4 Benefits of an E-commerce Blog

Should my e-commerce website have a blog?

The short answer is yes!

Content marketing is a fantastic way to generate interest and revenue on your website. However, an e-commerce blog is more than just another way to drive traffic to your site and product pages.

E-commerce blogs have a far greater value and are well worth the time invested to create a well-oiled content marketing machine for your business. We’ve highlighted 4 benefits that all e-commerce businesses crave that can easily be gotten from creating and maintaining an e-commerce blog.

Improve your SEO

Blogging is a great way to improve your search engine optimisation in a number of ways. Use your blog to answer your customers’ – or potential customers’ – questions. Capture them with long tail keywords or questions they are asking which cannot be answered or captured on your main site.

A true content marketing strategy is fuelled by SEO (as our Head of SEO, Josh, pointed out in this blog post). Use keyword research tools like keywordtool.io and Google Keyword Planner to identify high volume search terms and build your content around answering those questions.

A second benefit of blogging to your SEO efforts is that you are creating more pages for your website. This creates more internal links to your homepage. You will also be able to link to your product pages, which will improve their search engine ranking. Google will recognise new updates are being made regularly to your website and will recognise your website as being active. Your ranking will improve as a result.

Download our case study: How Premium Brands Handle Digital Marketing now!

Develop your brand’s voice

Starting a blog on your e-commerce website gives you the opportunity to develop your brand’s voice and identity. You can communicate your brand value and personality more explicitly through the style of your copy, the imagery you use and the types of content you create. You’ll start to prove your business to be trustworthy and an authoritative voice within your industry, too.

You have the opportunity to connect with your audience here. Show your audience what is unique about your business and why your products are the right ones for them. Be authentic with your readers and create content that is going to resonate with them and their needs. Your authority and integrity should be the first thing your readers notice. Your products should be second to that.

I have recently moved into a new flat and have the equally exciting and daunting task of furnishing it. While scouring the internet (predominantly Pinterest) for ideas, I found that Ikea are a great example of a company who have developed their brand’s voice well through their blog. They communicate their values and help establish their brand as a solution to your furnishing problems.

Their articles are short, vibrant and packed with ideas to inspire potential customers. They use products in multiple ways, highlighting the brand’s versatility and include pricing to drill home the affordability of their products. Needless to say, their blog fosters a real, tangible warmth that any consumer would be keen to replicate in their own home.

Promote your products

Your blog should reflect your business, and that includes your products. Showcasing your products on your blog can be a great way to build internal links for SEO purposes, but also give potential customers a better idea of the range of items you have to offer.

You might create a blog post that puts your top sellers to the test, or maybe you could highlight 30 items under £30 for stocking fillers this Christmas. Jessops’ Buying Guides tell customers exactly what they want to know about the photography products they sell.

They have articles highlighting the “10 Things You Need To Know” about new camera models and reviews of the latest Macro lenses. Your blog gives you the opportunity not only to answer the questions consumers are already asking, but to answer questions before your customer asks them, too. Get ahead of the competition and showcase your expertise. Let the buyer know how your products will improve their experience.

Create social content

Social media is a fantastic way to drum up interest in your brand. Engaging your followers in conversation about your business and your products is a great way to increase the reach of your brand on social channels.

Blog content is a brilliant way to spark those conversations. Product promotion is good, but to really connect with the people you want to push further down your funnel, you need to get them invested. Driving your social following to your blog and proving yourself an authority figure with engaging, insightful blog posts will you’re your readers into buyers.

What are you waiting for?

The better planned and curated your blog is, the more traffic will be driven to your site through improved SEO. You’ll also be able to better establish your brand’s voice and highlight how your products can easily fit in with your customers’ lifestyle and improve their current situation. Creating more content to share on social media, and furthering your reach and engagement on those channels will result in people coming back to your blog and e-commerce site for more.

We hope you’ll agree that an e-commerce blog could be incredibly beneficial to your traffic-driving and sales efforts. It’s time to start planning your next digital marketing campaign.

Want to see how top British retailers are handling their blogging efforts and digital marketing strategies? Download our case study now!