Ecommerce companies have the challenge of growing sales through their own websites.
That’s a big challenge especially if you’re starting from scratch.
One option to help supplement the growth of an ecommerce website is to sell the same products on marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.
In fact, many of the largest ecommerce companies in the world sell on those sites even though they sell a lot on their own websites.
But managing the entire process of selling on multiple marketplaces can get tricky. There is inventory to manage, listings, shipping and more.
That’s where Solid Commerce comes in. They help ecommerce companies take advantage of selling on other marketplaces.
Today, we’re going to look at what Solid Commerce is doing with their blog strategy to attract potential ecommerce clients.
1. Lots Of Potential Topics
When you’re in the B2B world there is one main thing your target clients are worried about: Sales.
Sales and Marketing are two big topics that many CEOs and executives are thinking about all the time. But they’re also looking at all aspects of running the business and making it successful.
So Solid Commerce has the right idea when they look at blog topics. They’ve written on email marketing, blogging, customer service and more.
Solid Commerce helps ecommerce businesses to get more sales by selling in marketplaces. Those clients are looking for information about that specific topic, but they’re also looking for information on other topics.
And Solid Commerce is and can continue to cover a lot of those topics with their blog posts. And it will attract potential clients in the long run.
2. Pros And Cons Posts
This was a good idea for a blog post.
Solid Commerce did a pro and con list for a few major online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. They compared the sites and what each offered for ecommerce businesses.
This is more of a specific post for potential readers looking specifically for information about selling their ecommerce products on marketplaces. They would definitely find a post like this useful.
I can imagine that when you’re thinking about selling your products on those sites that you’ll need to do a lot of research. And you would appreciate an expert with experience in the industry like Solid Commerce providing some information.
The key here is that it’s done with the ecommerce company in mind. All the information is concerning their point of view, which is important with blogging.
3. Specific Tips
This is another specific post about listing products on marketplaces.
The title caught me off guard at first. I used to work for a cataloguer and multi-channel meant catalog + online, but I can see how for ecommerce companies that it would mean putting products on different marketplaces.
Anyway, this post has some really good information in it and tips for ecommerce firms.
The balance with posts like this is if they should be done as a blog post or content on a page that discusses your product/service.
It can work as either, but the way I like to think about it is where the reader is in their sales cycle.
If it’s the first time a person is coming to your site it will often be through a blog post. They might not be searching for what you sell now, but if you wrote about something else they were interested in you can get their attention and introduce them to your brand.
From that blog post they can discover who you are (about page) and what you offer (homepage and services page).
I think in this case the Solid Commerce post works well as a post. It provides tips for the target reader and tips usually belong on a blog whether they are specifically relating to what your service is or something more general.
4. Quick Tips, Intros And Conclusions
This is a post about blogging for ecommerce companies.
I think blogging can definitely work for ecommerce companies. And that’s what Solid Commerce is saying. They have five great reasons that blogging is beneficial for ecommerce companies. They even have data cited to back it up.
The only thing I would mention is that it’s good to have an intro and conclusion for most blog posts. It seems to help with the flow of the article and you can end with a call to action to get new readers to move to another piece of content or to your email list so you can keep foster the new lead.
5. External Linking
In just about all the posts on Solid Commerce you’ll notice that they often include external links to other sites.
Here is one post with some good examples of external links.
One of the questions I get about business blogging is about external linking. The question is:
Why would we want to send readers away from our website?
I can see the point of the question.
The main reason to include external links in your post is to add credibility to the post. When you make claims it’s good to include information that backs it up like data, studies, etc.
Readers might click to see the source, but often they’ll open in a new tab or come right back to your post. If you’re providing good content the reader will want to come back to your site. They won’t just leave mid-post and not come back.
Another reason for external linking is that you’re paying it forward.
You want other sites to link to you, right?
Of course. We all do. A good way to build your online reputation is to link to other sites. This can, over time, lead to incoming links to your site. The more people that know about your site the more people that will link to you.
And you’re also looking at helping readers with your blog. You want to provide them with a great experience and great information. And to provide a great post for the reader you often want to include links because those links help your reader.
Conclusion
Solid Commerce does a lot of good things with their blog. It looks like the blog has been up for a couple years. I’m sure they’re busy growing the website, but hopefully they’re able to commit to a regular blog schedule.
As I mentioned earlier, they have a lot of topics they could cover. They could do weekly posts or even more than weekly if they wanted to. They already have some great content on the site. It’s a great example of a B2B working to attract potential clients with a business blog.