So first of all, let’s clear the definition of Content.
What is Content?
Content can be anything.
It can be an image, text, audio or any format. In short, any form of media with value can be content.
Content gives information to the users along with the value. And the way users consume information is dynamic. It can be a video or audio or an image or simple text or even a map.
Thus anything that provides users with any information or knowledge is called CONTENT. In fact, what you are reading now is also a piece of content.
How content can help to increase sales?
Probably, that is why you are here.
So let’s start with here.
When it comes to sales and content both together, it means an online sale which can also be known as e-commerce.
So what type of content has actually ever generated sales?
Today we will talk about all the strategies that big brands like Amazon do to increase their sales.
After analyzing numerous websites like Amazon, Flipkart, Aliexpress and other well-known websites for hours I’ve come to know about the real content strategies that are proven to work for multiplying online sales .
They are as follows:
1. THEY’VE OPTIMIZED THE HOME PAGE
A study in 2012 showed that people judge a website within 0.05 seconds, which is even less than the blink of an eye.
So, doesn’t it become necessary to optimize our first page carefully, which is our home page?
Your home page of the website is probably the first thing that the website visitor will be seeing. You have to make sure that it includes maximum content in a way the user gets an idea of what this site is all about.
The one way to do so is to put sliders into your content.
The best part of product sliders is that it will allow you to show more in less space. The more (content) range of products you put, the easier it becomes to guess what this website is all about.
Above is the best-optimized home page.
Conclusion: Make it look like what it actually is.
2. THEY TRICK WITH OFFERS
When it is a festive time, it brings peoples mindset into a mood for shopping.
They either want something for the festival { Holiday } or they want to pick something for themselves.
so, this is the prime time to offer discounts and deals as a way of encouragement.
Moreover, limited time offers’ add urgency to people’s minds. In short, there is a direct relationship between offers and the behavior of people towards purchasing any item.
Conclusion: Take advantage of seasons and festivals.
3. SOCIAL PROOF (TESTIMONIALS)
People are more likely to act when they see others have done so.
So show testimonials or some kind of real proof that shows that the product is working and beneficial.
No one will take the action to purchase and use the product even if you show 1000’s of benefits unless you show somebody that has actually got the results to prove your claims.
Conclusion: Social proof is the pillars.
4. THEY HAVE LOGIC BEHIND COLOURS
Even the colours in the big brand’s logo play a vital role.
A study found that people judge any product within 90 seconds given and 90% of it is judged by its colours.
So here’s another lesson.
Use colors wisely.
Any shade of blue can be used to show trust and sturdy, while the shade of violet shows creativity.
The shade of red is for hunger and passion and bold and shade of green is for again trust and growth.
Learn when to use which color.
Use red, yellow and orange for CTA’s buttons.
Conclusion: Use colours depending on the particular situation
5. CREATE LONG FORM CONTENT
It is a psychology of humans that long form content means trusted products.
It gives people a surety that the product is probably good.
The main benefit of writing long form content is the SEO benefit
Bill Belew, the content marketing expert says that long-form content gives leverage to SEO but sometimes it hurts.
But when we talk about e-commerce, no need to worry. It is always beneficial.
The ideal text size is 1000 words.
Get straight to the point. But at the same time also tell everything in detail.
Put out proper descriptions and additional information as well as showing ratings because that could help them to decide if they are going to take action on buying your particular product or service or not.
Conclusion: PROPER ENGAGED LONG FORM CONTENT DRIVES SALES
6. THEY’VE OPTIMIZED IMAGES
The popular stores have good HD images as well as optimized those HD images so that the websites speed doesn’t suffer in the process.
Always optimize Images in product images. Use HD images as well. HD Images will increase the load time so again you have to optimize images. Not using HD Images is not recommended.
Because it makes one curious to see more images and thus develops interests in the user’s mind about the product.
Images become interactive.
60% of the customers are more likely to contact the business when an image in local SEO is shown.
In an online store, the customer thinks that high-quality images are more important than the product specification, a long description and also better than ratings and reviews.
