It might seem like the last two decades were the boom years for ecommerce.
But it looks like the 2020s are shaping up to be The Boom for those selling things online.
And it’s not just the biggest of the big like Amazon and Walmart. Those have certainly been growing, but now the small shops are starting to really get into the game as well.
A big shift is that Millennials, those that have been comfortable with online shopping since the beginning, are going to be entering middle age. They will have their highest buying power to date. Boomers, while some will are certainly comfortable with online buying, are in old age and typically with old age comes less consumer-focused buying.
There are a number of opportunities for promoting an ecommerce shop. Blogging is one of them. It’s a good one. It’s a source where you control it. You don’t rely on a feed controlled by another entity. Content on your site is like an asset. It works for you over time and the more you build the more return you see.
Not sure how to us a blog for your small shop?
Here are some ideas…
1. Q&A
The best blogging strategy for just about any situation is Question & Answer. You identify questions that your target audience is asking and do your best to provide the answers. These might be specific questions your customers are asking about your business and products. But it also might be more general questions they have about the industry. And it could even be more general than that.
Let’s say you sell headlight replacements for automobiles. You might address these types of questions on your blog:
- Specific: For the 2017 Ford F-150, what size light do I need?
- Industry: What is a headlight that doesn’t blind other drivers?
- General: What paint color is most common of all vehicles in Wisconsin?
Answering those questions with blog posts provides value to your customers. You can start specific and do those until you start running out of ideas. Then you can get more general. Or you can focus on a mix of specific and general.
Setup a way for customers to contact you on your site with their questions. Answer them directly, but also flag the ones that you want to turn into blog posts.
You can also find questions by using Google, looking at industry forums and blogs and you can also use social media.
2. Personal Stories
Personal stories can be really intriguing for ecommerce blogs. You can write about your own experiences with your products. You can even get more general and share the stories of your work life or a bit about your personal life. People will ultimately buy from you if you have the best products that they want. But if you and a competitor are close with the products, the personal side could be the difference maker when it comes to winning business.
3. Customer Stories
Sharing customer stories is also a great source of blog content. You can create case studies sharing the stories of how your customers are using your products. You could even ask more general questions to get to know the person. People like reading these types of stories. It’s why the best product reviews are often the most personal and detailed. Potential customers like to see that others like them are using products in a certain way.
4. Behind The Scenes
If possible, document the process for your products. Go through the entire process from the ideation to the prototyping to the final product. Customers love this type of content. Some won’t care, but a few will and those people are the ones that usually become lifetime customers. They invest their energy into reading everything they can about your brand and that investment leads to long-term commitment.
5. Local Stories
Local newspapers are shutting down in record numbers. The same thing is happening in radio and television. The content on these channels is getting more national and even global.
It’s not that people don’t want local news. It’s just that the old business model for delivering it doesn’t work anymore.
The good news for locally-focused businesses, including small ecommerce shops, is that they can share local stories and information on a blog and use the traffic to sell their products. This is a business model that can work.
There is a vacuum right now with people wanting local stories. If you can provide it, people will come and read it. And these are all potential customers. And even if a reader isn’t a customer, they are likely sharing the local content on social media and getting it out in front of people that are customers.
Conclusion
It might not seem like blogging makes sense for a small ecommerce shop. But many are seeing success. They are creating the content and using it to build SEO traffic for the long-term. They are also reusing it to create a lot of social media content and content for email and other channels.
Hopefully these ideas and strategies can provide some direction on where to take your ecommerce blog.