E-commerce business is on a roll these days! Apparently, several investors and entrepreneurs have opted to step in this evergreen industry and most of them have ended up bearing enormous losses. The major reason being, they totally rely on their website and expect fruitful results out of it, which clearly isn’t enough.
Blogging accelerates and derives the relevant traffic to the website and leads them to conversion. The more relevant traffic you get; the more sales you can expect. Below is the process by CoSchedule that indicates how a reader can be converted into a final consumer.
Back in time, people just used to look over the quality of the product in the retail store. But now the system has been digitalized and the quality is examined and assessed by knowledge or expertise of a specific retailer/website. In this regard, blog is a very powerful tool to express your expertise in your niche and you will gain people’s trust.
Lifting your blog to next level and making it profound for your readers requires certain standards and actions, which are demonstrated comprehensively below.
Tip # 1: Optimize your posts with long tail keywords
Blog is considered as the hub of information for the layman users. Long tail keywords work as a bridge that connects users and the source of information. No matter how quality and well researched content you place on your blog, if it isn’t keywords centric then it’s purely useless.
Write on such topics, that users are looking for in their preferred search engines. These small sized long tail keywords derive a huge amount of organic traffic to your website which is remarkably true.
Tip # 2: Selection of a headline
Once you are done with the keywords research; then arrives the headline of the article. If your blog post is ranking in the SERPs on a good position but it’s not attracting the users’ attention, you have definitely placed your cards in a wrong way. Coming up with an exceptional headline is one of the most effective click bait technique.
According to HubSpot, there are 6 characteristics of an exceptional blog title which includes:
Let’s be more concise on what sort of topics actually work for the users. Do you know that the Number headlines have more impact and attraction towards the users? According to the data insights by Conductor:
Source: https://moz.com/blog/5-data-insights-into-the-headlines-readers-click
Tip # 3: Socialize your post with a blogger outreach
Socialization of a brand is essential for every single E-commerce store. In fact, majority of the retailers consider it as a base ground for building their ROI. But social media is not about just promoting your products and blogs posts on your page or run a paid ad campaign.
Brands should be discussed naturally on different social channels, and it should be capable enough to build a proactive engagement among the users. As online shopping is a crowded industry, so it’s tough to step in. Bloggers or influencers who have a large fan following can help you in this regard.
Blogger outreaching can be done for the following purposes:
- Invite bloggers to compose a post for your blog
- Asking bloggers for a feedback and social share on your blog post
- Initiate a roundup post on your blog
- Offer a link bait asset; it can be any visual data, stats, metrics or demographics
- Ask them to review your product
Blogger outreach has been found effective for many E-commerce brands and concluded with amazing results. Though you can’t directly grab audience, so bloggers can help you getting their fan following towards your brand through this blogger outreach technique.
Tip # 4: Craft an occasional link bait asset
Source: http://www.datadial.net/blog/great-examples-of-linkbait-used-on-ecommerce-sites/
A content that attracts links is simply considered as link bait asset. As online shopping business is mainly influenced by the seasonal sales, it’s important to show a certain level of activity that can attract the attention and create hype with in the industry during these seasons. For this you should have an attention grabbing link bait asset.
It could be an infographic, video, long and detailed posts, stats, surveys, demographics, free guides or e-books. Even you try any technique that can directly impacts the ego of a user.
Tip # 5: Cater the mobile readers
With a rapid growth in the mobile traffic, it has now become a common demand of every e-retailer. Even now your in-store shopping habits are being affected by the mobile marketing, that’s shocking right? But it’s true; people do research about their desired products on mobile before acquiring them.
Source: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
First of all, you need to make sure that your website which includes your blog should be mobile friendly in order to give the best mobile user experience. Other than this, you need to follow certain guidelines while writing blog posts including…
Tip # 6: Set a proper blogging frequency
To bring consistency in your blogging, an editorial calendar is a must. You can’t just throw your posts randomly on your blog whenever you feel like. It won’t give users an idea about post timings, topics and frequency of your blog posts.
Your readers should know the publishing date, topics and regularity of your blog posts. For this you need to organize a proper editorial calendar.
Tip # 7: Think beyond the content. Yes! It’s UX
Likewise the website’s UX, the blog’s UX has an equivalent worth. If the readers are getting the desired information in the right manner they will surely consider you in future consequently becoming your loyal customers.
Having the content farm won’t be enough for your audience. They need a proper representation of it. Each and every element should be aligned in accordance with their needs. You can advertise your products in the sidebar if they are relevant to the blog post.
I was looking for some great UX blog designs from different online stores extracted some classy designs. One of them which I liked the most is Sophie and Trey, they are doing a marvelous job on their blog. Simple and decent UX, clear navigation, attractive product images on their blog and informing and promoting their products at the same time. Have a look to their design and simplicity.
Tip # 8: Problem solving content for readers
Blogging is not about just post arbitrary content on the internet. It’s about how you’re dealing with the reader’s problem. Your blog shows whether or not you have the capability to tackle the reader’s problem or you are just pasting out your brochures on their faces.
Write detailed and well-researched guides, how-to, videos, DIY’s, INFOGRAPHICS and other useful stuffs that normally readers are looking for. In this regard, reader’s personas matters a lot so build it first before focusing on other areas.
Below is the example of a post advising users on survival guide. As it’s a guide and detailed post so its social value is more than the others:
Tip # 9: Smart navigational indicators
Proper navigation indicators are highly essential. Search engines love those websites where users actually get engaged. Content itself is not enough to help users engaging on the website, other factors also do matter. Navigation here refers to those elements which help users to point another relevant page, either its internal linking, promotional banners or any other stuff that allow users to explore more.
In a Nutshell
The overall idea and conclusion of this article is that any E-commerce business can’t achieve their desired results without having their hands on a profound blog. The above mentioned tips and tricks are so simple and easily implementable, that any business owner can adopt and execute this. Moreover, they don’t require enough investment for this, these are merely deemed as only ‘mind games’.