known for crafting the best travel backpack does an amazing job with their free “Carry on packing List”. Constantly updating their site and blog with tips for the modern day travel addict their content is so good because @FredPerrotta their co founder lives the lifestyle himself. Tortuga was founded because Fred couldn’t find an ideal backpack for his travels.
Craftsy
I mean you are going to need some colored pencils to enjoy this free downloadable from the folks at Craftsy right? It’s no wonder they see 5 million + visitors to their site monthly.
Contests:
SKICKS
SKICKS is a brilliant brand. Founded by 3 female entrepreneurs this woman owned company rocks the content game.
By hosting contests targeted to specific schools they have officially licensed deals with they create a huge buzz around their products. 
Hosting contests like these not only helps sell more products but it allows you to create blogs with user generated content!
Hammock Town
Hammock Town has become my experiment/testing ground before I do any consulting work for clients I try it out on Hammock Town before. After hosting an Instagram Contests and publishing the ROI behind it, we held a Snapchat contest, followed by a huge contest collaboration with 5 hammock manufacturers using Gleam.
In this 2 week contest we acquired more than 500 emails, 300 twitter followers and thousands of Instagram followers for us and our partners.
Newsjacking:
Jimmy Jazz
Jimmy Jazz gets their customers. They know what their customers want to read and cover interesting stories that are relevant in the media. This is a great way to start sending habit forming emails as they constantly stay on top of trends that their customers care about.
Otter Box
OtterBox does a great job describing new app updates and they are fruitfully rewarded as they earn hundreds of shares doing it. In addition to updates highlighting fun events happening offline is a great way to bridge that digital/real world gap.
LifeStyle:
Urbanbeardsman
Beards Are In. And if you have a beard you probably read the Urban Beardsman blog. Crafted meticulously just as their beard oil the blog is a phenomenal example of using lifestyle to connect with consumers.
Tory Burch
The Tory Daily Lifestyle, I didn’t know it existed until I saw it and now I want it. That is how lifestyle brands work. Featuring entrepreneurs such as Patricia Kwok, a Tory Burch alum who’s gone on to launch her own line of surf-inspired swimwear, KEA inspires others to go out and do the same.
User Generated Content:
BetaBrand
BetaBrand hustles for that user generated content. They say the best form of marketing is telling stories, well what is better than letting your customers tell their stories?
For 10% OFF you upload any pic and add some B-Sunglasses, want 20% show off what your mama gave you by sporting a BetaBrand product in the pic. Brilliant
If you check out their model citizens you’ll notice the infinite scroll is indeed infinite & also something you should A/B test .
GoPro
Not only do they get FREE amazing user generated content, GoPro takes it a a step further to make it super easy to share videos taken with GoPros. Users are dying to get featured or shared on GoPros Blog and Instagram and this means tons of FREE advertising material for GoPro. Well played GoPro..well played.
Have another example of content we missed or a company that is executing their content strategy flawlessly? Drop a comment below to share with the world!
