These days, it seems like everyone’s shopping online. So having an ecommerce blog only makes sense. According to the most recent data from the US Census, ecommerce sales for retailers totaled nearly $390 billion in 2016, an increase of 14 percent from the year before.
A survey from the Pew Research Center found that nearly 80 percent of Americans shopped online, with 15 percent of people making an online purchase at least once a week.
Although ecommerce is profitable and growing, the majority of people are doing it. A few still say that they prefer the experience of in-store, in-person shopping. According to Pew’s survey results, people like being able to ask questions before they buy a product. They also like getting advice and learning about others’ experiences.
While it’s possible to recreate the experience of shopping in store with an ecommerce site, you can really give the people what they want — information and advice — by creating an ecommerce blog.
An ecommerce blog is a content marketing channel that your store or company can use to increase traffic to your website. An ecommerce blog has the ability to increase leads and conversions. The blog posts you create can be anything from how-to articles to advice columns. From product reviews by real customers to seasonal posts tackling popular topics or issues, the possibilities are endless.
Why Your Ecommerce Brand Needs a Blog
There are a few reasons why it’s worth the time and effort to create or improve your brand’s ecommerce blog. For one thing, a blog can increase your brand’s visibility online.
Having an ecommerce blog means that people have a reason to come to your site other than to shop. It also means you have something to share with your followers on your brand’s social media pages. This content can end up leading to more traffic for your blog and online store.
Plus, if you regularly create stellar blog posts, people are going to be likely to share what they’ve read or found with their own friends and followers, meaning you’re likely to end up with more leads and customers.
Having a blog helps your ecommerce business establish credibility and authority. When you’re regularly publishing great content that people find useful, they’re going to be more likely to trust what you have to say. Blogging gives you a chance to establish your brand as an expert in its field.
How to Start an Ecommerce Blog
If the perks of running an ecommerce blog have convinced you that it’s the right choice for your business, how do you get started? All you need is some content ideas, a team to create the content, and a way to promote your blog’s content.
Find Your Team
Who’s going to write your blog? You can work with a team in house. If you have limited content marketing experience or a small staff, it might be easier to outsource content creation.
Come Up With Ideas
What type of blog posts do you want to create? Are you going to stick with written content? Do you want a few video posts or graphic-based posts as well? When thinking of content ideas, ask yourself how they can help a reader or viewer. What problems can you solve for people with your blog posts?
Promote, Promote, Promote
Get the news of your blog out to the world. Share your posts on social media. Include links in your company’s email newsletters to customers. Send messages with links to relevant blog posts directly to current customers. Explain why you think the post is something they should check out. You can also work with influencers and ask them to share links to your blog posts with their followers. They can even Crete a few guest posts themselves for the ecommerce blog.
Ecommerce Blog Do’s and Don’ts
You’ve already got an ecommerce blog up and running. For some reason you haven’t seen much in the way of results from it. The problem could be your technique. These do’s and don’ts will help you improve your blog and get more readers.
DO create useful posts.
Think of your customers when coming up with ideas for posts. Ideally, your posts should be actionable. Your posts should help a person figure out how to do something, or provide tips that they can easily apply to their life.
DON’T be super promotional.
You’ve got things to sell, of course. The goal of your blog isn’t to push or promote your products. Being too promotional is going to turn people off.
DO create and stick to a schedule.
You’ve got to post regularly, to improve your blog’s SEO and to give people something to read. When you’re not posting on a consistent schedule, people are likely to assume that you’ve given up the blog project.
DON’T be boring.
Your ecommerce blog can be a place for you to have a bit of fun. There’s no need to stick with your “corporate” tone of voice here. While you do want to keep it professional, don’t be afraid to pep things up a bit. Remember, there’s lots to read and do online. No one’s going to stick around on a blog that reads like their high school science textbook.
