Online activities mean blogging, and this is also true for professional websites.
Real added value, contrary to what some might think, it’s not a waste of time. Starting a blog is a source of acquisition that meets very specific objectives.
On the one hand, it allows you to attract visitors to your websites regardless of the sector of activity (either organically or through social networks), and on the other hand, it’s an effective tool to develop brand awareness.
The main advantage of the blog is the ability to boost the sales of e-tailers by optimizing their online presence.
Statistics prove that creating a blog is beneficial for selling online:
- Small businesses that use blogging see an increase of over 126% in lead generation.
- Companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links.
- B2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads.
- Websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages.
- Websites with blogs have 97% more indexed links.
- In the US, 81% of consumers rely on advice and information on blogs.
In other words, all professional websites should have their own dedicated blog. Brand image, concrete answers to internet users, top positions on search engines, commercial incentives, contact requests... Discover all the advantages of this essential expression space that is the blog post!
What is the purpose of a blog and what is its interest for your company?
1. A professional blog allows you to draw attention to your business
In fact, this is one of the main reasons why entrepreneurs integrate blogs on their site.
It must be said that pro sites usually have several pages (articles, categories, tags), and many of them have the same content. And that's not very helpful for SEO. Not only do the tag and category pages have the same content as the catalog pages, but the same articles may be available on other websites, and this creates duplicate content problems.
With blogging, you'll no longer face this problem. You’ll increase the number of unique pages indexed in search engines.
And the more quality pages you have in the index, the more beneficial it will be for the ranking of your site.
Producing text content is bound to be beneficial for your SEO, especially if you pay attention to SEO methods. You then integrate a web marketing strategy to attract prospects to your site and your articles.
Better SEO means better visibility on the internet and search engines!
In a word, blogging will increase the traffic of your online sales site. But that's not all.
2. Blogging will allow you to create links
Blog posts make it possible to create natural links that’ll increase the ranking of the most important pages of your business site, and for good reason, your readers won’t hesitate to click on these links.
Of course, you’ll have to write high-quality blog posts to attract the attention of your audience and encourage them to visit your site with the intention of converting.
As you can see, it's not about creating a blog for the sake of it.
To generate traffic on your platform, you’ll need to create quality content for your blog posts (engaging content being one of the top three reasons why people follow brands on social networks). Of course, you'll want to make sure you mention the items you sell, for example.
And if you do it right, your readers will most likely share your content on social networks, which will expand your audience and bring in new customers.
A professional blog allows you to make a lasting impression on your prospects and customers. There’s nothing like the regular publication of new (useful and captivating) articles to get a pass in their inbox. Thanks to blogging, you’ll no longer have to carry out several communication actions around your brand. Internet users will visit your site by themselves to see what you offer.
3. It’s the ideal tool to gain consumers' trust
As you know, users need to be reassured before making an online purchase. They want to be sure that they’re not going to throw their money away. This leads 88% of them to search for information on Google (or another search engine) about the product they are interested in—and about the brand in general—before they click the "Buy Now" button.
This is where blogging comes in handy to get potential customers to visit your website.
If you have a blog, it’s very likely that many of your articles will appear in Google's search results. Not only will this increase your visibility on the web, but it’ll also indirectly promote your brand's e-reputation.
Behind a website, internet users have a hard time realizing the expertise and the level of technical skills of a company that offers a solution or a digital tool. Hosting a professional blog on which you talk about news, discuss trends, or offer advice allows you to give credibility to your know-how, prove your expertise, and therefore, give confidence to internet users.
4. One of the objectives is to humanize your activity
Similarly, when a company evolves on the web, it hides behind a website and sometimes very technical tools.
Social media and good community management help you to humanize your business, to show that there are humans who manage it.
A professional blog allows you to present yourself in the first person. You’re directly identified as the author of the articles. And that always gives your prospects more confidence.
Moreover, you can take advantage of this to give your customers a voice!
On your professional blog, you can interview your customers who’ll testify about their experience with your company. This way, you give your customers the opportunity to express themselves.
5. The advantage of a blog: a way to express your creativity
In your articles, you’ll be able to add your personal touch with your writing style.
You can create attractive visuals and write articles that reflect your own personality.
A blog is an excellent way to express your creativity and the creativity of your company's talents.
6. Minimal costs for many benefits
Running a professional blog gives you all the benefits mentioned above for a minimal cost.
The only costs you need to take into account are human resources and possibly the purchase of images or the subscription to graphic design solutions such as Canva to illustrate your articles.
The writing on your blog, the use of keywords, the addition of links to your articles, and the optimization of the structure of your posts will help your site to move up in the search engine results: an essential SEO lever for your business, without you having to spend any money!
7. The goal of blogging: to convert users
We said it in the introduction, and we'll say it again: blogging generates sales because it incites the interest of prospects, piques their curiosity, provokes desire, and pushes them to action.
Blog posts have a persuasive power based on the art of storytelling. Tutorials, presentation suggestions, case studies, charts/graphs, infographics, illustrations, photos, interviews, surveys... everything is beneficial to put your articles in context and thus promote conversion.
Finally, thanks to blogging, you're making customers for life. As consumers yourself, you should know that once a customer finds a brand they like, they’re likely to return.
So with content marketing, you can use carefully written articles to build loyalty and attract new customers.
How often should you publish your content?
