How Blogging Benefits Your E-commerce Business
E-commerce businesses face stiff competition online every day — not just from competitors within their niche, but also from Behemoth online retailers like Amazon and Alibaba that sell an abundance of just about every type of product available on the market. In order to give your business a fighting chance on the web, you'll need a robust marketing strategy that may include networking with other businesses, social media marketing, and paid advertising among others.
However, one marketing strategy that often gets overlooked by e-commerce businesses is blogging. That's usually because these businesses don't understand how blogging works or they fail to see its benefits. But regularly posting new content to a blog can be a straightforward, inexpensive way to boost the bottom line of almost any type of business. If you're seeking out new ways to promote your online enterprise, and you don't already have a blog, here are some benefits of starting one today.
IT WILL GIVE YOUR COMPANY A VOICE AND CONTROL OVER YOUR MESSAGE
The Internet is filled with so much noise and sadly, businesses have very little control over it at times. Clients can voice their opinions, good or bad, about your company, products or services on social media. Competitors can put out negative claims against you and push these ideas on their own channels and blogs.
It’s daunting to realize that other people can control how others perceive your brand. But blogging gives you a voice and a means to express your ideas. What’s more, you have total control over what you want to say and how you want to say it.
Having the ability to express and control your message through your blog establishes trust with your customers. A website can feel impersonal and commercialized, but blogging humanizes a brand and makes the online experience feel more personal. It also gives you a chance to clarify your beliefs and message. So if someone attacks your brand, your blog can be the place where you counter and respond.
IT PRODUCES TRAFFIC FOR YOUR SITE
Blogging is one of the most reliable ways to send that all-important traffic to your website. For instance, an e-commerce site could be likened to a massive building with no windows or signages and only one nondescript door. It doesn’t matter if the building is in the middle of a busy city, customers will still have problems noticing or locating it. The same goes for a website without a blog. However, an e-commerce business with a blog will find that every post brings with it an opportunity to add another portal to the site, one that increases its visibility and calls the attention of prospective clients.
BLOGS CAN HELP WITH SEO GOALS
Search engines are always on the lookout for fresh information and content. A blog is a great way to send signals to Google and the other engines that your company’s website is active and has relevant content. It tells the search engines to crawl through your site more often and eventually boosts the odds of ranking for search terms and specific keywords related to your business.
Many e-commerce sites focus on plugging product pages and copy with keywords, but this practice is not as effective as blogging consistently over a prolonged period. High-quality posts with seamlessly integrated long-tail keywords makes your page more visible in search engine results than any amount of obvious keyword stuffing.
IT CAN HELP ESTABLISH YOUR REPUTATION AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER
Blogging can help even small e-commerce sites to build influence in their niche by providing readers with expert and valuable information. With time and the right content, your company blog can become the go-to source for useful, informative, and unbiased content.
BLOGS CAN SAVE YOUR COMPANY MONEY
If you write your own business blog, you'll need to invest valuable time to make it work for you. Otherwise, you may need to hire a writer or two to create enough content to build a strong following. But unlike sponsored posts, social media, and PPC advertisements that require you to keep spending to get exposure online, a company can enjoy a return on its blog posts days, weeks, and even years after publishing it, depending on the relevance and popularity of the topic. As such, blogging makes financial sense for businesses.
With minimal expense and effort, e-commerce businesses can increase the flow of website traffic, boost their SEO ranking, build credibility, and gain customer loyalty from blogging. This is a chance that every business should take advantage of.