Unlocking Ecommerce Success: Harness the Power of Blogging

Ever wondered how owning a blog could skyrocket your ecommerce business? Join us for an insightful discussion on how harnessing the power of blogging can drive sales, foster trust with customers, and showcase your unique perspective. We dive deep into why blogging is still a vital tool in today's digital landscape, as well as the significant impact it can have on your website, even if you write just one blog post a month.

Don't miss our valuable tips on writing captivating and effective blog posts that address common questions, pain points, and industry trends. Learn how to create compelling content that keeps your audience engaged and hungry for more, all while boosting your credibility and authority in your niche. Tune in now and unlock the secret to ecommerce success through the untapped potential of blogging.

Mentioned Resources: 

Getting Started with Blogging - How to Write Effective Blog Content

Introduction to AI - How to use AI in your eCommerce Business

Join entrepreneurs and online business owners just like you in my Free Facebook Group “Website & Tech Tips for Online Business Owners”
 
 Where we help break down the tech and hurdles Online Business Owners encounter!
 
Simply to go ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/facebook/ and answer the membership questions so we know you are a real, warm-hearted, online business owner.

Chapters

• 0:01 Blogging for Ecommerce Success
• 7:04 Tips for Writing Effective Blog Posts

Transcript

Carrie: 0:01

Welcome back to another episode of Ecommerce Made Easy. So this week or work are going to be talking about blogs and why they are great for your business. We do find that some of our customers shy away from long form content such as blogs. But if you really sit back and think about it, how do you use the internet? Much of the time, you will search for a solution to a problem or a pain point you have. Long form content such as blogs can really speak better to a customer's problem or pain points that you solve Many times much better than a product description. So let's dive into how and why blog posts are still a key aspect in generating sales.

Carrie: 0:40

Welcome to the Ecommerce Made Easy podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old My main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the Ecommerce building industry and even more than that in web development, i have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech and to easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned Ecommerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place. So sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of Ecommerce together.

Carrie: 1:13

Welcome back to this week's episode of Ecommerce Made Easy. Today, we're talking about how blogging affects sales and how you can utilize it to your advantage. Even though blogging has been around for a really long time, it's still a great way at helping your website be more successful. So we're going to be diving into why you should consider blogging, as well as what you could blog about. With Ecommerce and online services, you can't really talk to a customer as they browse or when they're at checkout, so how do you get your voice and personality out there? How do you get them to know you better? One of the ways is blogging. Blogging can really help show your unique perspective and voice, giving you full freedom and a medium that you can control, unlike social media, for example.

Carrie: 1:58

It's now summer here and I want to be one of those ones that just get eaten up by mosquitoes. If I go outside, i just get eaten up like crazy. I'm about the only one in our family. That's like I'm candy to them. So one thing I might search on the internet is how do I repel mosquitoes naturally? So let's say you're a company that sells natural ways to get rid of mosquitoes. You could create a blog article about the various plants and oils and other ways to repel mosquitoes.

Carrie: 2:29

Naturally, you wouldn't be doing a hard sell in this article, but you'd be giving back to your customers and potential customers and giving them advice in some many ways that they can do it. So if your article is well written, it will do a few things for you. You will gain trust of this potential customer, since you're trying to help them out and not directly sell to them. You will gain industry authority as an expert in this field. You will have a great SEO opportunity or search engine optimization opportunity, especially if the article is well written, with appropriate keywords and keyword phrases.

Carrie: 3:06

And if you want to go a little tangent on the search engine optimization, search engines now are so much smarter and they really want your articles to read well to a human individual And to be easily understandable. So don't make them too complicated. And search engines will likely rank your website higher in general, because a well written article tends to keep a customer on your website longer. So the longer customers on your website, the more important the search engine will think you are, and so they will raise your rankings in general everywhere across your website. So let's get back to my example of me wanting to search for a mosquito repellent that is natural. So likely if I were on your website and I were searching for mosquito repellents natural ones and I found your website and I'm reading the article, so likely I would get curious about your company and brand. Two, especially if your article is really well written and it's engaging to me and I feel like you understand me and you understand my pain points. So you can see from this, it's pretty endless and kind of simple to be able to write some articles that can really speak to your customers and really help them with what is their problem and what you solve.

