As an eCommerce brand, you may think that the only content you should be producing, creating, and sending out to customers or potential customers should always revolve around or include a sales pitch to increase brand sales – but that just is not, and should not be the case anymore.
We were having a monthly strategy meeting with a client earlier this week and while in conversation, their CEO said that they as a brand like to “educate first, then sell.” Ever since he said this, that phrase has really stuck with us.
Oftentimes brands get so busy focusing on increasing sales that they forget that sales will naturally come (if you are offering a quality product with a demand behind it of course) when people understand more about the products you are offering and how they can benefit them. Consumers don’t know what they don’t know so it's your job as a brand and thought leader to teach them. Once they know and understand more, they are more likely to purchase from your brand since you are the one who initially educated them. In turn, they are more likely to become repeat customers of your products or services.
How you choose to do this is relatively simple but needs to be on a regular cadence – create small guides bi-weekly. Sure, you can include some product shoutouts and link them to a specific product purchase page, but that is not the goal of the content piece. Instead, the goal is to educate users on how some of your products address or alleviate common issues they have in their life. If a purchase comes from your guide, great that’s something extra you have gained from this. You should be more focused on how long the user spends on the page as that will show whether they are engaging with the content at a higher level and reading the information from start to finish.
You can also send users to education pages rather than directly to purchase pages. That way, users can read more about your product or service instead of feeling pressured to decide right at that moment if they want to purchase from you. If you provide good quality and educational content to a user, when it comes the right time for them to purchase a product or service, odds are they will choose your brand because you taught them what they didn't know before.
We are not saying sales are not important because, at the end of the day, sales are what will keep your brand in business. Without sales, there will be no opportunity to educate because you will become nonexistent. You must however do both - create sales content and educational content if you want to have a holistic and prosperous brand.