How Can Small and Medium-sized Merchants Break Through with Content Marketing Without Brush Orders or Buying Traffic?

Problem Analysis: The Dilemma of Small and Medium-sized Merchants and the Opportunities of Content Marketing

In today’s highly competitive e-commerce and offline retail environment, small and medium-sized merchants often find themselves in a dilemma:
– Brush Orders: Although it can quickly boost sales and rankings, it comes with high risks and costs, and platform supervision is becoming increasingly strict.
– Buying Traffic: The cost of advertising is high, and small and medium-sized merchants struggle to compete with big brands. The ROI (Return on Investment) is often unsatisfactory.

So, is there a way to acquire customers at a low cost and build long-term brand value? The answer is content marketing.

The core of content marketing is to attract target users through high-quality content, build trust and brand loyalty, and ultimately achieve conversions. It doesn’t rely on short-term traffic but forms a brand moat through long-term accumulation.

Solution: How Can Small and Medium-sized Merchants Break Through with Content Marketing?

1. Define Target Users and Content Positioning

• User Profile: Clearly identify who your target users are, what their needs, pain points, and interests are.
• Content Positioning: Determine the content direction based on user needs. For example:
  • A mother-and-baby store can share parenting knowledge.
  • A restaurant can teach users how to cook or share stories about ingredients.

2. Choose Suitable Content Formats

• Text and Images: Suitable for in-depth content such as tutorials and industry analyses.
• Short Videos: Suitable for showcasing product usage scenarios or brand stories.
• Live Streams: Suitable for highly interactive content such as product trials and Q&A sessions.
• Communities: Suitable for building private traffic, such as WeChat groups and QQ groups.

3. Create Differentiated Content

• Tell Stories: Increase emotional resonance through brand stories and user cases.
• Provide Value: The content should solve users’ problems rather than simply promote products.
• Creative Expression: Attract users’ attention through humor, contrast, etc.

4. Distribute Content on Free Platforms

• Social Media: WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, etc.
• Vertical Communities: Such as Zhihu, Douban, Bilibili, etc.
• Private Traffic: Reach users through official accounts, communities, emails, etc.

5. Continuously Optimize and Interact

• Data Analysis: Understand user preferences through platform data and optimize content.
• User Interaction: Reply to comments and private messages to enhance user stickiness.

Case Study: The Content Marketing Strategy of Perfect Diary

Perfect Diary is a typical brand that has risen through content marketing. It didn’t rely on brush orders or buying high-priced traffic but achieved growth in the following ways:

1. Influencer Marketing on Xiaohongshu

• In the early days, it heavily promoted reviews and trial content by KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) on Xiaohongshu, reaching target users at a low cost.
• The content mainly focused on real experiences rather than hard-selling ads, making it easier to gain users’ trust.

2. Private Traffic Operation

• It built a private traffic pool through WeChat groups and official accounts and regularly pushed out discounts and content.
• Users can directly interact with the brand through the community, enhancing their sense of belonging.

3. Cross-border Collaborations

• It collaborated with IPs such as the British Museum and Discovery to launch co-branded products, making the content more topical.

Through content marketing, Perfect Diary grew from a small brand to a leading player in the domestic beauty industry in a short period.

Conclusion

For small and medium-sized merchants looking to break through without brush orders or buying traffic, content marketing is a viable path. The key lies in:
1. Precisely positioning user needs.
2. Continuously producing high-quality content.
3. Distributing content on free platforms.
4. Building a private traffic pool.

Content marketing doesn’t yield results overnight. It requires long-term commitment and optimization. However, once brand momentum is established, it can bring stable and low-cost traffic and conversions.

不刷单、不买流量，中小商家如何靠内容营销破局？|创始人Q&A

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