Need content marketing ideas to fuel your ecommerce business in July 2018? Consider being nice to New Jersey, introducing a little pandemonium, or focusing on customers and products.
Content marketing is the act of creating, producing, and distributing content with the express purpose of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers.
For many ecommerce companies, content is a good way to build long-term sales and success. Here are five ecommerce content marketing ideas for July 2018.
1. Be Nice to Jersey Week: July 3 to 9
Back in 1984, New Jersey was the most maligned state in the nation. Or at least that was what humorist and publisher Lauren Barnett believed when she first proposed “Be Nice to Jersey Week.”
It seems Barnett counted all of the state-related punch lines, wisecracks, and insults of the era and decided that the Garden State was mocked and made fun of more than any other place in the country.
She even suggested using the weeklong observance to call family, friends, and acquaintances residing in New Jersey and apologize for “picking on their state.”
Obscure and humorous holidays such as Be Nice to Jersey Week can be content marketing gold. You have at least two approaches. You can seriously try to be nice to New Jersey, or you can try to have some fun with the concept.
Let’s look at a few possible article or video titles if you take the serious approach. Each set of example titles is for a specific kind of retailer.
Luggage and travel product retailer:
- “Explore New Jersey’s 130 Miles of Atlantic Coastline This Weekend,”
- “11 Tips for Your Cape May Getaway,”
- “7 Reasons You’ll Fall in Love with Wildwoods, N.J.”
Apparel retailer:
- “New Jersey, the Next Beach Fashion Hotbed,”
- “10 Things New Jersey Can Teach You About Style,”
- “Street Looks from Jersey City.”
Classic (vinyl) record shop:
- “Bruce Springsteen Saved the World,”
- “Top 10 1980s Metal Bands from New Jersey,”
- “The 33 Bands that Prove New Jersey Is Amazing,”
If you’re more intrigued by the idea that New Jersey needs a weeklong ego boost (meaning you want to go for humor), you could try to suggest your own “Be Nice to [ ] Week.”
Fill in the blank with a topic that will be entertaining for your audience of customers. Here are a few possibilities.
- “Be Nice to Gwyneth Paltrow Week”
- “Be Nice to Your Food Week”
- “Be Nice to Your Annoying Neighbor Week”
- “Be Nice to South Korea Week”
- “Be Nice to Your Feet Week”
2. Pandemonium Day: July 14
Chaos, disorder, and spontaneity are some of the traits one celebrates on Pandemonium Day. Admittedly, the first couple of these — chaos and disorder — are generally bad. But that doesn’t mean you cannot use this obscure holiday in your content marketing.
You have a few options for articles, videos, or podcasts.
Simply describe the holiday and suggest Pandemonium Day activities. Go skydiving. Take a cooking class. Go on a random day trip. Or eat a banana dipped in garlic sauce.
Describe happy accidents that impacted the industry your store serves. For example, the image sensor that powers your mobile phone camera was just a memory cell that responded to light.
Focus on controlling the madness with articles or videos about organization, meditation, or even yoga.
3. Profile Customers
The son of a friend of mine was recently featured in the local newspaper. This friend, who would never otherwise buy a newspaper, purchased a stack. We should not be surprised. People love seeing themselves or folks like them. So give your audience of customers what they want.
Consider featuring some of your store’s best customers in articles or videos. Have these customers tell their story or your company’s story.
As an example, when farm and ranch retailer Big R rebranded as North 40 Outfitters four years ago, it let customers tell the story.
Similarly, this same retailer uses customers to promote many of the products it sells. Here is an example from the company’s “Tested by Locals” series.
4. Answer Questions
In July, make a list of the top 10 questions your shoppers ask. These could be product questions, purchase questions, or even questions about how to return items. Whatever they are, answer them in the form of a blog post, frequently-asked-questions page, or video. Here is an example from an omnichannel retailer that sells — among thousands of other products — fertilizer. That company brought in a representative from one of its suppliers to help answer a question about grapes.
5. Report from a Trade Show
As a final content marketing suggestion for July 2018, consider covering an industry trade show the way that a journalist or blogger would. This means simply going to the event, visiting booths, and sharing what you discover with your audience of potential customers.
As an example, check out this video from North 40 Fly Shop. It was taken at the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show in July last year. (Note, on YouTube, a link back to the store’s ecommerce site.)