Are
you thinking of setting up a blog for your
online store?
Well
here at AmeriCommerce we just
love
to blog and it's not hard to see why...
Did
you know that when companies blog
20
or more times in a month, they see the most return in traffic and
leads?
We
can't reiterate enough that it will bring traffic to your site –
hey it brought you here didn’t it? But that's not only reason to
set up an Ecommerce blog...
Do
I really
need
a
blog?
The
answer to that question is simple,
yes
you do. But don't take our word for it, let's look at the cold hard
stats...
-
92%
of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired customers
through their blog.
Blogging
doesn’t have to take the shine away from your products. In fact, it
can be the perfect tool to showcase them! If you want to see more
customers coming your way then it's time to get busy blogging!
-
Companies
that blog receive
97%
more links to their website
Building
your inbound links is pretty darn important. It's the stepping stone
to bringing leads to your store and moving you higher up the search
rankings.
-
Companies
with over
400
indexed pages generated the most traffic and leads
Whenever
Google checks your site, it ranks you higher if you have more pages
because Google loves to see new content! So the more blog posts you
write, the more pages you'll have on your site.
-
Blogs
have been rated as the
5th
most trusted source for accurate online information
Building
customer trust is really important to the success of your store. And
if you start creating great blog content, you'll be proving to your
audience that you are a reputable business, and you can be trusted.
So
how do you get started? Follow these 4 easy steps....
Step
1: Come up with fresh ideas
First
step to blogging to come up with your blog topics.
Now,
we're about to let you in on a big secret - blogging isn’t just a
random thing. Your blog topics and titles will make
all
the difference to how much traffic you see, so you need to get this
part right.
Don't
just write a blog because you think it'll direct traffic. Do your
research and find out exactly what it is that your customers want to
read about.
As
an Ecommerce owner, your audience will typically be interested in
finding out how you can solve their problems with your product.
Your
blog goals should be:
-
Convince
people you are an expert
-
Offer
advice and how-to guides
-
Show
how you can solve your customers problems
-
Provide
visuals for a more engaging post
So
when it comes to your blog, you need to grab their attention with a
powerful headline. If you check out the
HelpScout
blog
you can see that they use powerful headlines and simple images to
encourage people to click onto the post and read further.
Top
tip:
If you're struggling to come up with clickable headlines then check
out forums. It's here that your customers will be asking questions to
the problems they have.
Step
2: Create a publishing calendar
A
publishing calendar will help to keep your blog organized so that you
don't miss out on creating a single post. Once you start to blog
regularly you'll begin to build a following of people who actually
want to subscribe to your posts. So the last thing you want to do is
let your fans down!
Creating
a publishing calendar may sound like a lot of hard work, but it
doesn’t have to be.
Don't
wait until your publishing date to come up with ideas. Set aside a
couple of hours per month to come up with a content schedule that
details your blog post titles, the date you're going to write them,
and the dates in which you want them to go live. That way, you'll be
all the more likely to stick to the schedule.
Once
you know your publishing dates, make sure that you align it with your
social calendar so that it doesn’t clash with any other content.
Your blog content should be given as much promotion as possible, but
we'll come to that soon.
Top
Tip:
Check
out editorial calendar tools such as
Google
Docs
,
Kapost,
WordPress
Editor
,
or
HubSpot.
You can collaborate with colleagues and decide on topics to keep your
blog super organized.
Step
3: Create and set up your post
So
now you're ready to create your blog post!
Did
you know that out of the 80% of people that read your headline, only
20%
will continue to read the rest of the post. Ouch!
When
a person lands on your post they will make an assumption as to
whether it's worth their time reading on, so it's super important
that your blog is engaging as can be.
Our
top tips for creating an engaging post:
-
Use
powerful headlines that sum up what each paragraph is about
-
Break
your content up with bullet points
-
Use
stats that will back up what you are saying
-
Include
examples with images, infographics, or videos
-
Ask
your readers questions and encourage them to leave comments
-
Wrap
up your post with an actionable takeaway and CTA.
How
to set up a post
Depending
on your content manager will depend on how you set up your post, but
generally it's an incredibly easy thing to do. You can schedule your
posts and include keywords to make sure your post gets the exposure
that it deserves.
If
you are using the AmeriCommerce platform then you're in luck because
we made a video about how easy it is to set up a post. Check it out
below!
Step
4: Promote your post
The
last and final step is to get busy promoting your post!
The
first place to promote it is across your social channels. Pay
attention to when your audience is most active and work that into
your publishing schedule. Be sure to take advantage of Social Media
Management tools so that you can schedule your posts to automatically
publish to your social channels.
And,
depending on how much budget you have you can also pay to promote
your blog. This will help target a larger audience for a better
response.
Related
reading: How
to use Twitter ads to grow your Ecommerce store
For
further exposure of your post, another great tip is to find
influencers who have blogged about similar topics in the past. You
can contact them to let them know that you appreciate their work and
have blogged about a related topic – and then ask if they would
they either link to your page or share your post on their social
feed.
By
attracting influencers within your niche to share your posts, you'll
gain more exposure and drive credible inbound links to your online
store.
Takeaway
The
truth is, blogging doesn’t have to fill you with dread. It's easy,
it's cost effective and if you do it right, it won't take up much
time.
And
since we just showed you how to do it in 4 simple steps, what have
you got to lose?
Get
busy blogging today and if you want an customer-built blog to go
along with your online
store
then give us a call today!