Profitero’s new podcast series shares insights, strategies and key ecommerce trends impacting the CPG and retail sector. Hosted by Keith Anderson, VP of Strategies and Insights, Profitero tackles topics like “planning for ecommerce growth in CPG” and “the evolution of brands online.”
This week, Keith sat down with Mark White of content26 to discuss product content and how if effects search results. Here are takeaways from their talk.
Amazon and Pinterest are Search Engines with Their Own Rules
A big trend right now with retail-based product content is discoverability. More than half of the time, customers employ digital tools when doing initial research. That’s why Amazon should be viewed as both an ecommerce engine and a search engine. Most product searches don’t happen on Google, they happen on Amazon.
Optimize your content for discoverability on Amazon by properly using above-the-fold content, keywords, paid search, and enhanced content. Mark Write says:
“This You go to these places [Amazon, Pinterest, Walmart] for your initial search for the discovery of the product that you want. In order to get found within these sites, it’s essential that the basic content is optimized, it’s optimized just like you would in your website or any kind of consumer facing messaging, good SEO practices, keyword practices, some sponsored ad perhaps to drive traffic there.”
Ecommerce Content: Your 24/7 Sales Person
Ecommerce product page content is your brand ambassador, advocating products to your customers all-day, every day, nights, and weekends. Retail ecommerce is a major touch point of your customers’ buying journey. Mark White explains why you should invest in it:
“The product page is your 24/7 sales person you don’t have to pay benefits, overtime, vacations. It just sits there, with hundreds of thousands if not millions of impressions, and extends your brand messaging and your product messaging.”
Content Fueling the Flywheel Effect
Different types of product content serve different functions.
Basic, above-the-fold content with relevant keywords drives discoverability. Enhanced content drives interest, relevancy, and conversion. Paid search drives more eyeballs. Good reviews drive more sales.
All of these together help your product attain a top-3 position on the SERPs – retail SERPs, Bing SERPs, Google SERPs. Enter the flywheel effect. Your product is a top result — which means more eyeballs, which means more sales, which means a top search result fueled by content. Mark White gives an example:
“If you do a search for coffee beans on Amazon, it’s not until the fifth or sixth spot of the organic search results before you see a major national brand.
You have things like Karl Coffee, Killer Coffee brands until very recently that nobody had ever heard of, but they figured out how to manipulate some of these algorithms in terms of keywords, in terms of smart use of sponsored ads, in terms of content to get out there in that first, second or third slots.”
Why Amazon Search Is Not Google Search
Given the proximity to the actual purchase, searches on Amazon and other retailers tend to be more precise than those done on Google. Customers tend to search for “best electric lawn mower” on Google and “electric lawn mower cordless” on Amazon.
It’s best to ignore Amazon’s advice to take your Google AdWords strategy and apply it They want your money. Save your money and apply a more precise, retail-specific keyword strategy. Mark White explains:
“It’s really important that you apply very good SEO principles within Amazon that is separate from how you use it on Google and Bing. It just can take some time and effort to figure that out.”
Stick. Drive. Convert: The Short Version
There are three basic types of ecommerce content, each fulfilling their own purpose in the buying journey:
#1: Content that sticks: This is content that raises brand awareness and creates a stickiness factor in the consumer’s mind. Think: $166,000/second Super Bowl ads. Yeah, I want Doritos!
#2: Content that Drives. This content will take the consumer from brand awareness to a call to action, to a point of sales. Think: Paid search, email campaigns, coupons. Doritos Only 99 Cents!
#3: Content that Converts. This content builds confidence in the product. Think: Packaging, Product Detail Page. The snack you crave and love. Made with real stuff. Tastes like real Nacho Cheese. This is the real deal, exactly what you’re looking for.
You build a brand, you drive to the point of sale, and you convert: all with content. Mark White says:
“You want that product page to evolve and to change over the course of the year according to the marketing campaigns that you’re really pushing hard. You don’t treat that product page as just a static piece of content. It may change just prior to July 4th, it may change before back to school, it may change before the holiday season because you want it to reflect the brand and where your brand is going at that particular time.”
Click here to listen to the full podcast at Profitero’s website. Email us for help with your ecommerce content strategy.
