The success of an ecommerce site involves many of the same things which bring success for any type of website. And it all begins with attracting traffic to the site.
Sacramento web designer and SEO company Peak Design say the two most common ways of doing this are optimizing content for SEO and marketing far and wide. In time, this draws traffic to the site and starts the process of creating brand identification and, ultimately, customer loyalty.
However, this is not the only way in which ecommerce sites become better known and more popular. A third option that every ecommerce site should at least consider is to create content for the website which is the independent of the products themselves and will attract visitors who might have no intention of buying anything at all.
Or rather, it would perhaps be better to say that it attracts those with no initial intention of buying anything. A visitor who comes often enough will very likely turn into a customer before long. But what type of content is this?
Well, most often, it is a blog. There are now more ecommerce sites with blogs than those without them. And it is no wonder as blogging certainly has great advantages for ecommerce sites. Products can be promoted, brands can be reinforced, and all the while great content can be offered which has an appeal independent of the products and thereby draws traffic to the site.
Nevertheless, there is another option too, one that entails a little more work but has a range of unique advantages for ecommerce sites – podcasts.
Podcasts for Ecommerce
Due to the greater degree of effort and investment needed, podcasts are normally started once an ecommerce site starts seeing some success. Nonetheless, if you do start a podcast for your ecommerce site, it is a great sign that things are moving in the right direction. It’s a diversification of what you offer, and that, in and of itself, is very attractive to potential customers.
But what does an ecommerce podcast look like (or sound like!)? Well, naturally they should feature the brand of the company and reinforce brand identification. However, it’s also important that they offer quite a bit beyond this, that they cover interesting topics and that they host interesting guests.
The topics can be related to the products of course, but things like product guides and how-to’s are not really suitable for podcasts. This is because a visitor looking for product information or tutorials can browse a blog for this information. It is more difficult to do this with a podcast – because it’s audio.
Nevertheless, you could gain a hefty following for your site on the strength of your podcast alone.
Ecommerce Podcasting Tips
Include Intros and Outros
Short intros and outros for podcasts, which usually include a jingle, can be excellent for reinforcing brand identification. Users might come for the podcasts, but they’ll be introduced to each one with your company name and a catchy tune.
Involve Guests Who Use Your Products
This isn’t the same thing as having guests who are merely there to give testimonials, but if the guests have some relation to your products, then this will be ultimately very good for sales.
Create a Podcast Team
If things start going really well, you could hire a specialized podcast team to manage the podcast while you focus on running the business. This will make the podcast more independent too and give visitors a whole new reason to check out your brand.
Podcasting for ecommerce does take more work but, if you pull it off, it’s well worth it.
