The Hidden Power of Informational Content for eCommerce Brands

Every brand needs a solid marketing strategy, and there is never really one right way to market your business. However, there are some key ingredients that can make your brand stand out above all the rest and give you a leg up over the competition. 

Social media marketing and content marketing, for example, are a primary focus for many eCommerce brands. Every eCommerce brand should be utilizing social media content and website content to attract consumers, but there is something more that can make your content really stand out — a hidden ingredient: informational content. 

Content that teaches your audience something and educates them about your brand is marketing gold. Nothing is more valuable than informative and engaging content. 

If you really want to create a strong eCommerce brand that connects with your customers and helps you grow a loyal following, informational content is the secret ingredient you need.   

What is Informational Content?

Informational content is educational content. It is content that brings more value to your target audience by teaching them something. 

Today, the internet is used for a wide variety of reasons. It’s used for entertainment, socializing, shopping, and for staying up-to-date on current affairs. But most importantly, people turn to the internet to find answers. They use the internet to educate and inform themselves. 

Brands can take advantage of this by becoming an authority on a certain niche that educates people. 

When you use your brand niche to educate and inform, you not only tackle the marketing goal of attracting consumers and getting their attention, but you gain the added benefit of providing high-value content that teaches them something. And when consumers see you as an educational authority, they will turn to your brand more often when they want to learn something about your niche. 

Why Informational Content is the Key to Success 

Consumer behaviors today have drastically evolved from what they once were. People are much more discerning, and they don’t as easily fall for cheesy sales tactics. Instead, consumers want authenticity and transparency. 

Consumer trends today show that people don’t just want fancy and flashy marketing that dazzles; they want honesty. They want brands that will “be real” with them — brands that are transparent in an effort to genuinely connect with their consumers and don’t have anything to hide. 

And part of being authentic and transparent is being informative and engaging. If you genuinely seek to help your customers learn something new, they will place more value on your brand. They will see that you are not only being open with them, but you are going one step further and actually teaching them something useful. 

Creating good content that is useful to your customers is invaluable and carries with it numerous benefits, including it:

• Drives traffic to your site
• Generates new leads
• Converts lead to loyal customers
• Supports your existing products and services
• Helps you grow an online community around your brand
• Creates better customer experiences

Essentially, informative and educational content drives brand engagement in a way that will make more people want to follow your brand, which means more online sales. 

How to Create Informational Content for Your eCommerce Brand

Knowing your content needs to be more informative is one thing, but actually creating educational content is another thing altogether. 

Before we dive into tips on how to create informational content, it’s important to point out that the right marketing team is essential. 

A lot of marketers know how to create interesting content that grabs the attention of their audience, but do they know how to create genuinely informative content that teaches their audience something while still being interesting and engaging?

If not, you may need to consider putting your marketing team through some training or look into hiring a marketing manager with an MBA who has more experience creating educational and informative content. More training for your team or hiring someone new can help your marketing team obtain a new perspective on how to create better content. 

Once you have the right team, then you can start creating the best content for your target audience. So, let’s get to the good stuff. 

Below are a few tips for creating high-value content that genuinely connects with your audience, teaches them something, and drives traffic and sales. 

Create Relevant Content

This tip should go without saying, but your content should be relevant to your niche and your target audience. 

If you’re a beauty brand, for example, and you are creating educational videos about how to grow a garden, you’re missing the mark. 

The content you create should be specifically relevant to your brand, your niche, and your target audience. If you are a beauty brand, people will come to you for beauty advice, so that’s what you should offer them. 

You also want to make sure your educational content is geared toward the right audience. If you are a beauty brand that sells makeup for women over 40, but you make content that has a more youthful air to it and targets Gen Z, then you will confuse your customers and likely lose their interest. 

So do your research and make sure the content you are creating is relevant to your market and your niche. You can start by asking questions that help you get to know your target audience better, such as “what are their pain points?” and “what are their needs?”  

Give Your Content Personality

This is part of being authentic. Consumers today want to relate to the brands they support. They genuinely want to know who your brand is and what you stand for to see if it aligns with their own personality and ideals. 

So, don’t be afraid to let your brand’s personality shine through in your content. For example, if your brand tone is a bit more fun and carefree, make sure that comes through in your content. Consumers love to see brands letting loose and having a sense of humor. 

However, just make sure you keep your voice and tone fairly consistent. If you create informative content that is of a formal tone one day and content that is more humorous another day, it can leave your consumers confused about what to expect from you. 

So decide upfront how you want to come across to your consumers and stick with that tone throughout most of your content. 

Variety is Important

To hold interest and keep engagement high, make sure you provide a variety of different types of educational content. If you do the same thing over and over again, it can start to feel dull and monotonous, and you will certainly lose interest. 

There are numerous channels for providing educational content, such as social media, your website, blogs, email newsletters, video lessons, and even online courses. One day you can create a tutorial video on Tiktok. The next day you can post a how-to blog on your website, and then you can use Instagram Live to host a Q&A. 

The key is to keep your consumers on their toes and constantly provide them with something new or unexpected. Keep in line with your voice, tone, and relevant messaging, but don’t just give them the same type of content over and over again. Shake things up. 

Final Thoughts

The best brands are the ones that don’t just create content that focuses on their products or services but provides content that is genuinely useful and informative. Consumers already know that they like your products, but if you go above and beyond to offer them additional value by teaching them something, they will love your brand even more.