As more and more consumers turn to e-commerce websites for their purchasing needs, online sales continue to increase exponentially and there’s no sign that it will slow down anytime in the future. In fact, some estimates predict that total online sales will exceed twenty-seven trillion dollars by the year 2020. While this may make it seem that there is certainly plenty of sales to go around, it’s definitely true that some e-commerce sites enjoy more success than others, and that some e-commerce sites struggle mightily or even fail terribly. In some cases, more successful e-commerce sites have more online ads, and this can, therefore, seem to be the key to their success. However, the difference between the successful e-commerce sites and the less successful e-commerce sites isn’t their volume of advertising–it’s unique, high-quality content used for the content marketing strategy.

Using Content Marketing

Today’s consumers not only have a seemingly endless selection of products and services from which to choose, they have constant exposure to an overwhelming amount of brand messaging and sales tactics. They become bored with hearing that each brand’s products or services are “the best,” and they are desperately looking for something that can prove to them why a particular brand should gain their full attention. This is where unique, high-quality web content comes in–it reaches out to and engages consumers, it demonstrates what makes your brand different from the rest, and it ultimately leads to more sales. So how do you create this unique, high-quality content?

There are several important components to unique, high-quality content, including:

• Intrinsic value. Consumers today are looking for answers and solutions more than anything, which means that content that provides these things are of higher value. Content pieces that are simple and informative are highly attractive, engaging the consumer and causing them to reach for more. These pieces can also set consumers more at ease about the fact that they are making a purchase from being able to see the product with their own eyes.

• Visual features. Consumers prefer visual content, probably because humans are able to process images a remarkable sixty thousand times faster than they can process text. Visual content allows consumers to get a better idea of products that they cannot see or touch, which is usually an extremely important part of buying something. Visual features can be used to draw attention, educate consumers on products or services, and answer questions, which means they add even more value to your content.

• Intuitive design. The most unique, high-quality web content is yet useless if consumers cannot easily find it. Intuitive design allows consumers to easily understand and navigate your website, finding the content, answers, and solutions they want. This means you need to optimize everything they will encounter along their journey, from the landing pages to the product listings–reducing any clutter that can slow or muddle their experience.

• Mobile compatibility. More consumers today use mobile devices rather than desktop devices in order to consume content, which means that whatever content you create for your e-commerce site must be made compatible with mobile formats, otherwise content will not be displayed well and important visual effects can be distorted or lost altogether. Without a mobile compatible website, you risk losing brand loyalty and conversions, as consumers are too impatient to wait for content to load or move it around on their mobile screens in order to try and get the full idea.

In order to have a chance against all the competition on other e-commerce sites, your e-commerce site’s web content needs to be able to convince consumers that your products or services are a cut above the rest. Every single piece of content on your site can and should contribute to this, and anytime and effort you spend making it so will be very well worth it.