Budget and how you target ads are two of the top interests of an entrepreneur. After all, you want to make sure you’re investing wisely, not wasting your money.
You want to broadcast your content to the audience most interested and ready to buy.
But what kind of content are you broadcasting? How much attention do you pay to it?
When the content part falls in second place, you put yourself in a bind. There are n sites that promote themselves with filler content, to be there for Google or because best practices say so.
So, today I want to talk a little bit about content that inspires a desire for action in those who consume it. Get them to buy, subscribe, follow you, recommend you and return to you without hesitation.
Ready?
Contents How to create content that sells
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- Sources of inspiration for your content
- Documentation: from product to brand
- The purpose for which you create content
- Texts for your online store
- Images for your online shop [Checklist]
- Video content for your online shop
1. Sources of inspiration for your content
Before you actually start creating your content or hand it over to someone else, you need to prepare a file with the sources of inspiration for your content.
You have to start somewhere, right?
This file, which you update every time you have new info, is the foundation of your content and further dictates how it will look, tailoring the data to the target and the impact it will have.
Okay. Let’s see what the potential sources of inspiration for your content are.
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- Your audience
- Macromedia
- Your products / services
- Your personal stories
- Brand values
- Friends and acquaintances
- Possible situations
- Needs
- Behavioral patterns
- Events and seasons
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Once you establish your sources, you’ll need to document each one so that you can consolidate your starting point and build your content from the ground up.
Read also: The only 5 types of blog posts worth writing (and how to do them perfectly the first time)
2. Documentation: from product to brand
Always start with research, whether it’s a single article or an entire content marketing strategy.
Why are you doing the documentation? First you determine the sources you are documenting from and the basics to document.
This process helps you to easily identify topics to create on, avoid talking about exactly the same thing and in exactly the same way as your competitors, and make sure the impact of your content is strong.
There are a few standard, mandatory elements regardless of the purpose for which you start a documentation process: audience, product/service and macro objective of the purpose (e.g. if you make an article, what is its objective? But if you make a campaign including the article, what is its final objective?)
Audience documentation
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- Buyer persona
- Google Analytics
- Customer questionnaire
- Customer interviews
- Sitting in the client’s shoes: based on the signals and information gathered so far, you think about what the client would like, how they would feel, how they feel now, what’s important to them.
- Product
- Specifications
- Features
- Benefits
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What more can you add?
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- extra services?
- partnerships?
- experience unpacking or using?
- authority?
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Documenting competition
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- You need to know what Georgica the Competitor is doing, lest you do the same, or at the same time.
- A percentage of the content might be similar or posted at the same time: it depends on the macromedium and behavioral pattern: you’re not going to start promoting your sanitions in the middle of July, just because the competitor isn’t promoting his then.
- From his customers you can find out what they need that no one else offers.
- You can find gaps: of SEO, of types of content posted and promoted, of channels you don’t use or topics you don’t write about.
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Documentation of the macro environment
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- Watch out for events: Sales volume increases or decreases according to days, occasions, habits.
- Watch the context: not everything can be used in marketing – tragedies, risqué personalities, even a hint of sexism, racism or other stuff that ends with sm (have you noticed? BIG care on Social Media)
- Keep in mind the international days that suit your business
- Seasonality and trends: make sure you don’t speak too late after the wave has already passed.
- The way your brand is now perceived. It matters, because it dictates what you can do next, the topics you address for your audience now, etc.
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After the documentary you realize
– for whom you make content
– what do you want to get that man to do and
– what can persuade him
Tips for the documentation process
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- Read newspapers, watch TV (for news and commercials), subscribe to newsletters with summaries such as the news of the day, constantly follow the news pages in your field. You need to be in the know.
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I could never recommend that you play safe, or just play safe. But without knowledge updated to today’s reality, you can’t stay relevant.
Question your audience:
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- questionnaires on site
- you can even ask them what they would like to read or see on your website
- social media surveys and groups
- email forms (after purchase, for example)
- competition (e.g. to answer a few questions in order to win a voucher or enter a prize draw)
- track pages with a high volume of website traffic (with Google Analytics) and create content on those topics.
- track your users’ comments and questions – from live chat discussions, internal site searches, social media comments (including from competitors), messenger questions, etc.
