retail ecommerce and content marketing
TRANSCRIPT
Ecommerce and Content Marketing
James Carson, Founder
About Me• Founder at Made From Media
• Publisher / content strategy consultancy
• Research in fashion ecommerce
• Previously Head of Digital Marketing at Bauer Media – FHM / Grazia
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jacarson85
http://twitter.com/mrjamescarson
3 Key Econsultancy Reports:
1. Digital Content Strategy Best Practice Guide, Neil Perkin
2. Where Content and Commerce Collide, James Gurd
3. Content Marketing and Fashion Ecommerce, James Carson
Content Marketing Investment on the Up…
Yes, yes, everyone knows…
Why Are We Doing This?
“Look at how people shop in the UK. There are 100m visits to the high street but also 250m visits to online retailers. Ecommerce accounts for approximately 15% of all sales, so it’s not just about sales – we want to reflect this on the website.”
David Walmsley, Director, M&S
Do You Have a Defined Strategy?
Kernel of Strategy
1. A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the challenge.
2. A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge.
3. A set of coherent actions that are designed to carry out the guiding policy.
https://econsultancy.com/reports/digital-content-strategy-best-practice-guide
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BIG Content Strategy Checklist
Who Owns What?
Content Strategy Simplified for Media Companies
Content
Distribution
User Experience
Analytics
https://econsultancy.com/blog/64757-the-24-ingredients-for-a-delicious-content-strategyhttp://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10924-could-content-marketing-replace-the-seo-department
23 Ingredients…
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Phase 1:
AnalysisPhase 2:
Taxonomy and Audit
Taxonomy
Category Card Sort
Tagging Amendments
Menu Restructure
Audit
SEO Onpage
Retrospective Editing
Evergreen Content Audit
Phase 3:
Content
Optimisation
Headlines
Formatting
Planning
Evergreen Content
Page Types
Editorial Calendar
Quantitive Benchmarking
Phase 4:
Distribution
Ideas
Regular Large Asset Production
Distribution
Social Media
Paid For Distribution
Partner Network
Onsite
Website Engagement Analytics
Website Organic Traffic Information
Market
Keyword Analysis
SEO Competitor Analysis
Lack of Defined Strategy Down to Objectives and Measurement?
“Interestingly only a fifth (20%) of the ecommerce teams we interviewed said that they are actively doing attribution analysis for content marketing activity. However, half are planning to and the current barrier is data gaps.”
What Do You Aim to Measure?
Content Marketing Approach
Content
Distribution
User Experience
Analytics
https://econsultancy.com/blog/64757-the-24-ingredients-for-a-delicious-content-strategyhttp://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10924-could-content-marketing-replace-the-seo-department
Content Marketing Study
General UX and Typography
Look Books
Editorial
Product Pages Social Media
User Experience
Editorial Distribution
Brands as Publishers?
General UX and Typography
Look Books
Editorial
Product Pages Social Media
User Experience
Editorial Distribution
Why?
General UX and Typography
Look Books
Editorial
Product Pages Social Media
User Experience
Editorial Distribution
Technology / testingQuite quantifiable
High focus / investment
ContentNot as quantifiable…
Lower focus / investment
DistributionVery quantifiable
Product Pages
Merchandising Sections as Content
Emphasis on Growing Editorial is High
But out of 20 major fashion websites reviewed, only 2 really had editorial that was really worth talking about…
Majority of Fashion Brands Investing in Editorial Were Wasting Time and Money…
• Poor integration into site user experience
• Low publishing frequency
• Advisory content was lacking
• Headlining was poor
• Not distributed on social media
How Can We Fix This?
Integrating a Blog With the Main Site
Publishers normally have ads here
It’s how their editorial makes money
Product promo widgets are easy to create…
You Wouldn’t Catch a (Good) Publisher Doing This!
Image links to a WordPress image file
http://blog.boohoo.com/style/1-dress-3-ways/
Text is very small
(and centre aligned)
Product links unnoticeable
Publishing Frequency
Brands:
1 article a day?
Publishers:
• Mail Online = c.400
• Grazia Daily = 25
• Now Magazine = 20
Fashion Focused
• Product features
• Style features
• Fashion event news
Affinity Topics
• Celebrity news
• Travel and city guides
• Music
Subject Matter
Lack of Focus…Difficult to win
SEO is a Major Factor in Content Marketing Investment… But…
Lack of Advisory / Stock / How To Little editorial keyword analysisSee the headlines…
“The headline text has to stand on its own and make sense when the rest of the content is not available.”
Nielsen
Distribution on Social Media
• Blogs are often produced, but not syndicated on social channels regularly, despite the vast size of the brand following.
•
• Can’t distribute stock/advistory content all the time… what’s the best way around this?
https://econsultancy.com/blog/66042-why-retailers-may-be-experiencing-a-tough-start-to-the-year-on-facebook/
Campaign and Editorial Calendar
INFORMS…
Editorial Not Performing? Don’t Know?
All of it is easily fixable…
Not for everyone…
So start with a user need
http://www.virginholidayscruises.co.uk/cruise-guide/
User needs metSimply but well executed
2014 Winner UK Search Awards Best Use of Content Marketing
Result!
What Are the Biggest Blockers?