Entrepreneur, Steve Forbes' co-author, Sasha manages Catapult Revenue, an award-winning team that helps eCommerce companies grow sales.
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Most business-to-business e-commerce stores face a similar challenge: how to attract more customers, differentiate, build a loyal customer base and substantially grow revenue all while selling products similar or identical to their competitors’.
The solution to this problem is obvious: content marketing. However, most B2B merchants fail to recognize its enormous potential — thinking that content marketing is only for business-to-consumer companies — and make major mistakes that I’ve seen can result in the loss of millions or tens of millions of dollars in unrealized revenue.
As the chief growth officer of a company that specializes in helping e-commerce companies increase sales, I’ve seen that many of today’s successful merchants went from little traffic to skyrocketing sales by deploying a targeted content strategy that attracted more customers, maximized average order value and created customer loyalty.
So, here are the five common mistakes many B2B e-commerce merchants make when it comes to content and how to remedy them:
Solely Relying On Pay-Per-Click And Organic Growth In Lieu Of Content Marketing
Relying solely on pay-per-click and organic growth to increase revenue is expensive and slow. While a robust PPC campaign is a natural part of your overall marketing strategy, it should never be favored over a solid content marketing campaign.
Here’s why: PPC is finite. The moment you suspend your PPC campaign, the pipeline it created ends along with it. Content (i.e., product descriptions, blogs, videos, etc.), on the other hand, lasts forever.
The solution: Implement a content strategy, and if, due to limited resources, you are only able to focus on producing one type of content, my advice is to start by creating unique product descriptions optimized for search and selling.
Copy-And-Paste Product Descriptions
Copy and paste is your enemy, particularly when it comes to product descriptions. While it might seem daunting to draft all-new, unique descriptions for every product, it is not only necessary, but it also is the most valuable content investment you can make.
If you copy and paste product descriptions from your manufacturer or distributor and 60 other stores that carry the same products copy and paste as well, Google won’t differentiate your store from your competitors’ and will penalize all for a lack of original content. But if you produce unique and optimized product descriptions, you can earn more traffic and, therefore, sales.
Consider investing in a copywriter whose sole job is to write unique, comprehensive product descriptions for all of your products. You may allocate $50,000-$60,000 per year and reap significantly more revenue in return.
Using Email For Transactions And Newsletters Only
Email is a powerful content marketing tool, and when done right, it can help grow your customer base and revenue. Yet, many e-commerce brands rely on emails solely for transactional purposes, such as order confirmation and delivery status updates, or to blast out newsletters that customers will never read. Immeasurable fortunes are lost here. For example, just consider that according to the Data and Marketing Association, every 1 pound (or just over one dollar) spent on email marketing will yield an average return of about 42 pounds (or about $53).
To leverage email effectively, start by deploying a creative shopping cart abandonment sequence consisting of three to five emails. The other types of email campaigns that I’ve found can deliver massive results require simple segmentation of your list into three buckets:
• Interested prospects: This includes those who have not bought but provided contact information. Get them engaged through promotions and teach them about the advantages of doing business with you.
• Engaged customers: These are the people who have bought from you within the past six months. Send them a welcome email once they buy, and continue sending communications that add value to their work and life.
• Disengaged customers: These are your former customers. Regularly share email promotions and information that adds value to them. The goal is to get them re-engaged.
The Wrong Type Of Blogging
Many B2B merchants either don’t blog or, if they do, blog about themselves, something their customers are not remotely interested in.
Yet, blogging on the topics that are of interest to your audience can kill more than one bird with one stone: It can attract traffic, convert it into customers and increase customer loyalty.
So, add value to your prospective customers’ lives by focusing on service-oriented blogs. These can include “how-to” lists, product or service comparisons and “top 10” lists, to name a few.
If you don’t have the resources to regularly blog, you can consider hiring a marketing agency that will dedicate one or two writers who will work as an extension of your team, learn your customers’ needs and interests and focus on generating a return on your investment into their work.
Not Producing Product Demos And Product Comparison Videos
We discussed the importance of product descriptions above, but a part of a comprehensive description should also include videos.
Absent the ability to touch the product physically, product demo videos are the next best thing to bringing a tangible experience to your online customers.
In addition to demos, create product comparison videos. These can be simple “pros and cons” videos that walk customers through the key points of similar products. It will help address objections and facilitate sales. And, with advancements in technology, you can build a studio for a relatively affordable price.
In Short
Creating an ongoing stream of quality content is not easy. It certainly requires an investment of time and money. But it is a critical investment in your online business and one that yields excellent ROI and stimulates long-term growth.
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