In short, images help you make the users engage in the product or service.
Conclusion: Use well optimized HD images.
7. Create Or Publish VIDEO (if possible)
Try putting videos in the product’s gallery along with the images. Videos give more engagement than images.
Videos grab attention.
Now, shooting videos for your images will become costly. So practically it is not possible to put videos in every product’s gallery in the initial stage of business.
Videos when shot in the right way can really bring you sales. If you target people based on the vibes then you can win the video marketing game.
Vibes like action, practical, emotional, social etc. can be targeted.
But creating videos is necessary because videos are memorable and improve brand recall and awareness.
Conclusion: Videos are best in a lower attention span world.
8. STOCK DETAILS
Always show stock details as “Only 12 Left in Stock”. It helps to create urgency in the user’s mind. And urgency makes your potential customers buy immediately.
The word ‘Only’ itself creates urgency. So the format of the stock details should be as stated above.
It is the best format to inform you about the stock details.
You, yourself can imagine when you are buying something online and it says “ONLY 2 LEFT IN STOCK” or “HURRY UP, this is the LAST ONE”
Our mood swings quickly. And our mind on the spot thinks in an instant whether or not we should purchase the product that we are looking at.
Conclusion: Stock details are very important, it plays a psychological part.
9. INVENTORY PLACEMENT
The right place to place the items is also a part of the content. Just like in the offline store we place packing material near the heavy items so it will be easy to pack.
One good way to place your products is to show related products below every product.
Another way is to show below every product, product bundle which includes the same product at a lower price so that it attracts.
If you have a WordPress website, you can create product bundles by downloading a free plugin called WooCommerce Product Bundle Choice developed by Sphere plugins.
For Example, make a product bundle of jeans and a shirt or jeans and a t-shirt. The price you set should be lower than the combined price of both products.
And show this product bundle below the same jeans or shirt which jeans or shirt is included in the bundle.
Thus, your sales and revenue both will increase.
It will really increase your sales.
Conclusion: Create fair priced product bundles.
10. HOW TO – PRODUCT DEMO
If what you are selling is very complicated to open or to use, none of the customers will actually put effort to understand by themselves how to use it. They will switch to another company’s products.
You have to show a demo.
That is how you educate about your product/service to the market. If you are selling online, you have to be very creative.
Once the customers are acknowledged about the product, then they might make a purchase. Show complete demo which is like ‘Plug & Play’. Where customers need not put any effort into thinking which is the right way.
Dan Lok said that the one best way to increase your sales is “Demonstration + Massive Distribution”
Demonstration means a demo and massive distribution means heavy accelerated advertisements.
A demo creates a clear picture of the product in the right prospect’s mind.
Conclusion: It becomes tough to sell what the customer has never seen how the product actually works.
11. CREATE A STORY
I have never seen a story that has not worked or has not shown results.
Stories always work. People buy into the story. There’s a reason why Mc Donald’s have a character ‘Ronald Mc Donald’ and many more others.
Because they show a story through that character.
Your vision and mission can be your story.
Your testimonials can be your story.
The story must be positive that contributes in any way for the betterment of mankind.
There’s one more reason why you should create a story which is stories attach emotionally.
Connect people emotionally.
I have heard innumerable stories where the winner wins any competition on the basis of his story and not actually on the basis of his talent.
It is like a magic.
Conclusion: ALWAYS create a story.
These were my 11content strategies that could help you to multiply your sales quickly.
The last one is very important. You should implement these 7 changes to your online store today.
If you know any other tips than than these 7 I listed in the blog post above. I would love to hear from you!
P.S. You can share your ideas in the comment section below so other readers can benefit from them.
Author Bio:
I am Kunal Vatwani and I am the author of this article “11 Proven Content Strategies to multiply sales”. I am currently working at Sphere Plugins where we develop plugins and extensions of WooCommerce, opencart and many other frameworks but Ring Builder and Pair Maker is our main plugin. We really like to do innovative things and do research on AI and implement them in our daily tasks.
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