Shopify is the premier platform to start a business on, especially if you are a small business selling tangible products. Thanks to its click-and-drag website builder, this platform allows you to create your online storefront easily. Shopify also offers 24/7 technical support to make sure that you, as store owners, get the most out of your Shopify stores.
However, the true secret behind the success of most Shopify stores lies in branded content. Branded content allows you to appeal to your customers' emotions, subtly pushing them toward your brand. This article will explain how and why branded content will be the secret weapon you need for success.
What is branded content?
Branded content is a new term, so it can be difficult to pin down what it entails. In layman’s terms, branded content is a new term, and it can be difficult to pin down what it entails. Branded content requires good storytelling to weave a consistent narrative that will inspire your customers every time they think of your brand.
Branded content differs a great deal from conventional marketing. For starters, conventional marketing focuses on the products or the services your firm provides, with the explicit goal of pushing them into purchasing these products. Conventional marketing strategies can also be quite invasive, as they force consumers to consume them, which can cause a backlash. Branded content is much less invasive, as customers consume them voluntarily.
Why choose branded content?
Marketing has outgrown its rather invasive past, and modern marketing practices focus more on the values that the brand pursues and represents instead. Below are some of the most prominent advantages of branded content, which have made them all the more appealing to modern brands.
It is less invasive
Invasive marketing practices can have an adverse effect on the customers, and some might even end up hating the brand due to their incessant exposure to the brand’s products. With branded content, you can avoid this effect altogether. Branded content is much less invasive than conventional content, and your customers are much more likely to appreciate this kind of content.
It appeals to emotions
Branded content evokes certain emotions and feelings inside customers, which they will associate with the brand itself. People might forget about products or services over time, but it is much harder for them to forget about a certain emotion or a feeling, which means that they will remember your brand for a longer period of time. The piece of branded content written by the best paper writing service will certainly leave a lasting impression on potential customers. The main thing is don’t be afraid to experiment and then you can get results that will surprise not only you but also your audience.
It helps your brand evolve
Brand storytelling is an important aspect of every business, and branded content is a particularly good way to tell a story. With branded content, you will find it much easier to create a positive association with your brand, making it much more effective than lifeless slogans.
It fosters a sense of loyalty
Branded content can help you create a sense of loyalty from your potential customers. They can identify themselves with the values your brand promotes, which helps it to resonate with them even more. If a customer is loyal to your brand, they are much more likely to support your future launches and much less likely to buy from your competitors.
Branded content on Shopify
For businesses using Shopify storefronts, branded content is the new future of content marketing. This is because small businesses often do not have a lot of budgets for mass marketing campaigns, often relying on word-of-mouth marketing instead. With branded content, more people will know about your brand, which means they are much more likely to buy the products or services you offer.
When it comes to branded content on Shopify, you can employ plenty of different content formats to improve your brand awareness. Some of the most useful and successful content formats are:
- Influencer marketing
- Meme content
- Educational content and courses
- Sustainability content
Influencer marketing
Never underestimate the power of influencer marketing strategies in the digital age! Influencers are celebrities with immense persuasive powers over a group of like-minded people. Modern influencers do not necessarily have to be immensely popular celebrities, as some of them can be normal people with expertise on a certain subject matter.
Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy in which you will pay influencers to promote your brand as well as your products, helping to reach thousands of followers. Influencer marketing comes in many different sub-formats, each with its own set of benefits. For instance, influencers can post a tutorial on how to use your products, or they can simply post a review on that product.
Influencer marketing is not just a great way to promote your products, but it can also help you boost your branding. People are drawn to influencers because of the values they radiate, so if they also happen to promote your products, their followers will attribute these positive values to the products themselves as well.
Meme content
Young social media users are getting more and more numerous. They have a clear preference for meme content as well as video content. This is because these kinds of content are readily digestible, and they are much funnier than your average conventional content. Plus, meme content is not long, so your customers will not have to spend a lot of time reading a piece of information.
It should be noted that this strategy can backfire if you use “dead” memes (memes that are no longer popular). To make sure that you are using the right meme, it would be good to browse through social media posts first and see what kinds of memes are getting popular among young users.
Educational content
Social media users want more out of your brand than just promotional posts. More and more are demanding helpful and educational content on social media. If you provide this sort of content to them, it will certainly be a huge boost to your visibility as well as value. The educational content on social media features many different kinds of posts that you can employ. For example, you can post tips as well as facts on your social media page. People are much more likely to be engaged with these kinds of posts.
Sustainability content
Sustainability is the new fad in town, and it has quickly become the new norm for many brands. People support brands with a clear track record of sustainability or a strong commitment to new changes. Using this kind of content is a good way to boost customers’ perception of your brand, and it will also attract more potential customers on social media networks. If your brand supports sustainable values, don’t hesitate to show off your commitments on social media networks!
How to create the best branded content for your Shopify store
The first thing you need to prepare for when creating branded content is to get rid of your conventional marketing mindset. Branded content requires real values, which means that you have to think outside of the box and dig deeper for the real values of your brand. Below are some steps to help you create a great piece of branded content.
Put the customers above the products
Branded content is not supposed to promote the products but the brand itself. For this reason, you should focus on the customers’ needs. Write something that will be useful to them or something that will evoke positive emotions inside of them. This will make your branded content more impressive and less invasive.
Write long and thorough content pieces
Conventional marketing practices might scoff at long pieces, but they are actually the staple of branded content. As branded content pieces focus on the brand's values, they need to be well-researched and well-informed. Writing a branded content piece without prior research can lead to catastrophic consequences: Your followers might think that you are pushing empty promises, leading to severe backlashes.
Be careful with keywords
SEO keywords have long been extra important in the world of digital marketing, but when it comes to branded content, you should make sure not to inundate your audience with keywords. Add keywords sparingly to the article, and use only relevant keywords for the best effects. If you use too many keywords in one piece of content, you run the risk of writing “commodity content”, which is a piece of content that contributes very little to the readers’ knowledge.
Set up metrics to measure the ROI
Even when creating branded content pieces, it is still important to set up metrics and KPIs to measure how successful or how underperforming the content pieces actually are. There are plenty of different metrics that can help you with this task: Engagements, conversion rates, traffic, etc. The key is to identify the most important metric and measure it throughout a marketing campaign. If something is not working as it should, make changes to your plan immediately.
Final thoughts
Branded content is expected to become the new norm in content marketing in the years to come. Tech-savvy consumers are moving away from commodity content, as it provides very little for them, and they are engaging with posts that have intrinsic values which resonate with them. If your Shopify store can capitalize on this new shift in content marketing, you will soon find a new influx of customers interested in your products. The key here is to provide what your potential customers need and to align your brand to the values that they hold dear.
