Shauna Ward — October 21, 2019 What if I told you right now to go buy a thoughtful gift for your boss, your sister’s new boyfriend, or your eight-year-old niece? Would you know exactly what to get them?
If you’re like most people, the answer is a resounding no. Shopping for gifts is hard, y’all.
That’s why gift guides are so valuable for ecommerce stores. They’re the perfect opportunity to get in front of people who are actively shopping and need some guidance.
.The best part? Gift guides are formulaic and easy to make. And we’ve created a template that makes it even easier to create gift guides that drive ecommerce sales.
All you need to do is download the template (left) and follow the five steps below.
The key to making gift guides especially useful is segmenting them as much as possible. For instance, it can be filtered based on budget, type of relationship, interests, age, and hobbies. The exact segments will vary based on your customer’s profile and products.
– Maggie Simmons, Digital Marketing Manager at Max Effect Marketing
Step 1: Name Your Gift Guide
First, you need to decide who you’re targeting with your gift guide. Don’t try to boil the ocean and dump all your products into one massive guide. Instead, create a variety of guides targeted at different personas.
When you know who you’re targeting, write a quippy headline to let people know who your gift guide is for. Make sure you keep keywords in mind so that your gift guides can easily be found on search engines. Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to learn what types of gifts people are searching for, and use those keywords in your content.
Need some help? Simply fill in the blanks below to come up with the perfect title.
- Top ## Gifts for the Persona Who Already Has Everything
- ## Gifts Persona Will Love
- Gift Guide: What to Buy Your Persona for Holiday/Occasion
- Best Gifts Under $ __ for the Persona in Your Life
- ## Unique Gifts Ideas for Persona in Year
Step 2: Write an Introduction
Next, write a 100 to 300-world introductory paragraph that provides an overview of the gift guide topic or persona you’re focusing on.
Tips for writing gift guide intros:
- Start with a header (H2) that restates the purpose of the gift guide. Use relevant keywords to make your guide more searchable.
- Point out challenges that shopping for these items can bring about and how this gift guide will help solve these challenges.
- Include your brand name with a link back to your homepage.
Step 3: Decide Which Products to Include
Choose 5 to 10 products that you want to showcase in this section. You can list more, but being specific will help your reader narrow down their choice faster and keep your list from being overwhelming.
If you decide to go with more than 10 items, be sure to break them into categories (e.g., by price) to make the content more skimmable.
There are three ways you can approach your list of products.
- Only include items that you sell.
- Include products from other brands.
- List generic items with subtle links back to your own product pages.
Step 4: Write Your Product Descriptions
Next, write 3 to 5 sentences about each product. Explain why this product made your list, give a description of the item, and share what makes it so great.
Tips for writing product descriptions:
- Include a link to the appropriate product page on its/your website. Put the links in the product description rather than linking the header.
- Include a photo of each product listed. Link the photos to the product pages, and use descriptive alt text to optimize your guide for SEO.
- Include the cost of each product, especially if your gift guide is geared toward specific monetary amounts (e.g., Best Gifts Under $ 20 for the Foodie in Your Life or Stocking Stuffers That Won’t Break the Bank). Just remember that prices are not evergreen and this piece will need to be updated.
- Testimonials can be very helpful in convincing a reader this is the perfect gift. If you have testimonials for your product(s) that are pertinent to the gift guide topic, include them here.
Step 5: Promote Your Gift Guide
Remember, getting traffic from organic search can take time, so you should also promote your guide using content ads and email marketing to start driving traffic immediately.
You can also partner with companies in your niche to create and comarket gift guides. When multiple brands promote the guide, you can exponentially increase the number of people browsing your products.
And there you have it: the easiest way to create gift guides that convert shoppers into customers. Download the template below to get started.
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