If you haven’t added blogging to your content marketing strategy, it’s time to take the leap.
Your eCommerce blog is your chance to drive traffic to your website, educate customers about your products, earn backlinks, reach out to influencers, and expand your branding.
You can also use your blog content to create more engagement on your social media pages, improve your search engine rankings, and more. Thanks to a variety of tools and resources, you can create a blog and be ready to publish in short order. The real challenge is creating a Blog that actually interests your audience. If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of doing this while also running your online store at the same time keep reading. These steps will keep you on the right track.
- Choose your home base
Where will you host your blog? You’ve got a few options. You can dedicate a page on your website to your blog posts. If you’ve chosen an online, shopping platform such as Shopify, you’ll have the ability to set your blog up there as well. You can also use a content management system like WordPress for your blog posts.
Another option is to use a site like Medium or HuffPost to host your blog posts. You can get a lot of exposure by using these sites, as they’re already hugely popular. Content on these platforms tend to rank high in search engine results, and a lot of the work has been done for you in terms of design. All you have to do is sign up and start publishing.
On the other hand, if you host your own blog, it’s easier to ensure that everything about it is on-brand. Consider music and art brand, Ghostly. Their website has a very distinct look to it. The look and feel of their blog fit right into that branding.
- Select Your Topics
No, you don’t have to decide on the topic you’ll write about for every blog post in the future. Still, you should have an idea of the topic areas you want to cover. You might also stack up a few blog post ideas to use to launch your blog in the first place.
Here are some tips for finding great topics to cover:
- Create some Google Alerts based on keywords and topics that are relevant to your industry.
- Search BuzzSumo for trending content and topic ideas
- Research your competitors’ blogs
- Search user forums and question and answer forums
- Use your customer service tickets to find questions and concerns to address in your blogs.
- Use tools like Ahrefs to see how other sites are ranking for specific keywords.
Identify Keywords
In doing your topic research, you should have begun to identify some relevant keywords as well. Take this, then do some additional keyword research. Create a master list of keywords that you want your blog posts to trend on.
Remember that the trick is to use the keyword phrases in ways that are relevant so that your content ranks in organic search results. Avoid ‘stuffing’ your content with keyword phrases. Keywords are important for SEO, but you should never sacrifice content quality for keyword density.
- Write Some Amazing Content
This is the most important element. If you don’t create great content, nothing else you do to optimize your blog, or gain subscribers will be effective. There are dozens of blogs out there, and that has created content saturation. Simply put, people have become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content available to them.
To get past that ‘white noise’, you have to stand out by offering something of value. Every post should provide one or more of the following:
- Entertainment
- Education
- News
Yes, you want your blog to lead to more traffic and conversions, but it’s a slow dance. Your blog content shouldn’t be blatantly promotional. However, they should be relevant to your brand, and to people who would be interested in your products.
Your best blog posts are going to be relevant, contain lots of great visuals, and will build your thought leadership. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools and services to help ensure that you only present your readers with the best content each time you publish a post. Consider the following:
- Grammarly – For spelling and grammar checking.
- TrustMyPaper – Copywriting services to ensure that you produce a steady stream of great content.
- Canva – An easy-to-use visual content tool.
- IS Accurate – For great editing and proofreading services.
- Google Docs – Great for writing no matter where you are, and perfect for collaborating with other team members
- Grab My Essay – An online company that provides proofreading, editing, and copywriting services.
It takes practice to learn how to write content for a blog. The services above can help you as you learn the ropes.
You can also give your users a voice in your blog. User-generated content is a great source of engagement. One example of this is Shwood Eyewear that has a blog category, Journeys, that is made up of compelling, user-generated content created by its own customers.
- Reach Out to Others
Successful blogging really is about connections. You can expand your audience significantly by working with other bloggers and influencers. You’ll open up opportunities for guest blogging, receive more engagement, and earn backlinks. All of this will lead to more traffic to your site, more subscribers, and more authority.
Start by identifying bloggers that are influential in your industry, other retailers who sell products that are complementary to yours, and other influencers. Follow their blogs, share their content, comment on their posts. Eventually, they will take notice. Don’t be shy. Contact influencers directly to discuss cross-promotional opportunities, guest blogging, or to ask for a backlink. Just be ready to reciprocate.
How valuable are backlinks? If they come from the right websites, backlinks can seriously boost SEO, drive traffic to your site, and are a major trust indicator. It’s worth engaging in link building outreach by using content services and email services such as Studicus, Buzz Stream, and JustReachOut.
- Promote Your Blog Posts
Of course, nobody is going to work harder to promote your blog posts than you. Any good blog content strategy will include post promotion. Writing and publishing are only the first two steps. Next, you have to promote your blog posts. You should do this across your social media channels. Don’t hesitate to share your posts multiple times, especially if you have customers in multiple time zones.
Also, make it easier for your customers to share your posts as well. Include social share buttons in your blog so they can simply click to share. Consider using tools like, Click to Tweet as well.
Final Thoughts
Implement the six tips above, and use the company blog examples here as inspiration to ensure that you reach all of your blogging goals. By creating a great blog and publishing relevant posts, you create one more way to stand out from your competitors and connect with your audience.
Bridgette Hernandez is a Master in Anthropology who is interested in writing and is planning to publish her own book in the near future. She works with professional writing companies such as WowGrade and BestEssayEducation as a writer.