When you’ve decided to become a blogger and start creating posts for your business, you’ll find that there’s no specific rule about the number of posts per week or per month. The important thing is to publish regularly.
It’s been proven that websites that publish content regularly have better rankings and attract a greater number of visitors than those that do not.
And since creating great content for a blog takes a lot of time, especially when you’re first learning how to write a blog post, it's crucial to have a solid process in place before you set the schedule.
Busy running your business? No problem. You can outsource this task to an agency that specializes in digital marketing strategies and levers.
Another option is to hire a skilled writer and an SEO consultant who will instruct the writer on the topics to be covered, the titles to be used, and the length of the publications.
In any case, don't set goals that you can't achieve. It's best to start with one blog post per week and increase the pace as you go along.
Why start a blog for your ecommerce business?
Ecommerce web writing will contribute to the development of your online store by generating traffic at a lower cost. With an ecommerce blog, you won’t have to allocate a huge budget for paid ads thanks to a good strategy and a regular publication frequency.
Moreover, it’s not recommended to allocate all of your advertising budget to ads. Why not? Because campaigns on Google Ads or Facebook for attracting site visitors and boosting sales have their limits. If, for one reason or another, you stop paying for ads (for example because you don't get any benefit from them or because the rates go up), the big problem is that the traffic drops, so the sales drop.
So the best thing to do is to juggle between ads and organic marketing methods.
A professional blog is a good alternative to generate traffic. However, we’d like to point out that the results won’t be felt as quickly as with Google Ads and Facebook ads since it takes time to be ranked in Google search results.
In other words, the money you invest in the creation of your ecommerce blog won’t pay off in the short term.
To take advantage of blogging, you'll need to make a plan far enough in advance and be patient, but rest assured, blogging is a good way to gain visibility in the long run.
Our advice: allocate at least 20% of your monthly budget to blogging and other types of content marketing, and gradually increase until the reliance on paid ads is manageable.
Tips and examples for creating your ecommerce blog
There are several ways to create an ecommerce blog, depending on the ecommerce platform you use.
The important thing is not to create the blog on another domain name. The reason is that you want to leverage the pages/postings of the blog and increase the number of pages you have in the index and, of course, consolidate the “link juice” from any links pointing to the blog pages.
With the WiziShop ecommerce solution, the blog functionality is directly integrated into your administration area, and you can choose to activate it in a single click, for free.
Moreover, the solution offers a module on copywriting in its training course to create your quality content.
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To find out which topics are trending, which ones will attract readers, you’ll need to:
- Perform keyword research: to facilitate the process and for more efficiency, you can use tools like Semrush or Ubersuggest.
- Get inspired by your competitors' blogs or blogs on ecommerce: you’ll not only be inspired by their blog posts, but also by the form of the content
Of course, you’ll need to think about creating content focused on your products. This can include, for example, videos in which you show how to use your products or charts in which you compare them to similar items.
Ideas of topics to cover on your ecommerce blog
As you can see, there’s more to a blog than just text-based content. So now that you're about to create your own dedicated blog, we're going to take a look at the eight types of content that are best suited for ecommerce sites.
Case studies
A case study is perfect to explain the usefulness of your product and demonstrate its positive points. The case study should present two situations: a "before" and an "after" situation.
In other words, it should present the problem the user faces, the challenge they face, and the solution, which is your product.
Demonstrations
It’s often said that you have to see to believe: this expression takes on its full meaning in the field of sales, especially in ecommerce.
To attract your future customers, you must show them how your product works and how it can improve their daily lives.
Product launches and announcements
Are you selling a new product? Let your audience know through your blog posts.
Obviously, you'll want to mention all the specifics (benefits and features, price, who it's for) and explain why it's a good deal.
Finally, and very importantly, indicate the procedure to follow to acquire your product.
Improvements and enhancements
Launch day isn’t the only time you can showcase your new products to the public.
You can also get people talking about your products every time you make an improvement or upgrade.
Existing customers, new customers, and even your partners will all be interested to know that you are constantly developing your catalog.
Customer profiles
Customer profiles allow consumers to identify with the products you sell.
People like to see themselves in testimonials and case studies.
That's why it's helpful to write about your different customers and show new prospects that they have something in common with your current customers.
In addition, it’s crucial to build trust by showing them that many people buy and enjoy your catalog.
Tutorials
It is helpful to write blog posts to introduce your item. Tutorials attract prospects who are looking for solutions. Show them how your items meet their needs which will help spread the word about your ecommerce site through your exceptional products.
Presentation suggestions
A presentation suggestion can be defined as the combination of the tutorial and the customer profile.
And no, it doesn't only apply to food!
So don't be afraid to show pictures of your items in your customers' hands.
Create a gallery or include links to Pinterest and Instagram. How do customers use the items you sell on your ecommerce site? How are they personalizing them?
Seeing this, prospects will in turn imagine how they could use your product and will be eager to purchase it.
Contests
Looking for an excuse to talk about your product? Organize contests.
And although you’ll offer your product to the lucky winner, you’ll also take the opportunity to praise its qualities to other consumers.
Still wondering if it's worth investing in a blog for your ecommerce site?
As long as it’s properly configured and managed, blogging will generate organic traffic and serve as a privileged means of communication with your customers.
This will ultimately allow you to increase your blog's visibility, boost your sales, and finally reach the financial independence sought in ecommerce.
