Are You Using Your Company's Blog Effectively?

Blogging can be one of the most powerful tools in a company’s eCommerce business plan; high lead generation, high website traffic, and low bounce rate are all benefits of a successfully-run blog. An inefficiently-run blog, however, can be a major resource drain, and trying to roll out a new online sales program can be frustrating. The following four tips can help any blog succeed in an inbound marketing campaign.  

Entertain or Engage

Content, as we’ve talked about before, is one of the most crucial aspects of any successful eCommerce initiative. When creating content for blogs, your post should be relevant to your target audience, which can be done in two ways. By posting entertaining information, a company appeals to its target audience’s interests. For instance, a sports supply manufacturer could post something about the recent FIFA scandal. Secondly, by posting engaging content, a company can encourage its viewers to share the article or post their own opinions on Facebook, Twitter, etc., essentially creating free advertising.  

Target Specific Buyer Profiles

As stated before, the relevance of your blog is determined by your audience. If your posts aren’t interesting to the majority of the visitors to your site, the bounce rate of your blog will rise and your business plan will suffer. When creating a post, know exactly what type of buyer you are trying to appeal to. You can also try writing multiple posts on the same topic, but change the writing style or content to target different profiles.

Publish Timely Content

Blogging randomly or inconsistently will not generate website traffic or create many leads. Blogging daily is optimal, but even more important is sticking with a schedule. So, if blogging daily just isn’t possible at this time, don’t worry. Blogging every two, or even three days leads to a consistent pattern that your target audience can remember and adapt to. 

Do keep in mind, however, that 82% of marketers on Hubspot said that they experienced an increase in inbound marketing when they blogged daily. 

Track, Measure, and Scale Successful Pieces

Below are some common ways that bloggers can measure success:

• Page Views: Track page views on a monthly basis. On a healthy blog, this number should be increasing over time. 
• Time on Page: If readers are leaving the page in 30 seconds or less, the content of your blog isn’t doing its job. Even if sheer page views are high, low time on page means the content isn’t relevant to your audience. 
• Bounce Rate: This is the percentage of people who come to your site and then immediately leave. On blog posts, bounce rates are usually pretty high (in the 70s or 80s). This is because people tend to read a blog post and then immediately go about their business, which is ok. However, a sign of an effective blog is a consistently decreasing bounce rate. 
• Social Shares: The amount of social shares your blog has doesn’t need to be high. As long as the amount of shares is steadily increasing, your blog is ok. Simply put, the more your blog is shared, the more it will be shared. 

Start telling your eCommerce story today by trying out a few of these ideas. For more ideas to spark your eCommerce site, check out our blog or this article.

Need help telling your story? Contact us to get started.