It might seem like a daunting task to manage an ecommerce website if you are an online retailer. There are many other tasks to be done, including inventory management, digital marketing, customer service, and advertising. Is a blog that important?
It is undeniably true.
Your blog will make your products and website more visible to potential and current customers. Your brand will be more trusted, your industry is more respected, and customers are more likely to choose you for a purchase.
However, managing an ecommerce website can be time-consuming and difficult. This is why we have created this comprehensive guide to help you get started. We'll be covering why a blog is so important for your business, how you can use it as a growth tool, and how to manage it efficiently on a daily basis.
Let's get started.
Quick Take-Aways
- Companies should consider ecommerce blogs because they can increase brand visibility, trust, authority, and credibility with their target audience.
- Your blog should be easily found on your website.
- Visual content can make your ecommerce blog articles more interesting and shareable.
- Content calendars are a great way to drive strategy. They keep you on track and accountable.
- You can save money by outsourcing content creation and create a more powerful blog.
Why is ecommerce so important?
Rankings for search engines
People will search for products online in 2021 using search engines. Search engines are responsible for 93% of all online searches. Search engines are the best way to rank your website and brand.
The best way to improve your search engine rankings is by maintaining an active blog. It is important to maintain a blog. Hubspot research found that blogs have 4434% more pages indexed than websites without them (and 55% more visitors).
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Brand trust builds
When deciding whether to purchase, trust in a brand is one of the most important considerations. Research has shown that trust is second to price in deciding whether to purchase new brands or to remain loyal to existing brands.
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It takes a lot of time and effort to manage an ecommerce blog, but it shows potential customers that you care about their needs beyond the products you sell.
Customers can build trust in your brand through blogs. They get to know you and engage with high-quality, consistent content.
Brand trust can be built by establishing brand authority. Your audience views you as an expert in the industry when you have brand authority.
You can build your authority and blog on your website by covering products and topics that are relevant to your customers. Customers will trust you to provide reliable information and solutions as you continue doing this over time. When it comes to making a purchase, they will know you are at the top.
Brand authority can also be contributed to by your blog in other ways — some of these we have already discussed. Your website ranking high on Google is a sign that your company is a leader in your field. Blog posts are shared frequently on social media channels. This builds social proof and shows potential clients that you're an expert.
Your ecommerce blog can be summarized as a way to show customers that they can trust you and also rely upon you to give accurate answers and expert insights.
Brand visibility increases
Ecommerce businesses benefit from blogs by increasing brand visibility. This is achieved in two ways: shareable content and search engine rankings.
We all know how important it can be to appear on search engine result pages (SERPs), so let us now focus on sharingable content.
It is content that people are likely to share via other channels. This is done by sharing it on their social media channels but also by sharing it with others in their networks when they find it useful or recommend it.
This is because people trust testimonials and recommendations of buyers more than brands. Your blog can be leveraged to build brand advocates that will voluntarily promote your products. A total no brainer.
Engage customers with ease
You have many ways to interact with your customers through blogs. When you share content they enjoy and interact with, you build trust. You can also interact directly with your readers via comments and social media posts that feature your content. This will make customers feel more connected to you and your brand, while also creating a sense of community within your audience.
The Complete Guide to Running an Ecommerce Website
We now know the reasons why an ecommerce website is important. Let's move on to managing it. We'll first discuss how to leverage your blog to grow your brand. Next, we'll discuss how to maintain your blog on a daily basis.
Make your blog a business tool
It's easy to find
Your blog should be as easy to locate as possible. Here are some surefire ways to achieve this.
Your blog should be placed on the main navigation of your website. The navigation on your site is what visitors use to navigate your content and decide if you can meet their needs. Make sure your blog is visible on your landing pages. This can be done by creating feature posts on your landing page that highlight popular or recent articles.
This is how Marketing Insider Group does it:
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It may seem like you feel that a blog on your main navigation, or landing page, could distract from other places where customers are being sent (e.g. to your ecommerce store for purchase orders), but most people spend only 15 seconds on your website and 95% of them will not return after their first visit. There is no perfect path to customer conversion.
It is better to make sure that visitors continue to visit your website. High-quality, relevant and interesting blog content is a great way to do this. To keep users on the right track, you can add CTAs or other conversion strategies to your content.
Make sure that it represents your brand's personality
This is an easy one — don't be boring! What is your brand's uniqueness? What makes customers want to purchase your products? What is your brand's tone? What are some of the most interesting things you can say?
When you build your blog content, ask yourself these and other questions. Your blog should not be used to rank high. Your brand should be represented on your blog. This should reflect in the topics you choose, your writing tone (ex. formal vs. informal or funny vs. serious), as well as your blog layout.
Make sure you are creative in creating ecommerce blogs that truly showcase the uniqueness of your brand.
Use lots of visual content
Visual content is one of the most popular and easily shared types of content on the internet. Consumers love video content. These are some statistics to be aware of:
- Cisco stated that video will make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2022.
- Videos have 53 times the chance of ranking on the first page of SERPs than any other SEO tactic.
- 84% of consumers were convinced to purchase a product by watching a video.
These are difficult numbers to ignore. Here are some insights on visual content.
- Infographics can be shared 3x more than any other visual content.
- Images on social media get 2.3 times as much engagement as posts that are text-only
- Images get 94% more hits than articles without images
This is the key takeaway: Engaging, high-quality, and shareable visual content is essential for all ecommerce blogs.
You can be your brand advocate! You can grow your brand advocates army, but you shouldn't leave it to them to share your amazing content. For maximum visibility, post your blog articles to your company's social media channels. Encourage your employees to share them.
Day to day management of an ecommerce blog
Decide who is responsible
If it is an afterthought, managing an ecommerce website won't work. Make sure you have a clear idea of who is responsible for managing your blog. Effective communication is key to ensuring that the blog is a top priority for your team. Your blog will soon fall through the cracks, and you'll lose steam.
To stay on top, use a content calendar
Businesses use content calendars to manage their entire content strategy, including the ecommerce blog. There are many benefits to using them, including:
- It will help you stay organized and more accountable.
- This will give you a better understanding of your content. Instead of focusing on the next blog post, you will gain a greater understanding of your content trends and themes over time.
- It helps you to identify opportunities – A content calendar can help you identify potential collaborations and source content ideas from outside of your company.
- Better content leads to better results. Your content will get better over time if you plan it better. Higher marketing ROI means better content. Better content equals higher engagement.
Plan for larger business initiatives
Your company schedule is a great place to start looking for content ideas. You can plan content around key events such as product launches and sales.
If you have to outsource,
Did you know that 70% of brands outsource content creation to specialized agencies?
You probably don't have the time or energy to manage your blog strategy and write blog posts if you are a business owner. You might not be able to hire staff in-house.
Outsourcing can take care of what you cannot do in-house.
Partnering with professional content strategists and creators can help you build a more powerful blog without the need to go through all of the costly and time-consuming trial and error that comes with business blogging.
Outsourcing allows you to pay only for the services that you require and scale up or down as needed. You are more flexible and ready to pivot.
Get an ecommerce blog to boost your business.
Marketing Insider Group is here to help you make blog content a key part of your marketing strategy. Marketing Insider Group has a team that includes SEO writers and experts who will work together to provide you with ready-to-publish content every other week for a whole year. ).
Take a look at our Content Builder Services, or book a consultation to get started.
Marketing Insider Group published The Complete Guide to Managing an Ecommerce Website.
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By: Michael Brenner
Title: The Complete Guide to Managing an Ecommerce Blog
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/the-complete-guide-to-managing-an-ecommerce-blog/
Published Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2021 11:00:04 +0000