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Also read: Business plan, from A to Z. How to start a business without making mistakes
3. The purpose for which you create content
What do you want to make and post content for? For each objective, there are appropriate forms of content and types of audience approach. Here are just a few of the macro goals:
Want more visibility? Use:
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- short videos
- social media posts
- blog posts
- press releases
- advertorial
- paid advertisements
- recommendations
- thank you letters / mini recommendation requests
- posters
- blog campaigns / influencers
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Do you want to attract people to give you contact details or join your list? Use:
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- all of the above +
- guides
- ebooks
- discount or benefit campaigns
- landing page
- pop-ups
- hellobar
- Facebook group
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Want to sell them products or services? Use:
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- case studies
- testimonials
- USP + one-off benefits
- customer communication policy [ghidul pentru angajati]
- automatism: product recommendations, bundle, cross-sell, upsell, follow-up
- limited time discounts
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Read also: SMART goals: how to set them to achieve a successful business
4. Texts for your online shop
We start with the text part because you need texts including for images and videos (subtitles, scripts, etc.).
Basically, these are the texts you need for the shop:
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- product description
- banners + text for banners
- about us pages, contact, terms and conditions, privacy policy, how to buy, how to pay, delivery, how to return etc.
- product images (infographics or images with explanatory text)
- product videos (subtitles, videos without sound, with explanatory text only)
- testimonials
- company blog articles
- order confirmation page
- thank you letter
- commercial and transactional emails
- Newsletter
- text advertisement
- texts social media posts
- landing page
- guides
- interviews
- microcopy – text on packaging, parcels etc.
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Each of these text types has a specific type of structure, which is relatively easy to find if you do a little research online.
And if you’ve gone through the whole process so far (sources + documentation + goal setting) it will be easy to find the right approach so that you get the desired action.
Here are some formulas you can use in absolutely any form of text for your shop:
1. Bridge forward/backward – show the world as it is with the problem – what it can look like – what is the bridge (your solution)
Ex. Are you tired of waking up in the morning more tired than you fell asleep? Get your X mattress for dreamless sleep and energised mornings.
2. Functionality-advantages-benefits
Ex. It has 21 cm, of which a 5 cm layer is memory foam, with 7 comfort zones, hypoallergenic and anti-static effect. So far, it has only 5-star reviews and no complaints. It will help you have a restful sleep, and get rid of back pain that affects your concentration. Here’s to mornings you look forward to and a better life. Do you want the X mattress too? Order here: link.
3. Problem – problem shaking – solution (bad – worse – good)
Ex. Do you sleep like a baby – that is, do you wake up every hour, and you just keep crying? Are your backaches killing you in bed and you dread the thought of another nightmare night? The X mattress makes your sleep sweet, no matter what position you turn over for the night. Order now for only x lei + benefits.
4. AIDA (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action)
Ex. Bed no longer your best friend? We’ll help you sleep better and get rid of the back pain that ages you by days. The X mattress will last you a lifetime because it doesn’t warp over time + you get a 15 year guarantee and X as a gift from us. Offer valid until… Order here: link.
5. Hero’s Journeyi
Ex. What young man cares too much where and how he sleeps? I still remember the evenings when we landed on the dorm bed mattress, full of bumps and broken springs. I didn’t care then, but bad sleep came to mean back pain and a continual state of discontent.
I realized late in life that a restful sleep and a good mattress can work wonders. And since the baby came along, the way we sleep has risen to the top of our family’s importance. That’s why we opened the X store, where we carry only x, y, z mattresses. If you too want a peaceful sleep, want to get rid of lower back pain or are looking for the right mattress for your baby, we welcome you for a free mattress consultation. Book here:
Also read: Mega Guide – Blogging and Selling Online: +250 Blog Ideas and Tips for Beginners
5. Images for your online shop [Checklist]
General optimization ideas for images
◯ Images to be relevant for the pages where they are published.
◯ Important / main images to be displayed at the top of the screen.
◯ Images to have a the purpose for which they are used in those pages.
◯ Don’t add important text to images, display next to it.
◯ Usesti Large, clear images with relevant naming.
◯ Discounts image size, so as not to affect loading speed.
◯ Use original imageswithout infringing copyright.
