Tips to Revamp Your Retail Content Marketing Strategy
Marketing
Standing out in retail takes more than great products and services. It takes a compelling content strategy that engages and converts.
Crafting an effective retail content marketing strategy can be challenging, especially with the changing digital marketing trends and consumer behaviors. However, you can develop advertising strategies by following best practices that capture attention and drive long-term loyalty.
We’ll cover essential tips to create a solid retail content marketing strategy that resonates with your target audience and boosts your brand’s visibility. Whether you’re an experienced marketer or new to the field, these insights will help you.
What is a Retail Content Marketing Strategy?
Retail content marketing utilizes content creation to engage the target audience. While the customers gain relevant content, retailers build trust through content marketing. Retail content strategy aims to attract the audience to their business ultimately.
Ikea “Place” App is a great example of a retail content strategy. IKEA has always been in the spotlight for its innovative marketing of trendy furniture. However, there has always been a problem.
Customers often complain that they realize the furniture doesn’t fit or match after assembling it. To solve this problem, the Swedish brand created a mobile app called “Place.”
The app uses augmented reality and smartphone cameras. It lets users test out 3D models of IKEA products. It lets them see if the products fit with the surroundings. They can do all this without having to buy or assemble anything.
Technology and content helped IKEA solve a big problem for buyers in the BOFU stage.
Every marketer hopes to achieve five things with their retail marketing content, they are:
- Educate the audience
- Identify client pain points
- Provide solutions
- Solve their problems
- Entertain the audience
Above all, it connects with the target audience and builds a long-lasting relationship.
Why is Content Marketing Important for Retail Business?
In traditional advertising, businesses pay for ads that help them generate leads. Meanwhile, in content marketing, brands seek to position themselves as a go-to trusted source of information.
Content marketing is a long-term investment strategy. It focuses on building trust and fostering relationships. Ultimately, the brand weaves a strong relationship that connects with the audience.
Here are the reasons why content marketing is vital for retail business.
Increases Brand Awareness
Imagine brands as people with their unique personalities and traits. How would you describe them? For instance, Nike stands for “excitement,” “power,” and “innovation.” Coco-Cola could be associated with the adjectives “friendly,” “happiness,” and “down-to-earth.”
So, why do we associate brands with these adjectives? The answer – their unique content marketing strategy.
Businesses use different mediums to reach out to their potential customers. According to Ahrefs, 70% of customers prefer articles over advertisement ideas. If your goal is to build brand awareness, focus on creating quality content.
Builds Trust
Would you choose a brand that identifies your pain points or offers vague promises? Traditionally, businesses adopted outbound marketing to improve sales. However, over time, consumer behavior has evolved. Today, 95% of customers consider information from blogs as sources to trust.
Use content to educate, entertain, or resolve to establish your domain authority. When the audience relates to you as domain experts, your brand becomes worthy enough for a second visit for information or services.
Improves Brand Loyalty
88% of customers say the brand’s experience is as important as their products. With hundreds of brands to choose from, customers need a unique identifier for brands. That’s when content marketing saves your day!
Offering value-added, free, and accessible content helps businesses to attract an audience. Ultimately, loyalty accelerates your business.
Cost-effective Strategy
Compared to other advertising methods, content marketing gives a higher ROI.
It’s a cost-effective strategy for retail advertising and engaging potential customers. This is unlike anything traditional advertising offers to the retail market.
Instead of the traditional pay-per-click model, content marketers creates and share content. So, you’re not making payments for any clicks or purchases that result from the content you shared.
5 Tips to Improve Your Retail Marketing Ideas
Millions of web content is published every day. So, you might ponder how to make and promote content to get real traffic.
Here are five priceless advertising strategies, which gets you more value out of your blog content.
Defined Objectives/Goals
Every marketing strategy must have a clear goal, and content marketing is no different! A defined goal is the first step to creating a successful content marketing program.
You should ask yourself some questions like;
- What do I want to achieve with my business, and how can my content strategy help me accomplish that?
- Am I trying to increase sales, engage new readers, or extend existing relationships?
These are some objectives that any content marketing strategy should have.
So, you must define and work toward your goals. Analyze your goals, specify them, and pursue them to stay on track.
Now that you’ve defined your objectives, the next step is to move forward. This is the time to design a clear strategy to achieve these objectives.
Add Value to Your Content
There are trillions of pages on the internet competing for ranking and visibility. As a result, the likelihood of losing a page in seconds is high. Bear in mind that these pages provide similar information.
What sets your page apart from the crowd is the value you offer. Hence, creating content that adds value is crucial to engaging the audience.
Blogs, eBooks, case studies, videos, and newsletters are ways to create valuable content. For example, Shopify offers informative content that enhances retailers’ e-commerce knowledge.
Develop a Unique Social Media Strategy
Social media can boost your retail store’s online visibility and grow your audience. Identify and focus on the platforms where your audience is instead of choosing too many platforms.
For example, if your audience is city millennials, Instagram is the best way to reach and spread the word about your offerings. Alternatively, TikTok may work better if you are marketing to Gen-Z consumers.
After you’ve chosen a platform, build your online audience by sharing high-quality content.
Here are some of the best practices to follow:
- Stick to a consistent tone and overall brand aesthetic.
- Publish on a consistent schedule so that your audience knows when to expect your content.
