5 Tips for Re-Energizing Your eCommerce Site’s Blog

If your ecommerce blog is getting a bit stale, check out these five tips to re-energize and breathe new life into it.

1. Launch a podcast

Podcasting was all the rage a while back, and it’s still incredibly popular. Considering how simple it is to launch a podcast, you can take advantage of this content format as well.

What you will be discussing in the podcast will depend on your audience’s interests. For example, you can dive deep into the world of your products and share tips and tricks on subjects you know your audience is interested in, or you can have guests - the options are numerous.

Podcasts work because we can use them to augment otherwise dull activities (cleaning, waiting, the commute). However, you still need to make sure yours is worth the listen.

A major brand that has used podcasting to their advantage is Sephora with their #Lipstories podcast. This is where they’ve hosted female guests aiming to encourage female influencers and leaders. Plus, since the branding was tied with an actual product campaign, it spoke to a wide array of the brand’s customers and helped them promote a range.

2. Focus on your niche

The challenge ecommerce blogging sometimes comes up against is knowing what to write about. There will often be hundreds of topics you could cover that will interest your audience, but will they help you sell more products?

Content that’s too broad may provide some value, but it won’t be as relatable to your brand goals and products. You may end up casting too wide of a net, trying to hook readers who won’t ever make a purchase and will just be there for the blog.

Take a look at how Future Kind has solved this issue. They don’t discuss vegan issues on their blog that aren’t directly tied to nutrition, nor do they discuss nutrition issues that don’t relate to veganism. That way they have limited their audience to those readers who are vegan and who will likely be interested in making a purchase as well.

3. Publish highly readable content

For blog content to be effective, it should also be easy to read, skim and digest.

Most people won’t read the entire article; they’ll just read the heading and the bits they’re interested in. If your post consists of nothing but a wall of text, chances are they will immediately run right back to the search results page and look for a resource that is easier on the eyes.

For example, this post from Preset Love does a great job of breaking a very long resource down. There’s an image to go with each heading and buttons to break the article up into smaller sections. They also use a lot of bold to draw the eye to the most important parts of the post.

This is a formula you should try to emulate:

• Plenty of quality images to go with each post
• Numerous headings that also happen to be your main talking points
• Clever use of formatting to direct attention

You can also throw in social media images or tweets, videos and audio files – anything that helps the article become more than just one large unreadable chunk.

4. Get practical

As an ecommerce blog, you’ll have the unique opportunity to write about things that actually matter to your audience. Since they’re looking for a product, they want to know how to do a certain something. Simply by providing the guide, you’ll be offering a lot of value.

This also gives you the opportunity to market your product to audiences who haven’t yet discovered your brand. A how-to guide has the potential of attracting a wide audience, and if you insert clever links and product recommendations into these posts, you can expect to see some conversions as well.

This post by Transparent Labs is as practical and useful as online content gets. The topic is exceptionally popular, the content is actionable, backed by science and extremely authoritative.

Posts like these go a long way towards not only establishing the brand as experts in their field, but also ensuring that the audience comes back when looking for more answers.

You don’t always need to provide the ultimate guide on a topic. Answering a simple question can be enough. However, if you’re able to offer unsurpassed insight, especially into a topic that is complex, take the time to do it.

5. Tell success stories

Finally, you also want to show your audience what it is you can do for them. How will your products help them solve a particular issue or achieve a certain result?

The best way to do that is to write success stories based on the real-life results your current customers have already achieved. As long as you refrain from bragging and being overly self-promotional, these kinds of posts have the power to inspire a lot of conversions.

You can also let the customers write the posts themselves or use a Q&A format. This is what Real Thread has done in a post that will offer valuable insight and inspiration for its readers. The post is also interesting to read and very personal. Even if you’re not in a similar industry as their client, it’s filled with lessons any business owner would be glad to hear.

Aim to use stories that have a certain appeal and from which readers can learn clear lessons.

Final thoughts

Blogging in the world of ecommerce can be a bit of a challenge initially. But once you find the right format, tone of voice and subject matter, you’ll be able to leverage these posts into quite the improved conversion rate. Remember: always consider your audience’s interest instead of your own, and go from there.