Truly great e-commerce content fulfils the complex brief of increasing customer engagement, offering product information and creating a community of loyal brand ambassadors keen to spread the word about their savvy purchases. Gimmicks are all well and good, but it’s the sustainable content strategies which don’t cost the earth that garner the best results. The following companies have all hired an e-commerce copywriter who has content creation down to a fine art.
1. Field Notes
On the surface, this is just a notebook company but, thanks to a clever content and marketing strategy, it’s so much more. It’s an exclusive club for stationery addicts, with each new release being a limited run, and regular doses of complementary content.
Using newsletters and social-media posts to talk about the making of memories and showcase the notes and sketches that customers have published on their social-media channels, Field Notes has created a faux nostalgic feel to its brand – and everyone is invited to join in.
2. Toms
In a genius move, Toms has removed all the guilt associated with ‘treating yourself’ by pledging goods or services to communities in need, in exchange for every pair of shoes sold. Customers feel as though they are doing their bit and have no guilt about buying more shoes and becoming a repeat consumer.
Toms also maintains a solid social media presence, reposting customer pictures and encouraging the use of custom hashtags, such as #withoutshoes. The best part of all is that this costs nothing.
3. ModCloth
Turning its back on traditional e-commerce content, ModCloth sought to promote inclusivity and honest body types, resulting in look books and product catalogues with unfiltered pictures that have had no retouching.
Using social media, ModCloth has also created a customer community where everybody gets a say and can vote on new releases. Product descriptions are refreshingly straightforward, and the clothes are fun and not aimed at any one age or size, leading to customers tagging pictures in the hopes of a repost.
4. Bonobos
Procrastination is an international pastime and Bonobos tapped into this by identifying a niche opportunity to include quizzes on its clothing website. Instead of simply selecting a style and size of trouser, shoppers can now take a fun quiz to determine the best pair for them – and the results can be shared on social media, creating free word-of-mouth promotion.
A phenomenally clever technique, customers don’t realise that trousers are being sold to them, as it feels as though everything is geared towards simply identifying the best fit for them. Personal and promotional, not to mention cost-effective…
5. ASOS
ASOS has led the way in terms of influencer marketing; a very of-the-moment methodology that yields favourable results that sees social media favourites wearing the clothes and tagging ASOS, in the hopes that followers will click to buy. Embracing different body shapes has certainly helped in recent months too, as the body positivity movement has taken off.
ASOS has set itself apart from competitors with a slick and unfussy shopping platform, informal language and, unusually, no product reviews – and the gamble has paid off. Beauty tutorials and celebrity style inspiration articles are the cherry on top.
The best e-commerce content targets specific subsets of customers while seeming to appeal to everybody. It also removes the guilt associated with unnecessary purchases and welcomes customers into communities of like-minded people and savvy influencers. These are pay-to-enter clubs, with the price of admission being repeat custom, but the best content makes it feel as though the shopper is the lucky one, which is a clever trick.