- Use platform-specific tools like hashtags and @mentions. They help make posts easy to find, see, and search.
- Publish content formats like Reels, carousels, shoppable posts, and Stories.
- Interact with people’s comments and mentions of your brand.
Are you a new retailer trying to make a mark in the industry? Adopt the 80-20 rule to create a powerful social media space.
- 80% of posts – can inform, educate, and engage the audience
- 20% of posts – for brand promotion
Adopt an Engaging Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing still holds its relevance. Report shows that 70% of content marketers use email marketing in the B2C landscape. Your email list includes customers who’ve signed in to learn more about your brand.
This email list is a unique opportunity to advertise your products and services. The customers on your mailing list are some of your most engaged audience members. This is because they took the time to sign up or are returning customers.
To build an audience for your retail business, incentivize your email audience. Offer incentives like discounts, early access, or exclusive content. Include email sign-up buttons on your social media channels, website, and checkout sequences.
Here are a few tips to create an email marketing strategy that fuels your retail business:
- Identify the brand’s context to create a campaign (use SWOT analysis).
- Use email marketing software.
- Choose your campaign type (newsletters, announcements, blogs)
- Define a schedule.
- Analyze your results.
Customer Content
Who better understands the customer interaction than the customer themselves? By approaching the source, you gain a clear understanding of how to improve. Employee interaction, in-store displays, and product pricing could benefit from customer feedback.
Customer content is financially rewarding. Research shows brands that use a customer-centric approach are 60% more profitable. Also, 77% of consumers favorably view brands that seek and use customer feedback.
Embrace Influencer Marketing
Has a product felt more appealing due to an endorsement by your favorite celebrity? Buying a product because of an influencer’s endorsement shows the power of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing involves teaming up with a popular social media personality. This is a great way to tap into their fan bases and expand your reach beyond search engines. Plus, you won’t have to work hard with influencer marketing to win customer trust. With the approval of a reliable influencer, trust is instant.
If you are a small retailer expanding locally, shelling out money for a top influencer might not work. Instead, merge with micro-influencers or a local celebrity to drive sales. According to Hubspot, 80% of influencer marketers prefer micro influencers for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Businesses work with influencers because they are cost-effective and offer a high engagement rate.
Examples Of Successful Content Marketing Campaigns
Successful content marketing is not about generating leads and revenue figures alone. Striking the right chord and tuning with the audience is necessary.
The following are retail content marketing examples that stand out.
Tesco’s #FoodLoveStories
Tesco first launched its #FoodLoveStories campaign in 2017. It showcased emotional stories about the power of food in relationships. When the UK went into lock down in March 2020, Tesco changed its campaign to reflect the nation’s concerns. This included the isolation felt by many and the new appreciation for human contact. This contact is both in-person and digital.
Tesco showcased real stories that people across the nation could relate to. This placed Tesco as the brand that truly understood what people were going through. Tesco also knew that the realities of lockdown were different for everyone.
Zomato’s Use of Humor
Zomato is a mobile app that allows you to find a restaurant in 24 countries.
The company uses humor in its marketing strategy. It makes and shares images that reference popular culture.
In this example, Zomato shared a series of memes intended as roasts for its followers. From the comments, one could deduce high engagement, and how in tune customers are with these types of posts.
They are simple, creative, and fun. Zomato’s strategy is proof that keeping up with the trends and meme culture works. Thanks to this strategy, Zomato has amassed 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 1.9 million on Facebook.
The Bottom Line
Excellent content marketing combines different formats and strategies. Some brands favor blog posts, social media posts, or video content. The goal of content marketing is to engage and build trust with the audience.
Understanding the whys and hows determines the direction of your retail content marketing. That’s why we can’t emphasize enough the importance of a unique marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy that works for one brand might not work for another. So, research different brands and adopt a unique approach that works for you. The golden rule is to create your brand story and present it in an enticing way to the audience.
If unsure how to proceed, WrittenlyHub’s content marketing team will help develop an effective retail content marketing strategy.
FAQs
1. What types of content format work best for retail marketing?
The best types of content for retail marketing include blog posts and product descriptions. Also, social media posts, videos, and customer testimonials work well. So does email newsletters and interactive content like quizzes or polls.
2. What are the key trends in retail content marketing?
Major trends in the retail market in 2024 include short-form videos and user-generated content. Other major trends include data-driven insights, omnichannel marketing, storytelling and mobile-first content.
The aim of the key trends in retail content marketing is to enhance customer engagement. Marketers engage these trends to improve brand loyalty and drive sales.
3. What is retail marketing mix?
Retail marketing mix is like traditional marketing mix, as it encompasses the 4 Ps of traditional marketing:
Product: This is the products or services that a retailer is offering. It encompasses brand name, design, features, and customer service.
Price: Price is the amount of money customers must pay to buy a product. Pricing also encompasses discounting, competitive pricing, and payment terms.
Place: Place refers to the location and methods used to make the product available to customers.
Promotion: It encompasses all the activities that communicate the product’s features and benefits. It persuades customers to buy the product.
4. What are the primary goals of content marketing?
The primary goal of content marketing is to inform and convince the target audience. Content marketing helps to increase the visibility of a brand. The valuable and relevant content attracts potential customers, thus creating brand recognition.
Consistently producing expert content helps establish a brand as an industry expert. This builds trust and credibility with the audience.
