Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Important for Your eCommerce Business
If you’re in the eCommerce game, you know that competition is fierce these days. If you’re not keeping up with the latest trends and best online practices, it’s easy to slip through the cracks.
You’ve probably noticed that most of your biggest competitors have something in common: they all have a blog on their site. Maybe you’re thinking a blog isn’t really necessary for your online store. After all, a blog is just an online journal, right?
Think again! Here are five reasons why blogging should be a top priority in your marketing strategy.
1: SEO - Increase Organic Traffic to Your Online Store
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of your internet traffic through non-paid, organic search engine results. It’s the key to landing on the first couple pages of Google so that your target audience is effortlessly brought to you.
SEO allows for 20 times more traffic opportunity than pay-per-click ads and has the potential to continue to pay off over time (1).
SEO drives 30% of retail traffic, and 20% of online revenue (2).
Think about it this way: when you go to search Google for something like “eco-friendly swimwear,” you’re ready to buy. You already know what you want, you’re just waiting for Google to show you the best place to buy it.
As an established brand with an online presence, it’s paramount to consider these three aspects when developing an SEO strategy:
What would your ideal customer search to find you?
What content does your target audience care about?
How is Google analyzing and interpreting your site’s content?
That being said, a huge aspect of improving your site’s SEO involves producing regular content that is relevant to your target audience and impresses Google’s crawlers.
That’s where blogging comes in.
Every SEO expert will tell you the same thing: Google values and trusts websites that produce fresh, valuable content. (And thankfully, so do your consumers!) Without regular content, it’ll be nearly impossible for your site to land on the top pages of Google (3).
Blogging is the perfect way to produce weekly content that adds value to your customers’ lives and provides them with the information they look for via Google. An SEO-focused blog uses engaging content and detailed keyword research and planning to bring your audience to you.
On top of that, a blog is a space to feature other credible websites and leaders in your industry. This gives you the opportunity to link to credible sources and have them link back (aka backlink) to you, which improves your SEO even more.
Expert copywriters spend a ton of time studying blogging and SEO best practices — mastering techniques involving keyword research, density, and placement. We take the time to understand exactly how long blog posts need to be, the optimal frequency for posting, and ideal formatting that draws the attention of skimmers and Google crawlers. This is important in the ever-changing online world since Google and SEO are always evolving.
2: Increase Your Conversion Rates
A high-quality blog allows for higher conversion rates through persuasive storytelling and call-to-action (CTA) content.
When your blogs have a clear CTA, you inspire your target audience to act. Some common CTAs include:
Buying a product
Subscribing to a mailing list
Challenging a current way of thinking
Downloading an eBook
Learning about and supporting a new cause
Leaving your reader with an impression that brings them back as a future customer
Writing a review
Regular blog posts allow you to focus on one strong CTA per article, so your reader isn’t overwhelmed with unnecessary noise and information. This way, they’ll feel more inclined to commit to that action (4).
Even better, CTAs within blog posts are usually measurable. Using data analytics, you can know exactly how many people click a link or download media within your article. Measurable actions like this allow you to track how effective your blog posts. From there, you can establish even more effective strategies to improve your conversion rates.
3: Establish Your Voice and Values And Connect With Your Customers
Your brand has a unique voice and purpose, and a blog is a perfect place to deliver your message to your target audience. After all, you can only say so much in an “About Us” section of your website.
Spreading your brand’s unique purpose is more important than ever. A 2018 study revealed:
66% of American consumers would switch from their regular products to a new product from a mission-driven brand. This number jumps to 84% for Gen-Z consumers and 91% for Millennials (5).
Along with allowing you to speak your voice and spread your mission, blogs are a great place to build trust with your consumers. Blog posts keep your consumers up to date on the good things your company is doing, while providing them with information that appeals to their values and solves their problems.
Regular blog posts give your target audience the opportunity to really get to know your brand and your mission. Once this trust is established, your readers are much more likely to remember and support you in the future.
P.S. Trust me, this one’s important. As a sustainability copywriter, every day I see firsthand how important it is to bond with your consumer over shared values. Your values are truly what set your brand apart, and they deserve a moment (or several).
4: Establish Credibility And Become An Industry Expert
Writing a blog post is the perfect opportunity to show your customers that you’re up to date on industry topics. The quality, frequency, and relevance of your posts all work towards building credibility with your target audience. But when you combine statistics, research, and SEO techniques in your blog posts, you can quickly achieve industry-expert status in your customers’ eyes.
Picture this: if your brand is centered around slow fashion and using “end of roll” and deadstock materials, a blog is a perfect place to showcase your knowledge on these topics. What does the process look like? How much material are you saving from ending up in a landfill? What’s the impact of one customer purchase? How does your brand’s effort positively impact the environment on a yearly basis?
Blog posts allow you to address all of these questions and many more, especially since your website homepage might not have enough “real estate” to cover all of the topics you’re passionate about. Sharing your unique, first-hand knowledge is crucial in establishing authority with your target audience. They’re drawn to your brand for a reason, so have fun sharing all the information that you both care about!
Blogs are also an awesome way to collaborate with other big names in your industry. Use your blog as a platform to feature other well-known industry experts. When you’re grouped with other industry experts, you’re much more likely to be viewed as one too.
5: Supplement Your Social Media Marketing And Build Your Mailing List
80% of internet users in the U.S. interact with both social media and blogs (6).
Having both makes you a powerhouse in the world of content marketing. Each of your blog posts has a unique URL, so you can easily share each post on your social media. On the flip side, you can also promote your social media throughout your blog. This extends your content-marketing reach, allowing you to cover more virtual ground.
Alongside social media promotion, you can add an email opt-in form at the end of each blog post. Your blog is a place to produce consistent, relevant content — a place that your target audience visits regularly. So why not use this as a space to also gather more email addresses for your mailing list? After all, a rock-solid email list is more important than ever in the online marketing world...
99% of consumers check their email every day, and 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email (7).
You can also leverage your email list to spread the word about new blog posts, so you have plenty of returning readers. It’s a win-win!
Happy Blogging!
As you can see, there’s much more to blogging than what you see on the surface — the most effective blogs require a lot of planning and focused research. But I hope you can see the incredible value that they add to the competitive world of eCommerce. And don’t forget...
Over 409 million people view blog posts every month (8).
So share your story! You deserve to be heard, and your consumers want to listen.
Want help from a professional sustainability copywriter? Contact me.
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