As a creative marketing studio, Destin Whales gets asked lots of questions from clients about how they should strategize their online presence. We believe in makings waves through a DIY mindset by using strong communication and collaboration. More than any other questions we are asked, these 7 come up most often. Luckily for you, we have the answers to help your e-commerce space succeed.
What is “pillar content” and how can we use it effectively?
Your long-form content comes first. Use wide, loose shots to create versatility in your content. This allows you to then break down those shots into multiple pieces of microcontent.
We used a one day shoot with Crossrope to create months of content for their social media platforms. (You can check out a case study on that project right here https://destinwhales.com/case-study-05-workout-anywhere/ )
You can use this technique with multiple kinds of content as well. Instead of a video shoot, we took an hour-long YouTube video from Array Digital and then broke that down into more than 50 pieces of microcontent. (You can view what we did with Array Digital here https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kj6rccwt4ggllh/ArrayDigital-Trends2020-Campaign-PRD.pdf?dl=0 )
We discovered this concept through Gary Vaynerchuk who pioneered this model.
If you would like to learn more from the master himself, we would suggest checking out https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/how-to-create-64-pieces-of-content-in-a-day/ where he goes over in detail how to employ this method.
I feel like our content is not as fresh as I would like it…How would I go about fixing that?
Our philosophy here at Destin Whales revolves around the ideas of macro monthly and seasonal content.
Your macro monthly content should come from a year to year comparison by figuring out what is working for you and what is not. Through our creative content audit ( https://destinwhales.com/creative-content-audit/ ) we can help you figure out what works for your e-commerce business. This will also allow Destin Whales to understand your brand, vision, and the message that you are trying to communicate. Through the audit, we will also take a look at your competitors to help you figure out how to get a leg up on the others within your market space.
We will then be able to layout a month of content for you from pillar content to microcontent. This audit service is even provided for no additional cost for any first-time retainer clientele.
Your seasonal content, on the other hand, will revolve around product launches, holidays, or special partnerships that your business has. Our strategy behind seasonal campaigns is a 2 round review wave.
In round one, Destin Whales will come up with conceptual ideas in a document that will lay out all of the campaign assets for all of your different platforms. You will then get the chance to look over those as you meet with your marketing team and/or media partners as you will then send them back to us with your feedback. We will edit and revise the assets and then send them back to you for more feedback. At this point, as long as you are happy with the product we will then make any last requested tweaks before we prep them for publication. The final step is your digital campaign assets being delivered to you in a secure dropbox folder.
For those not interested in a retainer at this time, we can perform an audit as mentioned previously for any seasonal campaign or individual product for a one time fee of $750. If you would like more information on our audit process check out this page https://destinwhales.com/creative-content-audit/ of our website and sign up for an audit today.
What other concepts do you use to create marketing campaigns for e-commerce businesses?
We are firm believers in the ideas of Story Circle and ADUCATE. Story Circle or circular narrative is a concept heavily used by Dan Harmon and other writers. We take this concept and adapt it to digital marketing with an 8 step process.
- Zone of comfort: Your customer is in a zone of comfort.
- Need: Even though your customer is comfortable, they still need something.
- Go: This leads to your customer finding themselves in an unfamiliar situation.
- Search: Through storytelling, you help the customer.
- Find: You get the customer what they need.
- Take: This is the cost of getting the customer what they need.
- Return: The customer returns to their comfort zone.
- Changed: They are changed for the better from what they learned through your storytelling.
Now we have taken the liberty of adapting the story circle to our own needs but if you want more information on how Dan Harmon breaks down his Rick and Morty episodes you can check this out ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4WcRAgm7Y )
ADUCATE is Tom Breeze’s method for YouTube scripts and it is an acronym that stands for the following
- Aim: Speak to what the user wants
- Difficulty: What issue does the user face?
- Understand: Have empathy and connect with your user on an emotional level.
- Credibility: Show that your product can help the user face their problems and tackle them effectively.
- Action plan: Decide the steps that you need to take
- Teach: Put the plan into action.
- Exit: Call to action.
These concepts will entertain and delight your customer base and will lead to your brand receiving strong loyalty from those that have enjoyed your content.
Is email still important to my digital marketing strategy? I don’t feel like I have time for email newsletters…
Yes, email is still an epically important part of the e-commerce landscape. A strong email campaign can account for up to 30% of your monthly e-commerce growth.
We believe most emails can be broken into a few common design elements. Once you design and approve these templated elements you can quickly arrange and re-arrange using Adobe’s library to build custom emails with brand-appropriate designs. By using templates, you can cut your time spent on these down drastically, and you will be able to layout 3 months of emails into one creative overview.
