How to Drive E-commerce Sales with Content Marketing David Bowen

Where Content and Commerce Collide

• Techniques to support content marketing activities • Resources you should consider covering in-house • Where other ecommerce teams are focusing their

efforts in 2014

UK Marketers - Owned media budget

Source: blog.seven.co.uk

Engagement with content is increasing

Content production

In-house teams

• Dedicated in-house resource for content marketing is standard practice amongst all the ecommerce businesses interviewed

• Structure of the team and the scale of the resource varies significantly, largely driven by what the business focuses on to realise its digital brand vision

In-house teams

• Number of specialist content marketing roles is increasing:

– Writing team – Product copy, blogging and buyers guides – Photographer – Product imagery and graphics for the

website – Videographer – Product videos and guides – PR executive – PR and social media – Full-time staff writer for other markets

Investment in content marketing in 2014

Primary drivers for content marketing

SEO

• Online search still dominates buying journeys - Original and unique content for your audience to stay ahead of the competition

• Schuh - Major focus on SEO as part of its overall business roadmap

– Permeates through the ecommerce team, including editorial and product content as well

– Ensures content marketing is supporting SEO

Connected Customers are on a continuous path-to-purchase

FORMULATION: Consideration • Self-identified need • Provoked need

PRE-COMMERCE: Evaluation

• Value Proposition/PODs • 1:1 relevancy

COMMERCE: Transaction

• Self-actualization • Validation

POST-COMMERCE: Express

• Experience evaluation • Advocacy and loyalty

Provide the whole picture and elevate your offering.

CONTENT + COMMERCE

Ownership of content marketing

Customer Engagement or Sales tool?

A leading men’s fashion retailer – Editorial content is used to drive sales and to be reactive to

trade patterns - Targeted features within 1-2 days of previous week’s trading

– Align with the merchandising goals of the ecommerce team - Pushing poor performing categories or highlighting under-performing products

– Coordination with the stores - Review offline sales, then highlight through content spots if it’s not performing as well online

Rise of Editorial

• Brands have identified the need to engage customers around lifestyle elements such as interest areas, not just sell them product, and content is playing a vital role

• The story of the product can be as important as the product itself and content is used to educate, inspire and even seduce.

“…Understanding the customer and the type of content they are looking for is crucial…The Journal provides this information in an informing and engaging way. Yes, it’s about selling product but more so about inspiring consumers. Content helps build trust with readers and customers; it provides context for the brands they engage with on the site and for the products they are interested in. Nowadays customers expect for a luxury retailer to create an experience beyond shopping.” Director of Sales & Marketing

• Dedicated editorial team - Editorial Integrity

• Best names in journalism and fashion – Ensures features, shoots and interviews are topical and engaging

• Operates closely alongside marketing and buying functions - Editorialise forthcoming launches and initiatives

“The site is curated, edited and served by an independent world-class team” John Brody - Editor in Chief (Previously at GQ)

“I’ve worked on other websites where content ghettos have been created, where you go left to read and right to buy. We wanted to avoid that separation so throughout the customer journey, whatever your landing page or the marketing campaign you’re viewing, the editorial focus is both contextual and relevant.” Director - M&S

Central Control – Local Delivery

• Manage content via a central team – Multi-channel – Local bricks and mortar customer experience is

different – Central planning - greater control over what content is delivered

and how • Flexibility for local markets

– Some content delivered by local freelancers who have specialist knowledge of the area

– Local customisation to tailor content marketing and support the central content team

• 5 Markets with localised content

• 2 Markets with retail stores • Expert advice and guidance

content

RS Components • 28 countries • 500,000 product

catalogue items • Content and assets

translated for local markets

• Local SEO and social

External Resource

• Content marketing partners for strategy and planning support

• Tactical execution delivered through internal teams, supported by freelancers (copywriters most common)

• Producing high quality, unique content, rather than churning out volume

– Google updates like Panda - focus on quality and penalising thin content has sharpened the focus on content quality and integrity.

Status of company content strategy

Content Strategy

• Moving from a fragmentation of delivery where different teams work on different elements of the content plan and planning isn’t always aligned

• To an over-arching strategy aligned with core business plan • Luxury and premium brands - sits with the editorial team

because it has a close link to the brand vision and execution across all channels

• Primary focus is on defining the structure that will underpin content marketing, in terms of resourcing and process control

• Serve relevant content to various member types

• “Have been providing content on and offline for many years but in rather an ad-hoc fashion. Part of our wider digital transformation project is recognising the need to pull this together in a more coherent strategic way.”

