How meaningful automotive content will improve your sales and marketing efforts. Top tips to get started for sustainable profit
The final blog in this two-part series; ‘how your product descriptions can turbo-charge your sales conversion’, by Richard Mark Webb
Last week in my blog I wrote of automotive market product listings and why they must be original and exceptionally well-written. This week I share some thoughts on how to routinely create content that consistently out-performs your competitors.
- Create an ‘avatar’
It’s critical that you research your buyer personas. Buyer personas are effectively a generalised representation of your key customer groups – and your business probably has several of them. Buyers of a 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato with huge racing provenance is in a significantly different market to that of an ex-demo BMW i3.
By creating a detailed understanding of the customers you’re attempting to write content for will help you throughout your general marketing efforts as well as specifically accelerate your content marketing to another level of effectiveness.
Okay, so, tell me some of the benefits of creating buyer personas?
* It means you can keep track of what is important
* You can set boundaries and develop a consistent tone of voice
* All of your stakeholders can get on board with the exact same message
* It will help you to give each piece of content you write a purpose
- Create a Template
Think about your existing and potential future product range and the type of information you need to create. This is an important investment in time especially if you’re improving your current website or considering creating a new one. Your product pages should aim to be consistent, and this will help.
- Automotive specifications
Buyers absolutely know it if the content they’re reading is written by someone who doesn’t ‘get it.’ In fact, they cringe. The nuances around different year models, specification and provenance are best written by someone who knows their stuff. The difference between a Corvair and a Corvette, the reason a ’64 Mustang is infinitely more desirable than a ’74. You get the picture.
- Make your content easy to read
We know that many people scan content online, yet others will arm themselves with all the information to make a buying decision. I personally know someone that has bought a Pagani Huayra – sight unseen – purely on trusted product descriptions and visuals.
- Keyword Research
Before you start writing, optimise your product pages and their content. Spend time researching keywords so you can include these in your content and ultimately, to optimise each page with.
- Product Titles
In the same way as your blog post titles, the title of your product page is important. It should be keyword focussed but most importantly, it should explain what the product is and it should be original, authentic and compelling.
- Be Persuasive
This is the key part and often the most difficult to get right Think about the reader or customer first: They don’t just want to know what your product is, they want to know what’s in it for them. Head back to point one and ask: :who are you writing this for, and for what purpose?”
Will your product enthuse or be aspirational? What problem can it solve for them? How does it make them feel? Is there any sensory response that you can describe? What emotions does it elicit?
Address the need or desire and then persuade with a concise and well-written description of the product and why it is a perfect buy.
- Keep It concise, but not too short
The last thing you need is content that doesn’t serve your purpose. Google tries to provide the best possible results to match the ‘search’ of the user. For your content to rank well, you need to persuade Google that you’re answering the questions the reader is posing. If you’re not willing to write extensively on the topic you like to rank for, you won’t rank well. ‘Thin content’ rarely qualifies for Google as the best result for the question posed. Writing entertaining, informative copy, makes Google and vitally, your readers happy.
Alright, let’s get started
To ensure all your hard work creating product content pays off, remember that superb content and great product photography are important parts of the anatomy of your product descriptions.
No matter what business you run, and whether you have an ecommerce website or not, creating great product content is important. It will improve your SEO, it can provide dynamic landing pages for any paid-for advertising, and above of all, it gives your potential customers an improved overall experience.