To reach a wider audience, improve sales and boost revenues businesses must be able to create and maintain useful blogs on their websites or on various blogging platforms. You may know all the search engine optimization tricks but SEO techniques will not help you as an e-commerce merchant if the blog content is average. Blog writing for eCommerce websites is not easy and most businesses are entrusting this activity to web-content writing professionals.
In 2017, e-commerce competition has become stiff, and brands have to find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. The best way to go into creating a marketing strategy is by understanding prevailing e-commerce trends. For instance, while mobile traffic has dramatically increased, about 50% consumers still prefer the PC for purchasing, and subscription based business models are gaining popularity.
As understanding of the trends and tips to create conversion-oriented content will better position you to capture your target audience. Here are the top five blogging tips to help you create great content for blogs.
Personalize it
Make the content personal and informal. Readers and potential customers often develop relationships with the blog writer and this is what keeps them coming back for more. Blogs should be used to educate, inform, guide, inspire and encourage its readers. To add a more personal touch to your blog posts, always identify the writer by name even if the post is being written on a company blog. Avoid identifying the writer as “admin” and also make sure to add a picture of the writer.
Keep it simple
In each blog post, make sure to elaborate only on one topic. For example; if your company sells electronic gadgets through its website, make sure to talk only about the iPhone5 in one post. If the blog is being used to market company products then focus on one topic per post to improve search engine rankings of the blog. Also, do not stuff the content of each post with many keywords just to improve rankings. Cover one topic and include only one relevant keyword. Content that is in-depth and informative are ranked higher by search engines. This also provides authoritative content to the readers.
Content should be original
This cannot be emphasized enough – all content in your blog must be original. Avoid copying or duplicating content from other websites as this could lead to plagiarism issues. Understand the topic, research on it and write the posts yourself. Another tip to keep in mind is that content should not be repeated in the same blog.
Keep the reader in mind
Some bloggers believe that if they write about something they are passionate about then their content will be engaging. This is true and such blogs attract people who have similar interests but this style of writing is not advisable for e-commerce blogs. Passionate writing on your specific interests is great for personal blogs but writers for company blogs must keep readers and customers in mind. The purpose of blogs on e-commerce websites is to inform the readers about the products and services offered by the company. Ensure that the blog has news related, industry trends and product related articles to engage the customers. You can also include top-10 lists, How-to articles, tips, etc.
Post regularly
If you have not outsourced your blogging needs, then you are probably juggling the management of the company blog with other critical tasks. Even if blogging is not your full-time activity, you must publish posts frequently to maintain the interest of readers. A marketing blog should be updated with new high-quality posts at least twice a week. Make sure to include some news related posts in the blogs periodically. Frequent blogging ensures that readers keep coming back for more. Nothing is more important to e-commerce websites than sustained interest in their company and products.
Note: This post was first published in Nov 2012 and has since been updated with additional information.