• Currently at the research stage - defining a content strategy. Followed by creating an outline plan and a detailed content calendar

Content Calendar

• Marks & Spencer - Clear policy that the core editorial talent must be in-house

• Created a structured calendar with a clear plan for each editorial shot two months out

• Reactive to retail conditions - Flexibility to respond to short-term opportunities

• In-house ability to photograph new editorial content quickly is key enabler of this flexible process.

• Third-parties for some skills - reproduction to support rapid turnaround

Content Calendar

• Strategic campaigns • Tactical campaigns • Brand messaging • Campaign messaging • Channel comms • Segmented messaging

Content guidelines used by content teams

Content Guidelines

• Tone of voice documents are being used by half of the companies - Create a consistent voice in the market across all channels

• Tailor to the channel – Selfridges’ digital marketing team takes the content plan and

translates it into an ecommerce plan – Aligning the tone of voice and copy style – Adapting to suit individual channels - social media where the

connection with the customer is more conversational

Implementing Guidelines

• Some companies are investing in specialist resource to help them put clear governance policies in place around content marketing.

• RS Components are creating their base content strategy around three key pillars, the third of which is focused on guidelines:

– The technology the content sits on and how it integrates – The content – Governance, training and people

Driving Commerce through Content

• Challenges: – Adding the commercial ‘shopability’ to content on ecommerce

websites – Ensuring the editorial or content team is in sync with

commercial production – Platform and team to support the content marketing plan and

scale

Content formats supporting commerce

Brand experience online

• Luxury or premium products – Content is seen primarily as a vehicle to translate the brand

experience across digital channels – Conversion and revenue is a result of increased brand

engagement

The Watch Gallery • Develop a brand - doesn’t have a

wide portfolio of stores • Ecommerce team prioritises

engaged browsers, optimising the site around user journeys

• AOV - £1,000

Multichannel campaigns

• Selfridges – The Beauty Project – In-store booth that streams content from the campaign into store

window displays – Live feed of latest content to the Google+ page and use of

Google Hangouts. – Campaign video content – Iconic photography from well-known photographer and

filmmaker – Social conversations - #beautyproject and #hellobeautiful. – In-store beauty events

Content Marketing KPIs

• Revenue and conversion – Conversion rate (basket-to-order and visit-to-order) – Average order value – Revenue

• Traffic – Total visits – Unique visitors – New vs. return visits

Content Marketing KPIs

• Engagement – Dwell time (time on site) – Pages per visit – Bounce rate – Social shares – Comments and Likes (including ‘favouriting’ individual content

assets) – Product reviews – Banner clickthrough rate

Content Marketing KPIs

• Offline – Visits to store (hard to track accurately) – In-store purchases – In-store content usage (e.g. scanning a QR code for a

product to watch a video) – Call tracking

Web Analytics

• Use web analytics tools to support more detailed reporting for content marketing

• Use event tracking for interactions with online content. E.g. watching a video

• Segment - E.g. Compare KPIs to gauge whether content has more impact on acquisition or retention

– New or returning visitors, device type, etc.

Attribution Analysis

• Not enough use of attribution analysis for content marketing activity

• Multi-path analysis - Understand the full contribution of content rather than relying on the limiting last click view

• Schuh digital marketing team - attribution of content to future conversion

• Users who regularly view content have higher average order values

Commercial benefits of content marketing

Curated product lists and editorial

• Fashion brands using data gathered from content marketing activity to generate curated product lists.

• Marks & Spencer – The Editor’s Pick is one of four key content formats – Ecommerce team regularly sees products featured in this list

hit the top 10 bestsellers across the business, not just online

Business Results

• Increased spend – Nearly half of companies experienced higher average order

values as a result of content marketing activity – MR PORTER - The transactional value of visitors who read

content and then shop is significantly higher than who come and go direct to a product page to buy. Customers are more engaged with the brand.

Business Results

• Positive customer feedback – Half the companies cited positive customer feedback as a

positive outcome of investment in content marketing. – Visible feedback (e.g. a customer review added to the website) – Invisible feedback (e.g. a customer telling an in-store employee

that a buying guide on the website helped them decide what product to buy).

Roadblocks

Focus Areas

Deliver an exceptional experience.

Thank you!

David Bowen Product Manager

@dmbowen david.bowen@episerver.com

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