Many ecommerce entrepreneurs are wearing so many hats that by the time they get around to blogging, their heads are too swollen to fit into the blogging frame of mind. This is one reason why many ecommerce businesses have little to no blog presence. The ones that do have a blog presence are continually frustrated
by low traffic and conversion rates.
In order to get into the mind of the ecommerce merchant blogger, let’s step into their thought-process for a minute:
It’s 11pm, what do I possibly have to write about. Business or pleasure? Well, tonight I’m too tired to talk about business, so I’ll tell everyone about my new dog. I’ve heard it’s good to give customers a chance to get personal. Plus, everyone likes dogs right?! Tomorrow night, I’ll blog about the new wingdings we’re featuring on the homepage this week. Then I’m off to NYC for two weeks and surely by the time I’m back we’ll have some other new product to blog about.
Entrepreneurs reading this right now are probably a little spooked at how closely that last paragraph reflected their own busy lives, and it’s not a bad thing. We just want to point out a few suggestions that should make your blogging efforts pay off.
Blogging tips
- Create an editorial calendar to support your marketing plan and to stay consistent; a little forethought goes far!
- New product blogs are OK at a 1:4 or 5 ratio, but mix in other subjects (partnerships,general industry news, customer highlights, company staff updates, etc.)
- If you’re going to make a blog personal, make sure it somehow relates to the business. Vanity blogging will get you nowhere.
- Make sure blogs are edited for grammar, spelling etc.; it’s great to find a second pair of eyes to give the blog a look over before publication.
- Include internal links back to your site (good for ecommerce SEO), and even third party sites for reference.
- Include photos, video, and other rich graphic content. A page full of text is a quick turn off to any internet reader.
- Use original content, and make it as interesting as possible.
Remember launching a new ecommerce blog requires patience. In some cases it could take a year or two to gain a solid audience, but even then there are no guarantees. The true test of any blog is to ask yourself these three things every time before hitting the publish button: 1) Is it interesting? 2) Is it original? 3) Is it clear? If the answer to all three is yes, then you’re well on your way. The next thing you need to think about once the traffic is coming is: Are readers going where you want them to go after leaving the blog?