◯ Avoid stock images.
◯ Uses infographics in descriptions and articles for easier viewing of content.
◯ Main point of interest of any product photograph must be product itself, not the background.
◯ Use product images in contextwhile it is being used or worn – customers can more easily tell what the actual dimensions are.
◯ Use images to put customer testimonials/reviews in context: customer photo, photo of the product they mention in the review or images received from them.
◯ Include as many angles and product details in pictures.
◯ What to find in banners:
▢ Main message – Title and/or subtitle (if needed). What is more important should be written larger.
▢ Composite image in an editing program with your products or photo of the product in use
▢ Call-to-action – indicated to be in the form of a button
▢ Negative spaces – the banner should not be extremely busy, each component element should be clearly visible
◯ List of sites where you can get free images to make your banners:
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- Remove.bg – to remove background from images
◯ Text on the banner:
▢ To be short
▢ If longer, break text into title and subtitle
▢ To tell the man clearly what Benefits earn from yourself
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- Bring out the benefits: either annotate them with text or represent them graphically framed differently from the other elements in the banner.
- Benefits can be generated by the nature of the products (e.g. what they do for the customer) or may be something extrathat you offer as a business (e.g. a discount, a package, packaging service, special packaging, advice on product choice, demo etc.).
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▢ Sa not be an abstract slogan, that only you understand
▢ To let customers know who the shop is for
◯ Make sure link the banner to a representative page, with a link, it’s not displayed on the site just for decoration. The same applies when you post on social media, accompany banners with a link to the repeating pages (possibly shortened with bitly).
◯ Update banners when you have a new campaign, don’t always leave the same banner.
Read also: Best practices for Product images in your online store: size & layout
6. Video content for your online shop
I posted a dedicated article not long ago with the recommended structure for your videos. You can read it here: Why your sales videos suck (and how to make them work)
What types of videos impact sales?
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- Video testimonials / case studies
- Product demo / product presentation videos
- How-to videos – tutorial, answers to frequently asked questions
- Storytelling – the owner’s story, what a day in the office looks like, how to package products, brand values, etc.
- Animated videos for company/product benefits and storytelling
- Educational content – tips, ideas, benchmarking, tips after purchase
- Humorous videos – stereotypes and funny niche situations, role play
- Interviews and public appearances – you can do video interviews (including live) with experts in your niche, publish interviews with yourself, interviews from events.
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Mini-Bridges for your video content
◯ Test short video content on Reels, Story, TikToks, YouTube Shorts – is one of the most consumed forms of content today.
◯ Use emotional hooks to keep consumers’ attention on video: power (show why you are a leader in your niche or build on your expertise), prestige (increases respect e.g. luxury brands), mister (arouses curiosity), passion (attracts by emotion), alarm (creates a sense of urgent need), rebellion (game changer), trust (appeals to a sense of loyalty).
◯ Example of integrating video content into sales funnel:
Cold Audiences
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- Educational content Demonstrate your knowledge in your area
- Animation Use them to explain complex problems in an easy to understand way
- Content from partners / experts For the information of the audience
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Hot Audiences
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- Demo product Show products and how to use them
- Video testimonials Covers potential objections the client may have
- Storytelling firm State your values and mission
- Webinar More in-depth presentation of products / services
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Hot Audiences
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- Videos how to Explains the benefits of purchasing and how to use the product
- Educational videos Factors to consider when buying
- Live offer Product launch, new offer launch, extra benefits etc.
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◯ Promote your videos, don’t keep them hidden on the site: Google Ads for YouTube, Facebook Ads, publishing on partner sites, native social media posts, etc.
You already have access to multiple formulas for creating content that sells for your store.
The important thing is to have your starting points well established: sources, documentation and objectives. You need them, whether you make your content on your own or collaborate with someone, have an employee or outsource to an agency.
So from now on I’ll just wish you luck with your work. Keep in mind the advice I gave you today and don’t forget to look at your content as a whole, integrated into your store’s growth strategy.
PS. See unosoft features that ease your efforts and save time, including on the content side: Blog, transactional email blades, page builder, popup blades etc.
You get 15 free demo days, in which you build your online store step by step. And subscriptions? Start at 7 euros per month, plus exclusive online payment and delivery services. Start today!
