Content to Commerce: Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

Content commerce has had such a significant impact on the advertising industry that we want to give you the main point up front: using commerce content within your marketing strategy will, without a doubt, drastically increase conversions, build a more organic connection with your audience, and get your brand the growth you’ve been looking for.

No, it’s not some new gimmicky marketing tactic. Trust us when we say your subscribers want content commerce. (Well, sort of.) What they really want is:

• Authentic recommendations for products that can improve their lives

• A trusted source of relevant information, entertainment, and education

• A straight-to-the-point shopping experience

• Branding they can relate to

Content commerce is the key to all of this. Here, we’ll get into exactly what content commerce is, and how you can use content commerce to elevate your marketing strategy to the next level.

What Is Content Commerce?

Think about how much you hate sitting through TV advertisements. People don’t want to be coerced into buying things, and more importantly, nobody wants to be “talked at.” Nowadays, we just shut out blatant advertising. We exit the window, mute the TV, or even pay extra just to avoid ad exposure.

Now, think about how much you enjoy reading an article that makes you laugh, or about the five best items to make you better at your favorite hobby, or what to avoid when shopping for a specific type of product.

That’s content commerce. Put plainly, content commerce is online media, like an article, newsletter, video, or social media post, that drives informed e-commerce sales while providing a reader with a valuable experience.

The key to connecting with your audience is through trust. And how do you get your audience to trust you? You build trust by enhancing their lives. That means creating content that provides value–for example, through heartwarming stories, thoughtfully sourced information, tips, relatability, and a seamless user experience.

Retailers can create their own content, similar to how Hodinkee produces watch-related articles that lead readers to their shop. Or, publishers can monetize their content by embedding products into articles. You’ve likely seen this on a site like CNN Underscored, which facilitates a seamless buying experience within their product reviews.

There’s something about telling a story that opens a reader up in such a way that they are willingly participating in the e-commerce experience. Through content, you inspire them to take action, and provide an easy avenue to do so.

Plus, writing an article is much more cost-effective than running a digital ad campaign!

Content Commerce Benefits

The main benefits of using content commerce in your marketing strategy include:

1. Digital advertising is expensive. Content commerce is not.

2. You create an organic, mutually beneficial relationship with your subscribers, leading to trust and dedication.

3. It makes the shopping experience much more simple than typical content marketing.

4. Your content becomes a revenue stream instead of an overhead cost.

5. Some studies show that 60 to 80 percent of online shoppers abandon their shopping cart with items in it because of doubt. The better you inform your reader, the more likely they will complete their purchase.

Content Commerce: What Are Affiliate Marketing and Native Checkout?

Before getting into the “how,” there are a few things you should know first.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when a publisher provides outbound links or discount codes to facilitate the buying process for a site visitor. Affiliate links lead a customer to another website to make their purchase. Typically, the publisher earns a small commission for each purchase made through links on their site.

Affiliate marketing is not frictionless, as it increases the number of clicks required to convert a reader to a customer.

What is Native Checkout?

Native checkout is a cutting-edge content commerce strategy that embeds shoppable content features, like an integrated checkout module with a “Buy Now” button.

Native checkout features make the shopping experience more convenient, resulting in higher conversion rates that you’d be proud of.

Both affiliate marketing and native checkout are considered content commerce, but native checkout is the more advanced strategy, and one you should be integrating into your marketing strategy right now.

Content Commerce Strategies

Here are a few ways you can implement content commerce into your marketing strategy today:

Educational entertainment (a.k.a. “edutainment”) is content designed to inform and entertain your readers. With so many products flooding the market, consumers do their own research, and crafting helpful edutainment content will do double work: first, by bringing in new top-of-funnel consumers looking for relevant product endorsements, and second, by establishing yourself as a trusted source of recommendations with your existing readers.

Write long-form guides that provide tips, insider knowledge, and comments from industry experts. Or, create a video or podcast that accomplishes the same thing.

Lookbooks are product image galleries filled with inspiration for visual aesthetics, like fashion or home design. They are easy to click through, they satisfy your reader with a visual depiction of desired products, and can show a product within a relevant context.

Email marketing is an extremely lucrative strategy for content commerce. It accomplishes a number of marketing goals, like mass communication, promotion of new campaigns or sales, and personalized touchpoints. It’s also great for tracking customer behavior or soliciting feedback.

Be sure to personalize your outreach. Create audience segments based on what your customers have engaged with in the past and only send them relevant content. This will increase your click-through rate and decrease unsubscribes and spam reports. You can also set up abandoned cart emails, a re-engagement series, or welcome your newest subscribers.

Growth-focused newsletter platforms like beehiiv make setting up these email strategies so simple! beehiiv provides a sleek, flexible content editor to create customized newsletters, a simple-yet-expansive toolkit to monetize your subscribers, and advanced analytics for segmentation, attribution, and ultimately understanding your subscribers at the deepest level.

Using Content Commerce in Email Newsletters

Now that you know the benefits of content commerce and how it can elevate your marketing strategy, the next step is integrating it into your email strategy. We all know an expertly-designed newsletter is the key to building a fanbase. Here are a few ideas to get started with your own content-commerce-focused newsletter.

Providing Expert Advice to Help Your Reader Decide What to Buy

Shoppers are often in the middle of making a decision and doing their own research. Help get them to the next step by providing the information they need in a linked video or blog post.

Newsletters are an amazing way to demonstrate your expertise. Provide relevant advice in the email itself and then link to your website.

Motivate With Visual Product Inspiration

Getting your subscriber to visualize how they will use your product will massively motivate them to make a purchase. Show an image of one or more of your products matched together, like a cute summer outfit or a well-designed living room.

Creating curated recommendations will inspire your readers and generate excitement for your products! This is where personalization works best, so don’t shy away from using your analytics to segment your list and send the perfectly individualized outreach.

Use Those Positive Reviews

Social proof drives sales. How often do you click down to read the reviews for items on Amazon? Take your best reviews and show them off next to a product and a “Shop Now” button. You’ll see conversion go up because you’re showing evidence that your products are worth their money.

Get Started With Commerce Content

There are so many platforms out there to help you build an awesome newsletter–like the examples you see above!

For example, beehiiv’s newsletter platform collects analytics to show what your subscribers really want. You can create stunning designs, segment your lists, and the platform has a proven program to get recommendations. You can automate incentives to readers who refer your newsletter to other interested subscribers, and this will grow your list even faster.

One of the best ways to use content commerce to boost your conversion rate is to get started with beehiiv.