Blog

More and more eCommerce websites are popping up to sell various goods and services online. The COVID-19 situation only exacerbated the need to do more business online and we were already headed that way. Amazon and pretty much all major retailers have changed the game with their online storefronts. It’s so easy to shop online and get what you need from the comfort (and now safety) of your own home.

Small businesses are seeing the benefits of eCommerce websites to sell their stuff. In fact, right after I finish writing this article I am going to work on building a new store-based site for a local company I am partnering up with.

eCommerce Site Content

Building an eCommerce site will be a new experience for me, but it’s something I’ve been very interested in for awhile. As you know, my main focus is on blog content and many small business owners think that their site needs to be one or the other. It either needs to be focused on direct sales (eCommerce) or it needs to be focused on indirect sales through branding, informational content and SEO-driven blog posts.

In reality, your blog and your online storefront can work hand-in-hand. The blog gives people more ways to find your site, and thus have reasons to purchase your products and services. Someone may be searching for a specific product. In that case, they find your site through the storefront (and more specifically, that particular product page). In other cases, someone may be searching with broader terms. This is where your blog and other rich site content will help with the site’s SEO potential, in general. Blogging is always good for organic SEO.

Should the Blog Approach Be Different for eCommerce?

Now, the big question is if the approach to the blog on a direct-sales-oriented website needs to be different than on a more branding-oriented site. The answer is some “yes” and some “no.” Yes, you want to incorporate some more direct sales messages into the blog posts. But no, you still want the overall tone to be informational, educational or engaging. If every blog post is just “buy our stuff now,” then nobody will read the articles. If your sales message is too subtle or soft, then it won’t drive traffic to your product pages. As with so many things in life, you need to strike the right balance.

Keep the general messaging of your blog posts about providing information, insight and resources for specific topics that people will be interested in. Keep the content engaging and interesting to read. Then, you can pepper in some sales messages and plug some specific products.

For instance, you might have a blog article that provides tips to overcome a common problem. It just so happens that one or more of your products happen to be ideal for solving this problem. Make a general case for what kind of tips and solutions the reader will need, and then include a simple link to the product page. Don’t go on a long sales pitch about the product, just reference it as a solution to the particular problem. Entice them to click through and learn more.

Use Internal Links

Internal links will be crucial to the success of a blog tied in with an online store. Don’t go crazy plugging every product in every post, but be targeted and specific with what you want to promote in any given article. Think about the unique problems that each of your products solve, and that should give you a great list of blog topics to pull from as you produce content from week to week!

If you have an eCommerce site (or any type of website) and are looking for blog content services, contact NextGear Marketing today!