Content marketing seems daunting and scary for many retail brands. 'What should I even write about?' is a question often raised, with those asking confused and perplexed.

Well, this post is here to help! Below are the untapped, essential content marketing ideas for your blog, all of which can make your content shine. Make sure to bookmark this page and keep these ideas front of mind all year round!

Create mouth-watering gift guides

Holiday frenzy is always fruitful for retail store, and holidays extend well beyond the end-of-year holidays and include other key season like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, 'Dads & Grads," Independence Day, Back-to-School and more. People are already looking for something to buy. Your task is to give them ideas. Create round-ups of cool presents and gifts. Add a juicy discount coupon and you're golden!

Besides holidays you might create posts like '25 Gift Ideas for Your Best Friend's Birthday' and so on. You can also create monthly/weekly posts about your discounted goods at the moment. Your customers will say thanks!

Introduce interactive quizzes & questionnaires

Buzzfeed proved it: quizzes work incredibly. They can easily boost your engagement up to the stratosphere. For some reason people love riddles, questionnaires, psychological tests. Try creating a test or a quiz that's fun and connected to your niche. You should definitely include your products.

For instance, let's say you are selling technology. You can create something like 'What are your ideal headphones? 'or 'What's the perfect gadget for your kitchen? The sky is the limit! These tests help you keep your audience engaged and loyal to your brand. Make your quizzes pop with memes and gifs.

Highlight your products vs. your competitors

Users always look for the better/cheaper/more advanced product. Before making a purchase, they often compare products from different brands in the same category. Therefore, you can totally make a comparison article and give your honest review of each option.

Outline all the strong sides your product has. Make no mistake - you shouldn't over-exaggerate or trash your competitors. This can create a reverse effect. You simply need to point out all the differences and show why your product is superior.

Go big on videos

Want to be ahead of the curve, fast? Start producing video content as soon as possible. Video marketing works wonders. Stats don't lie: 72 percent of customers would prefer to learn about a product watching a video, according to HubSpot. YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. Need I say more? It's obvious that YouTube, Facebook and other video platforms are great for promoting your business.

Be consistent with your video marketing efforts. Create a strategy that will align with your brand's identity. You can work on video how-to's, fun unpacking videos, behind-the-scenes sneak peaks and more.

Psst. Don't make a rookie mistake; always include relevant videos into your blog posts. Simply embed a YouTube video in every single post you can. This will definitely bring your engagement through the roof and even boost the average time spent on your page.

Present interesting case studies & statistics

Who doesn't enjoy success stories and statistics? Create posts like 'The most best-selling products in 2019' or 'How we opened an innovative new store in San Jose.' These are brilliant post ideas that draw attention, increase brand loyalty and are natural linkable assets. So, whenever you have great news, stats or success stories to share - go ahead and publish it!

Showcase unexpected uses for your product

It's your product's time to shine! Describe every little use your product might have (even if they are weird and not obvious). Even simple, boring objects can be used for all kinds of purposes.

Let's say, you are selling multi cookers. These devices are perfect for this type of post. Multi cookers have a number of different uses, modes and more. Describe all of them in an engaging, simple way and present to your readers and viewers. Cool!

Interview industry experts

If you re-sell products produced by certain manufacturers, interview them! Interrogate makers about their products: the idea behind them, design specifics, and technologies used. Trust me, makers love speaking about the products they have created. It's a win-win situation for you and any manufacturers or industry leaders. Both of you will get some exposure (and sales). Besides that, they might also re-share the interview with their audience, which will result in brand awareness for you.

Besides that, you will also gain more credibility. Readers and viewers will trust your company much more when they see you are on good terms with innovators and influencers in this niche.

Design and publish beautiful infographic and slideshows

Infographics can be a wonderful way to tell a story. Infographics are interactive and they keep people focused. Most viewers prefer visual aids to chunks of text. But the perfect scenario is when you combine your infographics, slideshows and copy in one single big picture.

Because they are so simple to follow, infographics and even slideshows are so beloved among the readers. For instance, it's a known fact that people tend to share infographics much more often.

Therefore, always use infographics when you need to explain a complicated subject or when you have lots of data to share. They are perfect for keeping things light and breezy.

Always search for lucrative keywords

This is self-evident. Do your homework well and always research your keywords. Think of it as a treasure hunt, because each keyword can potentially bring you tons of quality traffic (readers and viewers) that will transform into sales.

Keywords are also a great way to stay updated with all the trends in your niche. You will see what are the pain points people have (and how you can solve them), and what products they prefer (and how you can improve yours).

Keyword research always gives untapped ideas for new articles and blog posts. Targeting specific keywords will also make sure you receive steady chunk of traffic organically. Yes, some keywords are hard to rank, but you can always use professional software to step up your SEO game. For instance, check out semrush.com to find keyword ideas that your competitors use.

Bottom line

Retail marketing is ever-changing and varied. But content is still a king! It has always been essential for any business.

"Content is anything that adds value to the reader's life," says an author and entrepreneur Avinash Kaushik. He's right. The ultimate goal for your blog is to bring value.

Many people think that content marketing is useless for retail stores. They can't be more wrong! Fun, engaging posts and guides can help you find new audiences, boost brand awareness, credibility and most importantly - they can bring in sales.

Smart content marketing helps your business flourish. Communication has always been vital for any retail store. Now you have the chance to target your shoppers and customers wherever they are.

Therefore, we hope that the post ideas we shared today will come in handy. These are the ultimate content marketing ideas for retail stores - big or small, famous or not. Try using them and definitely let us know the results!

About the writer: Ben Grant is a blog writer and LinksManagement contributor. He likes to discuss modern literature trends and books, as well as give personal tips on how to improve your writing style.

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