Helping out eCommerce owners for several years now, I get the occasional question:
“Why do I need a blog for my eCommerce?”
“Is it not a waste of time blogging for an online shop?”
“Is blogging not for personal uses & influencers?”
The stereotype behind blogging comes from the “birth” of it. Yes, it is true, blogging first began with teenagers sharing their lives on the internet to total strangers.
Content was not relevant, it could be as short as a poem, writing with a strategy was just laughable, and who even thought about SEO … it was simply keeping an online diary without the padlock.
But these days have changed now. Google understood the importance of these contents, so it is time for us all to do the same. Google has brought in these new rules in order to filter through the mass and bring in relevant content to the search engine.
Now, we are not wasting our time through page 2 or 3. These days are over. How many of you are actually going beyond page 1 in the search results?
Blogging, or “Latest news” in B2B websites, should be seen as the extension of your brand & products. You are already trying to sell your products with visuals, landing pages, product descriptions and, possibly, video reviews.
Writing a long-form post promoting again and again about your products won’t cut it anymore.
There are strategies around blogging nowadays. You must define that purpose and create a frequency to publish them. If these efforts seem irrelevant for your brand, then ignore writing a blog altogether.
Don’t open a blog if it’s only to publish 5 articles every 3 years … Either do it strategically or don’t.
Here are the 7 reasons why having a blog is important for your eCommerce:
#1. You build ranking with Google
There are tons of articles out there that won’t scream enough the importance of this. Ranking with Google is key for your website to be visible.
In Google’s language, the more there is content with relevant information in a well-shaped website, the better.
You can try all the PPC ads you want, if Google determines your page not ranking well, you’re going to bank those clicks!
The benefits of ranking well and make Google love your site is to minimise marketing effort and bring genuine ears to your site.
It is a real challenge to rank high and consistently, which is why Google likes to scan fresh & new content frequently.
Maintaining a blog is the sole purpose of this marketing strategy. Create new content and ring Google’s bell to scan your site again.
#2. You create a conversation with your customers
Apart from pleasing Google, your main purpose should encourage a conversation with your customers.
They will understand very quickly if you are trying to sell them something, which results in a high bounce rate. You may never see that customer again…
Be clever with your wordings and give your customer new reasons to “listen” to you.
By engaging a conversation, it could be anything between speaking about a current event, showing you are mobilising for a cause, sharing new products improvement, express your gratitude to loyal customers, etc… The list is endless.
Don’t get caught in the typical blog post that will over-promote a product. This is not natural and your customers will be bored instantly.
A blog should be seen as an alternative to selling your products. This is a platform to connect with your customers.
#3. You define better your brand’s voice & purpose
By writing blog posts, you define your brand’s voice and purpose on the internet.
Customers will soon recognise your products out in the wild without needing to read or research about your brand.
This is an important point as you want your product to connect with your customers.
If your brand is meant to have a fun tone, then use it in your articles.
If your brand is serious and conveys an important purpose, make research & scientific articles.
#4. You bring in more organic visits & sales
If you rank well on Google, you get a genuine spot on the first page and get organic visits through that.
Organic visits are customers who use keywords to search for a topic in particular and click on your website because the headline was catchy and relevant.
The benefit from organic visits & sales is, not only the sales didn’t involve paid marketing, showing how efficient your brand message is.
Nothing is more valuable than an organic visit & organic sale.
You can analyse how well you are connecting with new customers and how well you are retaining existing ones to come back.
Writing content is also the purpose of seducing new customers to your brand purpose & values.
#5. You establish yourself as an expert
The more you write about subjects that revolve around your products, or the values they align with, the more expert in that field you are seen.
People love when brands are owning their principles & values. It shows how committed & involved your brand is.
Copywriters are mostly hired for this purpose: researching & analysing.
They read research papers and highlight the facts in the article(s). It’s the amount of commitment that demonstrates a truly involved company.
Which brings in a fresh content with a new point of view.
A point of view that is unique to your brand & serves the purpose of shining a bright light onto your products.
#6. You can attract customers to share their stories about your products
A good way of seeing a blog is to use it as an extension of your customers’ feedback.
It’s nice to have a testimonial or a feedback feed on your product listings, but what about in-depth feedback.
Show your customers you care about what they have to say.
If their stories are valuable to your brand which shows relevant information to your readers, use their words on your blog.
It’s always a good strategy to demonstrate how much you care about your customers, regardless of the business sector you are in.
#7. You give people a chance to share your content (and spread your visibility)
Lastly, if you enable this feature on your blog, you give your customers a chance to share your content on their own platforms.
It can be a social media share, an email forwarder or else. It is always good to let the word of mouth do its thing, even digitally.
Writing a blog post with interesting content will entice readers to share them online.
And maybe, you will gain organic (also known as referral) visits & sales. A genuine marketing approach that could benefit your business for free.
To Wrap Up
Words on the internet are still king to ranking high on Google Search. This is free marketing that builds genuine & organic customers looking for what your brand has to offer.
It implies that they took the time to familiarise with your brand. Not some clickbait you’ve paid for with Google Ads and placed it on a platform at a “best time”.
Plus, blog posts are here to stay in your website for as long as it lives.
Your efforts might not be rewarded straight away, but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and you could see the rewards at a later date.
There are many ways to write good content the correct way, such as SEO, keywords and the like. More on this in an upcoming blog post.
But for now, if you asked me, I would recommend blogging as a long-term marketing strategy.