Gorilla Group looks like it provides a variety of services to ecommerce companies.
They do everything from working with ecommerce companies to develop strategy to providing the design to building technology and even providing technical services.
It’s the complete package, which can be tricky sometimes, but what makes this work is that they’re really focused on a target customer. They know that they only work with ecommerce companies. They know that target customer well and they dive into all the struggles those clients have that need solutions.
So this should be a good example for our blog analysis. You can dig in a little more on their website to learn about the company and their solutions, but we’re going to move on to their blog strategy.
And I’m guessing they’re doing a good job since they know their target customer so well.
Let’s get into it.
1. “Trending”
The first thing you’ll notice about Gorilla is that they call their blog “Trending”. That’s an interesting take on a blog or collection of resources on a business blog. I don’t think I’ve seen Trending used to describe it before, but I kind of like it and I think it makes sense.
When I think of Trending in this sense I think of things that are important in the industry. In this case it would be the ecommerce industry. And Gorilla have four different categories that all relate to the ecommerce industry:
- News
- Insight
- Ideas
- Site Launches
I think it’s also cool that they include their site launches in the blog. You can create full case studies for the work you do and also create a blog post (or posts) that go into some cool specifics.
The News section is all about the company news at Gorilla. That’s a good one to have. A blog can be the official source of company news if you use it correctly.
Insight and Ideas are pretty close to the same thing and they’re the neat categories where Gorilla identifies questions or concerns their target clients have and answers them with posts.
2. Dates & Frequency
One interesting thing about the Gorilla blog is that they don’t use dates. They don’t list them on the posts or on the main blog page. I even did a little search to see when the posts were shared and search them on Google, but couldn’t find the dates.
It can be a good thing not to put the dates on posts. Some companies like doing that and they take more of what’s called an Evergreen approach to their blogging and content. They create content that is timeless in nature and in that sense the date doesn’t matter.
The other thought is that dates help to keep a blog organized and it gives more information to readers. Some like knowing when a piece of content was created as a reference point.
So that’s a little interesting. It’s not right or wrong or anything like that. And usually I comment on frequency, but here I can’t really tell. It does seem like they do publish at a pretty good pace. They have a lot posts and in that case they’re showing their commitment to blogging and content marketing.
3. Mentioning Partnerships
Businesses often grow with the help of partnerships. They can work to help build one another’s business in a few different ways. Software companies often build complementary software to offer a great product that the same target customer will love.
And when you’re working with partners you have twice the brainpower and twice the marketing reach. If you have audiences you’re really combining the audiences and growing the target customer base of each.
And it’s good to showcase partnerships on a company blog and that’s what Gorilla did with this post. In this case they’re aligning themselves with PayPal. That’s obviously a well known company and it’s usually good to align yourself with well known brands.
I like this style of post. It doesn’t seem that the partnership is new. They do it every once in a while where they feature a partner and talk about why they’re aligned with the brand and how it helps their clients. A neat idea for a regular blog series.
4. Culture & Personality
One question I get from business is how they can inject personality into their posts. It doesn’t mean that you have to act silly or ridiculous with the way you write. That’s fine for some, but only if it fits your style.
A really good way to inject personality into blogging (and social media, email or whatever) is to talk about the people at your company and what those people are doing.
A good example of this is this post about Yoga at the Gorilla office. It’s a short post, but I like the photo and I like that they’re sharing a little behind the scenes peek at what they value and what they like doing in the office.
Do a few things like this on your blog and on social media and people will feel a connection to your culture.
5. Discussing The Process
A type of post I frequently discuss is taking a customer question and providing the answer.
For example, a dentist office has a blog. A common customer question is: What is the best technique for brushing teeth?
The answer makes for a great blog post.
Another great type of post is talking about how to find solutions to challenges. That’s what Gorilla did with this post. In this case it’s still answering a question. Ecommerce companies might know that they’re struggling with something and they might know what solution they need, but they might struggle with how to make the right choice.
Gorilla provided some insight into how to find that answer. They discuss the process and make the decision making easier for their clients.
Conclusion
Gorilla Group really knows who their target customer is. I think that’s good from a general business standpoint and it really helps from a business blogging and content marketing standpoint. Gorilla seems to be committed to blogging. They have different types of posts and have a good mix of them all. They have a blog with a good design and layout. They don’t get too focused on sales and themselves. It all adds up to a great business blog strategy.