Advantages Of Having A Blog For Your Online Store
“Blogging is a conversation, not a code”
What is a blog and what is it for?
When a potential buyer visits your store, they may not be ready to buy, but they are sure they are ready to learn. A blog is one of the pillars of content marketing strategy, a concept used to describe the practice of generating valuable content with the intention of educating and helping your potential customers.
It can contain various types of multimedia content, such as articles, audio files, images and videos; you can also connect to your online store. The important thing with a blog compared to other digital marketing tools is that it’s not just another way to superficially sell or be pushy to get people to make a purchase. It is about learning and sharing informative content, this may lead to an informed purchase, but that is not the goal!
“If you’re not doing content marketing, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. And the problem is that other companies will.
7 Advantages Of Having A Blog For Your Online Store
- Gain authority and credibility for your store – when you offer a library of articles, downloads, case studies, videos, and podcasts. This builds trust in your brand and builds a relationship.
- If you become a source for providing answers to the questions your consumers have, you position yourself as an industry leader.
- In a brand, reputation is an intangible and immeasurable value. A blog allows you to build it.
- It gives the opportunity to get shares and generate traffic without spending a dime.
- A good blog makes buyers loyal. If you don’t provide information and education about your industry, your competitor will.
- Adding content to your site allows your store to rank higher in search engines.
- It helps you build a network.
Types of Blogs
- Personal blog: It is a means of expression for those who want to communicate with the world who they are, what interests them and how they see life. It is interesting to note that most of the bloggers who started writing out of passion have evolved their content and online business community to online platforms for courses or e-commerce. A good example of a personal blog is Sincerely Jules, which has 4.9 million followers on Instagram. She is one of the most famous bloggers in the world.
- Corporate blog: The difference between a company that just announces events and press releases on their sites and those that offer diverse content to educate their potential customers is worth noting. Two examples of corporate blogs in the Fintech – Financial technology – industry are Founderlist and Fintual. The first is an interesting example of the variety of formats and topics that you can offer in a blog, the second is a reference to understand how to stand out in an industry, which usually has a serious tone of communication, by using a way spontaneous and irreverent form of expression.
- Professional Blog: An excellent way to create a personal brand for consultants and people who want to stand out from other professionals in the market. The chosen example is the Venezuelan entrepreneur who created a powerful brand through her content, Vero Ruiz del Vizo.
- Niche blog: Those that gather content for people interested in certain topics. One of the niches where there has been an explosive growth of bloggers is fashion. Here is an example of sophistication.
What should i write about
The first thing you need to know to write well is who your buyer is. To do that, it is advisable to create a Buyer Persona, for example:
The main questions you should ask are:
- What are their demographic profiles? Age, income, geographic location, what are your problems?
- What are your goals?
- Where do they look for information?
- Who are your role models?
- What kind of social groups do they belong to?
After clarifying this, make a list of the products and services you offer and what you want to communicate. In the combination of what you need your customer to understand and what you need, lies your field of creation. Read other blogs in your branch to find inspiration. And when you like content, ask yourself: why did it impact me? Write about events related to your business and current trends in your industry. Get inspired by the obstacles you have in your work and that your clients may face. Write about it. If you have a lot of keywords for a post, you can choose to run a series of posts on the same topic. Ask your customers what kind of content they would like to receive.
Content Format
According to Emily Paterson, CEO of Quatrain Creative, which has a team of more than 100 freelancers who write for companies around the world, there should be two types of content on your blog:
- Evergreen: comprehensive and long-lasting content:
- It is published less frequently.
- It is long and detailed.
- It is not an SEO priority, that is, not created to improve the positioning of your store, but to offer a complete education to your customers.
Examples: product guides, e-books, white papers – a document that helps you understand a topic in depth, webinars, and case studies. Snackable: a light and quick content to consume:
It has a short life, which means that it may not be relevant in the coming months.
It’s quick to digest. There is not much depth in the topic. You should always promote the content in greater depth. For example, white papers or other documents to download. Types: posts, infographics, lists, short videos, interactive videos, and contests.
Blogging Secrets
Create visually appealing content! Include images and write short paragraphs.
- Always include a call to action (CTA): read another blog, learn about a product/service, sign up for a newsletter, download extensive content.
- If you upload infographics to your blog, make sure they’re responsive — they look good on computers, phones, and tablets.
- When submitting an image, name it with keywords so Google image search engines can crawl it too.
- Include videos on your blog. (Google often shows videos beginning with these words in search results: how-to, product reviews, tutorials, what’s fitness and sports, the word interview.)
- 50% of search queries use four words or more. Experiment with using longer phrases in your headings, and try using a similar phrase in the first paragraph of the articles you publish. (The keywords must be in the file name, video title and description).
- Create topics for the next 6 weeks and add the publication date to a calendar, try to stick to a schedule. Plan in cycles of 6 months.
- When making lists, remember that the most popular numbers are: 5, 15, 7 and 20. For example, 5 must-haves to decorate your home this winter.
- Other popular trigger words: best, worst, last, biggest, stupidest, funniest.
How to create a blog
To create a blog with your online store, you have two options: host it inside or outside of your platform. The important thing is that, in both cases, it remains visible and connected to your site.
Put a link in your menu, a simple “Blog” is good! Some other terms used are: resources, academia, library, publications, learn, guides. From an SEO point of view, it is 100% recommended that your blog be hosted within their platform, as the more quality pages you have associated with your domain, the better your Google rankings will be.
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