Padawan Series: Content Strategy Tactics for Your Apparel & Accessories Brand

Your apparel and accessories eCommerce’s main communication with customers is through your webstore’s content. Content encompasses all the digital assets (written copy, images, graphics and videos) created for a brand whether it is for your website, social media, text messages or emails. Consumers prefer companies that have content that not only is memorable but adds some type of value to their lives. Having a successful and efficient content strategy will put your brand a step above your competitors. In this guide, you will learn different content strategy tactics to improve your apparel and accessories eCommerce.

Create a Content Marketing Funnel

It’s best to have a content marketing funnel that will guide you and your customers. A content funnel visualizes the process or journey that potential customers go through while making a purchase decision. This content marketing funnel splits into three main sections: the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel. Each section has a specific purpose and action that it pushes your customers to perform.

 Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

The top of the content funnel is where you grab your customers’ attention. The main focus of the TOFU is to show brand awareness and increase site traffic. To show brand awareness, you’ll want to include content with value that answer questions or solve problems. The main content of this section of the funnel includes blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media updates and infographics. As a way to increase site traffic, your company needs to consider implementing email marketing and social media marketing to gain a wide range of customers.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

Once customers know your brand and have received some type of free value, it’s time to convert them into a lead. The middle of the funnel is where your company focuses on lead generation and building a deeper relationship with your customers by creating content that educates and informs. You can build trust by sending personalized emails to your shoppers. Educating and informing customers can come in many forms like offers, your brand’s story, shipping or return guidelines. The type of content you will use in this section of the funnel includes white papers, ebooks, reports, studies, quizzes, webinars, guides and emails.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

The bottom of the funnel persuades leads to complete a purchase. Conversions through a paid service or product by using personalized content is the main focus of the BOFU. It takes more than just building a relationship with your customers to gain a sale. The BOFU is also where your webstore should utilize discounts and offers to convert shoppers into leads. Customer reviews, promo codes, discounts and demos are types of content you will see in this section of the funnel. 

Once you have a solid content marketing funnel, you will have an easier time reaching a larger audience. Creating a successful content funnel can be tedious and time-consuming, that’s why we recommend working with a marketing firm that understands and can implement an efficient content funnel.

Focus on Value

Focusing on value is where you understand where your customer is coming from and what they are looking for. Simply put, you need to understand what they ‘value’. This is the first step in building a deeper connection with your audience. Instead of sending out emails and posts that are promotion-heavy, create content that can help your brand gain credibility. One of the ways your eCommerce webstore can focus on value is to tell interesting stories through customer reviews, videos and influencers using your products. By creating an interesting story about your apparel company, you are allowing customers to relate and build a deeper relationship.

Keep Content Concise, Compelling and Impactful

Your apparel and accessories brand will communicate with your customers through content. This communication needs to include all aspects of your brand, any discounts or any other relevant information. The best way to communicate to your customers  all the elements your company needs to display is by keeping your content concise and compelling yet impactful. Users don’t want to spend too much time trying to find the product or information they are looking for. Ideally, they want the information in 30 seconds of less. However, this doesn’t mean you have to abandon creative assets. Instead, your brand needs to have a way to create content that is memorable and fun but still has an impact on your customers. You’ll want all your content to persuade shoppers to purchase. 

Schuler Shoes has a great example of content that is concise, compelling yet impactful:

Create Shoppable Social Media Content

Shoppable social media content can give your company an additional channel from which to make  sales. Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest allow customers to shop for products from the original post. Just as a reference of how powerful shoppable posts are, over 130 million users tap and shop on shoppable Instagram posts per month. While creating any type of shoppable content on social media, you need to include clear call-to-action like buy now or shop now. Also, include enticing and memorable written copy, videos or photos. We know that social media isn’t for every company; however, if you want tips on how to improve your social media platforms, keep reading here.

Use Email Marketing Personalization

80% of customers are more likely to complete a purchase from a company that offers personalized experiences. A great way to offer your customers this personalized experience is through email marketing personalization. Creating a personalized email doesn’t mean you have to individually design every email to cater specifically to each customer. Instead, you can personalize an email’s content based on demographics, geological location and what the customer has viewed or bought in the past. Emails like cart abandonment and seasonal themes or promotions work well with personalization. These types of emails not only give customers a personalized experience but also give them an action to complete. To make email marketing easier, you can work with a knowledgeable marketing firm or utilize one of the many email marketing extensions that can help you manage your emails and their performance.

Improve Customer Service

Content doesn’t end with social media posts, emails and your website, instead, it also boosts  your brand’s customer service. The outcomes, whether it is a positive or negative interaction, of your brand’s customer service affect how shoppers view your company. 78% of consumers have backed out of a purchase due to negative customer service. So how does an apparel webstore have great customer service through content? In general, customers want content that answers questions on multiple channels including mobile, emails and social media. The answers to these questions shouldn’t take long and should in turn help the user. Studies show that 40% of customers want information, answers, offers and deals from chatbots. These chatbots give them automatic answers without having to wait a long time for real customer service representatives to solve any of their issues. 

Conclusion

Your webstore’s content encompasses many different elements of your company. These were just some of the content strategy tactics to help improve your apparel and accessories eCommerce. There are many more ways that content can help your brand increase traffic and sales. To discover the best content strategy tactics for your company, contact us today.