A blog is a marketing tactic, found on an eCommerce site, which many of us have heard about and regularly engage with. ECommerce sites tend to use blogs to share key news with their stakeholders, such as trend forecasts, new product launches and company updates.
But what are the real benefits?
Why should you spend your resources on blog writing when you simply have a website to “drive traffic to your products”?
This blog aims to identify and explain why adding a blog to your eCommerce site helps to drive traffic and boost multiple aspects of your business.
Reason One – Search Engine Optimization
A blog is one of the most effective free methods of driving more traffic to your eCommerce website and therefore boosting your SEO. A blog adds more content to your eCommerce site and the more content you have, the more your website will index. This will lead to prospective clients being able to organically find your website, as the website will appear in one of the first searches. The effect snowballs with every person that finds your website, demonstrating to google more and more that your eCommerce page deserves to be at the top. In turn, more individuals can find your website organically the next time they search for any relevant words to your website. For example, due to Jarvis Cole’s SEO, if you type in “global leader in ecommerce recruitment” or “eCommerce recruiter” we come up in the first page of your google search!
To optimise the positive SEO implications a blog brings further, make sure to infuse your blog with both trending keywords and keywords that relate to your business. For example, in our blogs for Jarvis Cole, a global leader in eCommerce recruitment, we infuse words such as ‘eCommerce Recruiter’ and ‘eCommerce Recruitment Services’ and “eCommerce staffing’.
Furthermore, you can increase your SEO further from the blog by sharing the blog link on your social media pages. By sharing your blog, you will create more backlinks to your website, which will further boost your SEO.
Reason Two – Get known as an Industry Expert.
With most markets saturated by the masses of brands and products we now have available to us, your target audience can readily swap to your competing product or brand. It is therefore now not enough to simply state on your website the value to your brand or service. Why did you choose these values?
Being an industry expert is a great value to have and a value which is highly regarded by multiple market segments. For example, at Jarvis Cole, we frequently use our blogging feature to demonstrate our industry knowledge. The reason behind this is credibility. By being known as an industry expert, you are demonstrating your credibility and therefore justifying a reason for why to choose you.
Reason Three – Engage your customers.
If your website provides no other content than the ‘shop’ feature for purchasing items, your target audience will only visit your site when they want to purchase your goods. A blog provides another reason to visit the site and therefore a method to engage your customers on an ongoing basis.
You can share your content marketing via a blog. This involves sharing content which will add value to your customers and aid their purchasing decision.
There are a variety of ways to create successful content, but here are a few:
Story Telling — A story should be thought of as a journey or an experience. The story you should tell via your blogs should be an experience your target audience can relate to. Are your audience eco-minded? If so, what is your organisation doing to combat climate change? Story telling is particularly useful to explain what your brand stands for and why.
Photograph and video content —While your eCommerce site will contain imagery content, your blog is an additional place in which you can utilise visuals to engage your customers.
Reason Four – It is a place to make announcements.
You may already utilise opt-in email marketing or have an area on your website where you share announcements, but there will be a share of your target audience who do not engage with either method. A blog provides another channel to share your latest announcements and is easily shared by your customers to other customers. This will increase not only the reach of your announcements, but also increase the percent of your target audience who read about your announcements.
Reason Five – Could aid your conversion rate.
Your blog will drive more traffic to your website, but it may also increase your conversion rate. Your blog will add credibility to your brand and therefore provide clients with a greater sense of confidence. These clients will then be more likely to convert – improving your conversion rate.
Reason Six – Builds Brand Loyalty and drives a community
Regardless of the quality of your products or services, if you do not build brand loyalty, your number of repeat customers is likely to be low.
A blog alone will not build brand loyalty, but it will play a key role in the process. Providing a blog provides relevant and engaging content, they will help to build loyalty. This is because they provide something more to the customer and demonstrate your brand’s personality. For example, if you utilise your blog to discuss your charity involvement, your customers may become more loyal, as customers like to support businesses who are connected to something larger than themselves.
A blog can also build a community within your customer base by allowing individuals to comment on your blog posts. This transforms the content from a monologue to a dialogue, which is key for customer engagement. This engagement and sense of the customer feeling part of your brand will increase their loyalty.
Reason Seven – Provides the potential to ‘go viral’.
Your blog posts can be readily shared on social media and/or email. The ability to be shared with so many different audiences is what provides the potential for the blog to “go viral”.
For example, at Jarvis Cole, we tend to share eCommerce blogs with each other in a huge group chat. Therefore, the blog will gain a further 70 views, with the potential of other team members sharing it on.
For this reason, even if you do not ‘go viral’, you can reach a much larger portion of your target audience by consistently posting engaging blogs.
Reasons Eight – Provides content to share to your social media.
A blog not only provides content for your website, but it can also be used as content for your social media channels. Each blog post has its own unique URL. You can share this URL on your social media channel directing the customer to your website to read your blog, or you can sum up the blog on a social media post. Either way, sharing good content on a variety of channels is a great idea to penetrate a variety of markets.
Reason Nine – It is a free platform.
Not every company has a large marketing budget, and a blog is a highly effective form of free marketing! While you can opt to promote your blog using paid media, you could argue the actual creation and posting of a blog is free if you are utilising your work force.
Last note…
There is a famous saying in marketing known as “Content is King”. The process of creating and sharing your blogs will really demonstrate this to you. Some blogs will be more successful than others, and it mostly boils down to the content within the blog.
People want to read relevant content which relates to your eCommerce site. This content needs to draw your target audience in by reminding them why they follow you as a company and why they continue to engage with you as a brand.
Think of your blog as an extra sales tool to get your target audience to either join you on your mission or stick with you during your growth. What do they want to read? What brings value to your target audience?
While results will not be achieved overnight, I hope this blog has demonstrated to you why a blog is worth your resources.