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What if I told you that adding blog marketing to your ecommerce marketing strategy can easily drive an additional 10,000 visitors per month to your ecom store for free? No way, right?
But, it is true. And blog marketing is exactly how I drive more than half of my monthly traffic to my own store month after month for free. In fact, just one of my blog articles consistently attracts more than 4,000 visitors to my ecommerce store each and every month.
Writing blog posts can be tough, especially if you have never used content marketing before. But, the benefits that blog marketing can have for the growth of your ecom business are enormous. Not convinced?
In this article, you will learn these 7 ways to use blog marketing to explode your ecommerce store:
- Establish yourself as an industry expert.
- Promote your products.
- Rank for keywords
- Build backlinks
- Build internal links
- Add fresh content
- Create shareable content
1. Establish Yourself as an Industry Expert
Are you simply a seller who lists stuff for sale or are you a leading expert who is passionate about your products? There is difference and savvy consumers can tell which one you are. An ecommerce store that keeps a finger on the pulse of their industry and continuously publishes high-quality content will be remembered and highly regarded.
Would you rather purchase a tech product from a new pop up ecommerce store you have never heard of or from an online store with lots of interesting and informative content that reflects product knowledge? Buying online is still a new experience for many consumers. Enriching your ecommerce site with high-quality content promotes trust and improves conversions.
2. Promote Your Products
Obviously, the main objective is to sell your products. People do not like to feel like they are being sold, which is why blog marketing converts to sales so well. Leading with a valuable article draws your target audience in and gives you an opportunity to conversationally discuss why your product is so important.
Which passage are you more likely to click?
- XYZ Home Security is the leading brand in home security providing safety assurances for your entire family.
OR
- Last week my family experienced one of our biggest fears. After five years of living in our home, someone tried to break in. We were all in bed sleeping when our XYZ Home Security alarm sounded. Luckily, the burglar was startled by the ear piercing alarm and left before doing much damage. Because the XYZ Home Security system has motion-activated cameras, the police are confident that they know who the guy is.
Storytelling through blog marketing is relatable and far more effective for converting visitors to buyers.
3. Rank for Keywords
Stuffing product titles and descriptions hoping to rank on the first page of Google no longer works. Google has become more intuitive and your website will be penalized for keyword stuffing. So, how can you add the right keywords for search engine discovery without being obvious? Blog marketing is a natural way to add the keywords you want to rank for without killing your product pages with conspicuous keyword placement.
Do you need to rank for the keyword “gardening tools?” Write a blog article called “Your Garden Will Thank You for These Top 5 Gardening Tools.” Strategic placement of the keyword throughout a long-form blog article will give your store the best possible chance of ranking on page one.
4. Build Backlinks
Google loves backlinks and they reward websites that have them. Backlinks occur when other websites, not affiliated with your business, link to your ecom site. For example, since we are talking about backlinks, this link to an article about backlinks is a backlink. See what I did there?
Unless you have an original, stand out product in your store, it is unlikely that anyone will provide a backlink to one of your product pages. However, content writers love to link to blog articles that support the topic of their article. Adding blog content to your online store will increase the likelihood that a content writer will see value in your message and link back to your website.
5. Build Internal Links
Internal links are similar to backlinks, except they link to other content within your own website. Google also loves internal links because they help to keep website visitors on your site longer, reducing your bounce rate and increasing engagement.
Going back to the gardening tools example, your product page for a composter can link to your article about the top 5 gardening tools. The internal link to the blog article encourages visitors to remain on your website longer and also introduces them to other cool gardening products that they may want to purchase.
6. Add Fresh Content
Unless you are frequently adding new products to your store, how will you add fresh new content to your site on a regular basis? Experts agree that Google uses “content freshness” in a number of ways to rank websites. Adding blog content and updating old content are the kinds of factors that Google pays attention to when deciding which website to rank highest. Additionally, many people use the “time” filter to populate new content into their search feed and without fresh content, your ecom store will not be part of the filtered results.
Google search algorithms give bonus points to blog content that attract comments and ones that are regularly shared. Publishing relevant and timely blog content will help your ecom store check both of those boxes.
7. Create Shareable Content
As mentioned above, Google and other search engines use signals to rank website content in search listings. One of these signals is sharing. When content is frequently shared, search engines assume that the content must be of value. Google has made it their mission to deliver valuable content to those who use their platform to search and they pay close attention to shared content.
Creating and publishing blog content on a regular basis (at least once per month) not only enriches your online store with value, but it also fills your store with content that is easy to share. When content is relevant and shared frequently, it has the potential of “going viral.” It is not uncommon for one blog post to suddenly skyrocket traffic to an ecommerce store, ultimately resulting in sales. Not only will others share your content, but you can share it as well. Email marketing, social media, and even your email signature are great ways to easily share your blog content and promote your business without being too “salesy.”
With hundreds of factors being carefully considered by Google algorithms, moving your ecommerce store up to the top of Google searches can be a slow and frustrating process. Driving traffic to your store and putting your products in front of buyers can be equally as daunting. Blog marketing is a great way to accomplish both of those goals while enriching your customers with valuable information.
Do you want to learn more about creating the perfect blog posts for your ecommerce store? The Blogging for Shopify Bundle provides the exact tools that I use to drive more than 13K visitors to my ecommerce store each month with blog marketing.
