Running a successful eCommerce business means keeping your brand top-of-mind for both existing and potential customers. Even the most digitally inclined customers will forget about you in a few weeks or months if you aren’t winning their attention or giving them opportunities to make user-generated video content (UGVC). That’s where an excellent, well-rounded Shopify content marketing strategy comes into play.

Shopify offers hundreds of integrations, some of which minimize the time you need to spend on content marketing. For most of your core content marketing efforts, though, it’s essential to have the right kinds of tools. In this article, we look at the eight leading content marketing tools for Shopify stores that help you build a website, brand, and compelling content people adore.

Why Is Content Marketing Essential for eCommerce Brands?

The future of eCommerce looks bright, but brands trying to reach that future need to create strong content. The research shows 83% of consumers are more likely to buy a product if a friend recommends it. One of the wisest ways to grow your long-term referral rate with minimal direct effort is with sharable content.

Content that attracts, educates, and delights your relevant audiences is more likely to get shared with their social networks. The more people see your content, the more likely they are to browse your products, which makes them more likely to buy. 

Crafting remarkable content that inspires and persuades requires time, effort, and focus. Staying productive is much easier when you have the right tools. Let’s take a closer look at eight marketing tools for Shopify stores that will set you ahead of the rest. 

1) BuzzSumo

Learning how to market your Shopify store includes seeing what other brands are up to so you can surpass them. BuzzSumo lets you collect and analyze content across the entire Internet to understand what’s working and what’s not. High-performing content strategies are based on seeing what types of people respond well to specific topics–not just choosing some ideas and hoping for the best. 

BuzzSumo first asks you what content categories you’re interested in analyzing and second displays top-performing pieces to help you narrow in on content that you can emulate. You can also tag the content you find helpful to make it easier to retrieve later on.

BuzzSumo helps you discover the top-performing content in your niche in minutes instead of scouring the web for hours or trying to reverse-engineer direct competitors’ strategies. It’s a wonderful tool to leverage if you feel like you’ve run out of content ideas or need inspiration for a brand overhaul. 

2) Semrush

Semrush is one of the most comprehensive tools for optimizing your written content for improved performance in the search engine results pages (SERPs). You can optimize your site’s content by rewriting old blog posts, adding images and metadata, and performing relevant on-page linking.

Semrush’s in-depth reporting tools help you see exactly how your content optimization efforts impact the ranking of your pages and which keywords are contributing the most traffic. This platform also comes with a collection of content-marketing-specific tools, like an SEO content template, content audit tool, and SEO writing assistant.

The higher quality your content becomes, the more results you can see from Shopify affiliate marketing, too. Look for non-competing products, sign up for their affiliate marketing program, and add your affiliate links to your blog posts. As your traffic grows, so too will your affiliate commissions. ‍

3) Hemingway App

Whether you’re already an effective writer or you need to improve your written communication, the Hemingway App is indispensable. This is a writing and editing tool that indicates where your writing can become clearer and simpler. 

Once you start writing or paste some text in, the app color-codes sections so you know what to change. Hemingway App points out where to remove adverbs, shorten lengthy sentences, and eliminate passive voice. There’s a free or paid version so you can strengthen your writing regardless of budget. 

4) bCast

bCast is a cloud-based podcasting application for businesses, including Shopify eCommerce stores. 10 years ago it used to be enough to have a small blog with some snazzy images. Nowadays, customers are spoiled for choice, which means they’re going to choose brands that deliver content in their preferred medium. 

Podcast consumption has been on the rise for multiple years now, with 383 million podcast listeners globally as of 2022. This number is expected to grow to 464 million by the end of 2023, a 19% year-over-year increase. 

A platform that makes it easy to start a business podcast like bCast is what every Shopify store needs these days. Not many Shopify stores commit to maintaining their own podcast, which means you can start making as little as one episode a month and see more sales from that. Podcasting also opens the door to more Shopify influencer marketing campaigns because you can host noteworthy individuals as guests. 

5) Publer

Publer is a social media marketing tool that lets you schedule social media posts and analyze performance. Trying to plan all of your social media content the day of is far too time consuming and pulls your focus away from more important activities, like developing a top tier content strategy. 

Use Publer to schedule all of your social and video content in any format as far into the future as you want. This platform integrates with YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and more so don’t miss any opportunities in any channels. 

6) Influitive

Influitive is a comprehensive consumer engagement, referral incentivizing, and review collection platform. It’s gotten easier than ever to attract buyers by way of digital marketing channels, but what’s still challenging is encouraging them to engage with your brand after their purchase. 

Getting more reviews, including video testimonials, seems simple in theory but most eCommerce businesses discover that it’s difficult in practice. Influitive’s dashboard offers a wealth of features that makes it easier to ask your customers to leave reviews and encourages them to ask their friends. 

This platform also helps you create guided customer journeys that provide the right information at the right time. Immediately after people have bought from your brand is when they have the highest expectations and also when you need to deliver. If you have pre-built experience flows and enough customer service staff to follow up with inquiries–both of which Influitive helps you with–you’re golden.

7) Hotjar

Hotjar is a behavioral analytics tool that helps you understand what actions people are taking on your Shopify-based website and why. Creating and modifying your website on your own or with the help of a developer you speak with regularly makes it easy to understand. That doesn’t mean everyone who visits your eCommerce store knows where to find what they’re looking for. 

Hotjar collects data from users’ browsers like session time, scroll depth, links clicked on, and cursor placement. The platform then translates this into reports that you can provide to your front-end web and content marketing teams to drive more conversions. 

8) Vyrill

Vyrill streamlines the video discovery process, making it convenient to find the video reviews and testimonials you're looking for. Once created or captured, you can analyze over 35 filters—including brand, product, competitors, and more—to rate and rank shopper and branded videos.

Our very own ‘In-Video’ search app is excellent for marketing your products, too. In the world of digital media, customers aren’t always sure if what they’re looking at will be impactful to their lives or solve their problem. “Has it worked for other people?”, “How do I use it?” and “Will this actually work as shown?” are all questions your prospective buyers are asking. 

And, for Shopify merchants, our Shopify app handles all of these concerns and more. This intuitive, simple-to-install, ’In-video’ search app means your customers can find what they’re looking for, get their questions answered, and purchase your product—with more confidence than ever before. 

Furthermore, engaging with creators is trouble-free. Vyrill showcases the contact information for the influencers you're trying to reach and makes it simple to get in touch. Reach out directly to creators in an instant.

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The Bottom Line

Consistent, original content marketing efforts encourage hundreds more customers to engage with your brand. When you take the time to educate your prospects on your products and industry, they trust you–and trust leads to more revenue in the long-term. Evaluating or trying these eight leading marketing tools for Shopify can help you ensure your store has the most engaging content in your niche.  

Want to go even further with your video marketing efforts? Book a demo of our platform to see how our in-video search app is changing the game. If you’re ready to start, you can try Vyrill for 30 days completely free.

About the Author

Katy boasts two decades in B2B technology & services, spearheading growth and brand evolution. A former Adobe marketing maven for 9 years, she’s since built growth teams for 5 tech startups that have all been acquired. With a stellar record in operational excellence and creating demand, she excels at leading successful cross-functional initiatives that enable companies to scale up.

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