Carrie: 4:22

So, but you also might be thinking but, carrie, i don't have time to make content. I'm so busy running my website, my products and my services. I really don't have time. However, you wouldn't have to blog every week. Having a set schedule, as we talked about in other episodes of this podcast, is great for search engine optimization and it's also great for relevance and keeping you out there and having new content on your website. So even once a month would be good. And what if you're only writing 12 articles a year? So once a month. That doesn't sound too hard, right? Just think about all the possibilities. You could write about each of the different products or services, or maybe not even thinking about the products or services, but let's write about the pain points they solve too. And so you're indirectly talking about your products or services with these blog posts. Also, like I said, search engines like to see websites that change and have new content. So if you're creating a new blog post per month or writing them even more frequently, say if you have that capacity, search engines are going to look at you as a more relevant website and not a stagnant website, so it's really going to help your rankings. So, besides boosting your search engine optimization rankings, you can better serve your customers with these blogging.

Carrie: 5:45

So really start to think about it. What product or service do you have and what does it really truly solve for your customers? Let's say you're a shoe company and you make running shoes. I've given this example before because maybe I should start running again, i don't know. But let's say you're a shoe company and some people get shin splints when they run. You could write an article how to prevent shin splints when running And you wouldn't even necessarily have to mention some specific shoes that do solve those pain points. But you could do that too if you can work it in tastefully so it's not like a hard sell, because really for blog articles, i feel like hard sells are a little bit. You don't want to avoid them. If you can, so you should be able to do it like a nice soft sell for that and really speak to shin splint problems or maybe strengthening ankles for running or making sure you don't have knee injuries when running. So the possibilities are pretty endless here. So really sit back and think about how can you serve your customers better. What are their problems? like we're talking about? So I have an action step for you Sit down after this podcast and take 10 minutes And just brainstorm and brain dump.

Carrie: 7:04

Don't edit, just list all the ideas you can think about of how you help people with your products or services. Just start writing them out. Let it all flow and don't worry, like I said, about what you're typing or writing. I do find that when you hand write things, you can be a bit more creative. So dig out that pen and pencil, or whichever one you prefer, and a piece of paper and just get to writing and just dump it all out. So some ideas to spawn for you to think about when you're doing the brain dump is what do your customers ask you frequently? What are the questions you get? Think about these common questions you get. What are some of the pain points you have or they have? What are some of the pain points that you solve? So, like we talked about in the running shoe category, you know, maybe you solve shin splints, maybe you solve knee problems or if you're selling mosquito repellent, that's natural. Maybe you solve keeping your backyard safe from those pesky mosquitoes or keeping you from getting diseases from these pesky mosquitoes. So just really think about all these different ways that you're solving problems. Are there any industry trends or news you could write about that relates to your business? It's gonna apply to some businesses, for example, our business. We tend to write a lot about search engine optimization, marketing and things like that, because that helps our e-commerce customers, you know, have a better store and have a better website, et cetera. So what are some news or trends that you could really talk about with your business?

Carrie: 8:47

What skills or knowledge you could teach? Let's say you are a running shoe company. We'll go back to that one. I'm not sure why I'm stuck on that one, but let's go back to the running shoe company. Let's say that you could teach somebody how to run a 5K or walk a mile a day. Think about these goals that people might be trying to achieve. Or run a marathon, i mean heck. You could go all the way there if you want right, but we probably wanna have small steps too, because you might wanna cater to those that aren't already running. So think about some things you could teach. You know, how do you really get up off that couch and move every day and walk a mile? How do you go from that to being able to run a 5K? So teach some great ways you can really have the motivation and the accountability and different ways you can do it and how you can overcome those days You just really don't feel like getting off the couch and walking. So you can teach people in like that manner.

Carrie: 9:49

What about client case studies? Say, you're a service provider and you are or a coach or something like that, and you help people not with a specific tangible product, but with your knowledge and your services. So why not create some client case studies, as some of your blog posts? Now, obviously you don't want to do these all, because that's kind of more of a maybe a medium sell, i would call it, but these do make great filler articles so that people can see what you can really help them with and what you can do.

Carrie: 10:21

Now, when you are writing these blog articles, you really need to take many different types of readers in mind, and this can be actually pretty simple. It kind of sounds like it could be complicated, but it actually can be really simple. So we have people who will read an article fully and we have people who will skim it. So you want to tailor to those skimmers as well, because the skimmers will become readers who read the full article if you grab their interest with headings and keyword phrases that are bolded, that really grab their attention and pull them in to your paragraphs and to your content. So not only do I want to help you hear with some ideas on how to blog and why you would want to blog, but here's some tips on how to make your blogging better. So really making sure you're thoughtful on your titles and your headings, make sure it's not just a wall of text. Vary it up. Add some photos if you can. That really helps those that are more visual learners than, say, reading learners And really make it all stand out and be unique that way.