From there you should also use an A/B testing process to figure out what stylistic elements (ie. hero image size, font, button esthetics, etc.) work best within the template. This process will allow you to create your emails in advance and then you can slowly release them over a 3 month period.
How do I know if my landing page is working for me? How can I make it work better for me?
The best way to measure whether your landing page is working for you is to use heat maps and click maps. These measure users’ engagement to really understand how a page is working. Often times we get lost on speculation about how a page will work but it’s always best to measure, watch, and react to the patterns of behavior.
Once you are using the heat maps and click maps, you can then use the A/B testing method again to see what landing page layout gives you the most interaction from your users. Once you have measured and tested your landing page, then you can figure out how to make it work better for you, and that all really comes down to having solid UI/UX design. We have previously talked about the importance of UI/UX design https://destinwhales.com/2020/01/12/ui-ux-designs/
Bring value to your user’s experience by using high-value photo/video content rather than stock images. Ensure your interface is user friendly by employing a modular approach and a responsive grid system design.
For more information on what Destin Whales can do for you in the areas of UI/UX go ahead and check out what we have done before. https://destinwhales.com/ui-ux/
Does my e-commerce website need a blog aspect to it?
Need, may be the wrong word here, but even an e-commerce site can benefit greatly from a well-curated blog. A blog can help you answer questions from your customers in a more appealing format than a simple FAQ page. While answering questions is useful, where the real value that comes into play here is in the search engine optimization.
By now, everyone has heard of SEO, and the value that comes through SEO is the words that are on your page. So, build your blog content with the idea of answering your customer’s questions while keeping in mind the words that you use. This does not mean just a bunch of keyword stuffing, because Google will not reward that.
Create posts that answer a customer’s question (preferably one that they would put into a Google search) that people will enjoy reading. This is where you will beat out your competition that just has the classic FAQ page because no one enjoys reading a FAQ page.
Using solid SEO techniques in your posts will result in google rewarding you in their search results which will lead to your site receiving more traffic. Once you have them on your website, you can get their email with a lead magnet, you can retarget them, or you could refer them to a product that solves the problem within their question.
Once you have them in your ecosystem, you can do a whole host of things that will keep them coming back, which will be beneficial to your business.
Should my social media marketing be paid or organic?
Both if you can afford it, so let’s dive into the paid social side of things. Today’s users are distracted, and their phones hover around every aspect of their lives. User patterns are shifting daily. The best way to increase your ROI on social ads is to iterate different cuts with a different intro to see how your audience is engaging with your new creative. Take a few small bets on multiple ad versions then see which one performs best before placing your bigger bet.
Most users scroll through their social accounts with their phones on mute or another form of audio playing. While music can make or break your ROAS, it’s equally as important to ensure the ad works without audio. Text overlays to deliver the ad’s key messages have a history of performing well with multiple clients.
The first 3 seconds of an ad is the most important. The goal is to grab a user’s attention immediately so they don’t just keep scrolling or hit that skip button. If you have not pulled the consumer into your product experience in the first 3 seconds, you have lost them, and they have moved onto the next. I find it important to note here that you should grab attention without misleading. If you mislead people, that will most likely be an instant turn off for your potential customer, and then they are lost forever.
The key to the organic side of social media marketing is consistency and cohesiveness. Ensure cohesion with all other creative touch points. Users will visit your organic social after viewing ads sometimes to confirm your credibility. It helps to deliver a similar message as to their ad experiences to build credibility and trust.
Tell a story and give the customer a reason to check back in with you. You can do this with a re-occurring content series. If someone knows you post about a topic every day of the week you can become a part of that day’s routine and create behavior patterns to build brand loyalty.
Ask questions and respond to the answers of the community. Social is about sharing not posting. Join the conversation on other people’s pages and find ways to authentically create conversations with your brand’s followers.
Utilize content from all other platforms. Organic social should be more about remixing content from the other more revenue-generating aspects of your creative marketing efforts. Leverage existing assets and re-purpose for organic social. Organic is a brand strategy rather than a sales strategy. Stay true to you, and engage often.
A lot of what makes up a great creative content strategy for e-commerce is going to boil down to what works for you and your brand’s audience. While these techniques and strategies can be useful, where you will truly find the best ROI will be integrating these concepts into your entire e-commerce ecosystem, and one way Destin Whales can help you with that is by helping you and your team create a social graph which will help you determine the best way to spread out your investment in your creative content. Stop by https://destinwhales.com/social-graph-3/ and sign up for your social graph today.
