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Shipping Basics
Tools You Can Use to Find Content
Online retailers need timely, relevant and interesting content to reach their target audiences. Whether you’re writing a new blog, uploading a video, preparing a Facebook post or retweeting a Twitter comment, you want your audience to notice your content and connect with your store.
There are several ways to find fresh content for your digital, social and mobile media programs, as well as for newsletters and email promotions. First, you can generate content based on internal topics. You might talk about a new addition to your store’s line, tell an interesting customer story or highlight an innovative way to use a product.
Another good way to find content is to read the publications that cover news and trends related to your product line. For instance, if your store sells fishing gear and marine supplies, you might look for news articles on shark migration studies or the best-selling fishing boats of 2015.
While these strategies are good for developing interesting and relevant content, it’s also important that your material is timely – otherwise it won’t catch your audience’s attention.
A great suggestion from Website Magazine is to track trends, using tools like Google Trends and Google+ Explore. As the number one search engine in the world, Google is used by millions of consumers every day, and the company uses its powerful analytics capabilities to track the most popular searches.
If your store sells women’s shoes, for instance, Google Trends will show you that searches for “women’s shoes” have steadily increased in the past decade. Today, running shoes are at the top of the search list followed by women’s boots. So, if your content relates to either category, it will probably generate strong interest among consumers.
Another good source for identifying current trending topics is BuzzFeed. You can find out what posts have generated the most traffic, or dig down deeper into categories like health, sports, music, and travel – whatever is most relevant to your audience.
If you know your general topic, but can’t come up with a creative idea, you can try HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. Just type in three nouns and it will come up with a varied assortment of content ideas. If you input “women’s,” “shoes” and “heels,” for instance, it suggests topics like “7 Things About Heels Your Boss Wants to Know.”
For your social media and other marketing efforts, there are also a number of free and premium automated tools that will help you find content to share. One source is Curata, which helps you discover, organize, publish and promote content aimed at your particular audience. Storify lets you tell traditional stories designed to engage target groups of consumers. Another tool is an app called Juice that analyzes your Twitter followers and provides a selection of stories to match their interests.
Whether you use internal resources or industry news, rely on time-saving automated tools or take a “mix and match” approach, finding interesting, relevant and timely content is essential for engaging your audience, attracting them to your store and increasing your sales.