Carrie: 11:30

Another key takeaway when writing your blog article is to make sure that your introduction is captivating and really brings the reader into your story. Do you want to make sure that your intro just really grabs their attention And I do recommend for most industries your blog articles probably want to find that right balance between being formal and casual writing, because us as users, tend to understand and read sentences that are more casual and less formal in shorter sentences, not long run on sentences like I'm kind of doing with this sentence right here. So you really want to make your sentences short. So really think about that when you're blogging and writing. Now, if you're more of a person who naturally writes long, complicated sentences, just let it flow and go with that, but then come back and edit it and look at it with a different set of eyes and say how can I simplify this sentence or should I break it into two or three sentences? So making sure that your writing is simple and the rule of thumb is about fifth grade reading level kind of lower than you might think. So you really want to make it, like I said, simple, because people are busy and they're going to probably skim it first. Unless they're really interested in the topic, they're probably going to skim it first and see if it's worth their time to read the whole thing. So make it nice and easy to skim. Don't leave out the juicy bits. You obviously want to create value for them, but simplify it somehow for them with shorter and less complicated sentences.

Carrie: 13:14

Now, i know AI and chat GPT are at all the rage right now, so one of the things you can use that for is not really for writing your blog articles. Your customers want to hear your voice in your story and your thoughts, but those are great tools for when we're stuck, when we're writing. So you can word and architect your questions to an AI program like chat GPT and really ask it you know what is my customer's perspective on this topic or how can I simplify? and then you can give them a paragraph or sentence and say how can I simplify this And it will help give you ideas on how to simplify your subject, your sentence or your paragraph. So you can really use chat GPT and things like that for really just helping you. It is a tool. It's not meant to do your job. It's not meant to do really anybody's job, but you can use it as a tool, just like you might bounce ideas off a friend. You've got an intelligent computer friend with a decent set of knowledge that you can bounce ideas off of, and many times you can find some really great ideas from it. Some of them are not great at all, honestly, but sometimes it really kind of hits the nail in the head and makes you think from a different perspective too. So don't be afraid to explore an AI program such as chat GPT to help you out when writing these blog posts.

Carrie: 14:44

One thing you might also want to consider in your blog post, or a CTA or call to action. So if you want the consumer to maybe go read another blog post or check out a specific product, if you feel like it's an appropriate segue in your blog post to do that, then you can do a call to action. You could also have at the end of your blog post an easy way to sign up for your newsletter, and you can go listen to a previous episode on why newsletters and email marketing is a great for your business, but this can be a great way to really build that like known trust with your blog and then don't shove it in their face, but just make it easy and accessible. If they want to learn more about you and get on your email list, they easily can. So think about what appropriate call to actions can you make in your blog post to make it natural and sound just like you're having a conversation with somebody.

Carrie: 15:43

All right, so let's recap this quick episode this week. So, first of all, even though blogging has been around for a very long time, it is still very effective in creating that human like interaction with your potential customers or your existing customers that are online, since you aren't generally in front of them and can't talk to them. It helps build up that relationship, it helps build up your trust and it helps you gain authority in your industry. It also is great for search engine optimizations and increasing the rankings on your site in general and it's a great way to be found other than your products or services, because you're giving back to the community. You're giving back to other people, typically with a blog article, and really helping them and informing them.

Carrie: 16:36

Also, let's just make sure you have a set schedule. Like I said, once a month is perfectly fine 12 new blog articles a year. That doesn't sound too bad, right? So think about it Now. If you are, have an industry that's more changing, do it more often, but set a schedule and be consistent with it and stick with it and put it on your calendar. If you're one of those people that you might need it on your calendar, put it on your calendar and then make sure, when you do do them, that your end goal in mind is to serve your customers better and help them. And then also, we talked about ways to make your blog post a bit more effective.

Carrie: 17:17

Make sure you have good headlines that really speak to your customer and their pain points. Make sure your sentences aren't too long and complicated so that they're easy to read and easy to scam and just really be yourself, because they want to get to know you and your business so that they know whether you are a good fit for them and that you would serve them well. Thank you for joining us for this week's episode. Be sure to check out our show notes at ecommercemadeeasypodcastcom for more resources related to this topic. We'd appreciate it if you would share this podcast with a friend so that we can help other businesses with their ecommerce and online website services, because my main goal is to help others and other businesses. I love sharing my knowledge. Alright, so that's it for this week and I will see you next week.