For your ecommerce business to be successful, you need to get prospective customers to land on your site. One great way to boost your organic traffic is to start a blog.
Content marketing can be an effective way to establish your brand as an authority on a topic, share relevant information, and communicate your value-added benefits to a specific audience. In this article, we’ll explore how creating a strategic blog can help you stand out in a crowded online space by hooking new customers, increasing loyalty, and generating more sales for your business.
What’s a business blog for?
While landing pages and blogs both have the same goal—to attract people to your website—there are key differences between the two. The biggest difference is that landing pages are typically geared toward audiences further along in the customer journey.
For example, a product landing page on your site should cover the main features and benefits of one of your products. The content on that page is there to engage, inform, and convert. A blog post, however, may reach your target audience a little earlier in the customer journey and its content would be more high-level, with the intention of driving people to your product page.
As an ecommerce business, you should use landing pages to highlight your offerings, special deals, and helpful information related to your business. By establishing and maintaining a blog, you give your business a space to cover topics that may not directly align with your offering but are of interest to your audience. Posting regularly can help you build brand awareness and authority on search engines like Google, as well as develop a strong brand voice even in the most crowded industries.
Things to consider before starting a business blog
Before starting a business blog for your ecommerce site, you should consider the following:
- How saturated is your market? Research what your competitors are writing about. If your subject is oversaturated, find a clever angle or niche to help your content stand out.
- Can you hire a content manager? As your business scales, it’s recommended to hire a content manager to write and manage content. Another option is to work with a content marketing agency that specializes in SEO.
Benefits of a blog for your ecommerce business
Engaging blogs can provide your ecommerce business with the following benefits:
Improve your search engine optimization
A well thought-out keyword strategy can improve search engine optimization (SEO) across your entire site. With every new blog, you are creating additional content that ranks in search engine algorithms, making it easier for customers to find your website when searching online for different keywords. It’s also important to align your blog SEO strategy with the other pages on your site, with effective cross-linking throughout.
Stay relevant or move ahead in your niche
Writing relevant and informative product and industry-related blogs can establish your business as an SME (subject matter expert) and a thought leader. The key is to create content that adds value and builds trust and brand awareness, all in an interesting and engaging manner.
Tell your story, or your customers’ stories
A blog allows you to tell a more personal story about your business and its origins. You can also talk about your customers and how your products and services positively impact them. By sharing engaging, relatable customer stories and case studies, prospective customers will be able to envision themselves using your product or service.
Communicate with loyal and new customers
Blogging is a great way to tell your existing and new customers about new products, updates, and news. With your company blog, you can inform readers about promotions, sales, or any other information that you want to share. Non-customers will also see how transparent your brand is through your blog.
Boost your customer conversion rate
An ecommerce blog can help strengthen the overall digital marketing strategy. With engaging and credible content, your blogs can establish a connection with potential buyers and increase website traffic along with conversions.
Build brand loyalty
If your blogs are written in an interesting, engaging, and educational way, they can help your ecommerce business build a loyal audience—of both customers and prospective customers. With consistent and informational articles, your content becomes trustworthy, leading to more purchases in the long run.
Support other marketing initiatives and brand voice
Blogs can be used to complement other marketing initiatives. Because each blog post has a unique URL, you can add them to social media posts to link back to your website or other online marketing content. Adding “like” or “share” buttons allows for blogs to be shared easily. You can also repurpose your blog content on social media, newsletters, videos, emails, and at in-person events.
Use a low-cost marketing platform
Blogging is more cost-efficient compared to other digital marketing strategies. Whether you write them in-house or outsource to a freelance writer or agency, blogs will continue to provide long-term benefits like appearing in top search engine rankings and continuing to drive organic traffic to your website.
How to create content that gets clicks
Creating impactful content can be a process of trial and error, and it quickly turns into at least one full-time role. To develop a sound, SEO-focused content marketing strategy and put out consistent, high-quality content, you’ll need to hire a content strategist and/or content writer. As mentioned above, you can supplement your content work or outsource it with the help of freelancers or an agency.
The content process
Here’s a content-creating process to help you get started with your blogging journey.
1. Build the foundation
First, decide where your content will “live.” You can add a separate section of your site and choose a URL structure that works for you—i.e., yoursite.com/blog or blog.yoursite.com. Whichever direction you choose, your company blog should be easily accessible from your home page and navigation.
2. Set your content goals/strategy
Think about what you want to achieve by identifying and setting goals. These key performance indicators (KPIs) could include website traffic, engagement, or conversions within a certain period. Your content strategy should align with your brand voice and market niche. Also, don’t forget to update older content that gets traffic so everything is cohesive.
3. Find your topics
Your content doesn’t have to solely focus on your company and products. Think about creating content that more generally applies to your audience and industry. This could include how-to guides, lifestyle pieces, buyer guides, industry insights, and even product comparisons. You can also give your content a personal touch by discussing the business owner’s journey, growth challenges, and employee achievements. As long as your content strategy is rooted in SEO and keyword research, you’ll be able to find the right audience.
4. Conduct research
See what your competitors are writing about and check out industry publications for the latest news that might be relevant to your audience. While some of your content may take a similar approach to competitor content, you can also find original angles by filling in the gaps of your competitors’ blogs. What are they not writing about? Was there something their posts didn’t explore?
5. Write and edit
Your focus should be on quality and not quantity, at first. Once you establish a level of quality you’re comfortable with—and a brand voice that’s accessible to readers—you can worry about scaling your content operation. Focus on target keywords and topics your audience will be interested in. Your posts should be easy to scan, and readers should be able to click over to related articles and even your product/service pages if they feel inclined.
6. Design
Make sure your blog is visually appealing by choosing a clean and intuitive page layout. Visuals, such as stock photos, illustrations, and infographics, should be high quality. It’s usually effective to have a healthy mix of photography and illustration. If you want your readers to spend more time on your blog, you can also add videos or interactive elements to make specific posts more engaging.
7. Post and share consistently
Consistency is important because it helps you create a growing library of content for your audience. You can even set up a newsletter and collect emails of prospective customers through that. This will let you deliver a roundup of new blog content to their inbox, along with email journeys you’ve created for prospects. A consistent posting schedule will also help you establish a predictable content calendar for your social media channels.
Overall, blogging is a valuable and cost-effective tool that can play an important role in your larger digital marketing strategy. If your business goals are to drive more traffic to your site and build customer loyalty, content marketing can fit right in. By investing some time upfront to pinpoint your brand voice, content strategy, and plan to scale, you can increase your brand awareness, create meaningful customer connections, and improve your organic performance.
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