Remarkablogger

1. Get a blog. Yeah, no kidding, right? If you go check out a bunch of e-commerce websites right now, you will see the majority of them don’t have blogs at all. That means no new content is being added to the site. That means Google isn’t indexing the site frequently. It also means that the amount of content on the site to attract searchers is limited. You know what else that all means? It means that if you have a blog and your competition doesn’t, you’re already ahead of the game and working to beat them.
2. Don’t over-sell. For an e-commerce site blog to not post about new products or specials would be ridiculous, but don’t turn into Crazy Eddie the used car salesman. Promotional posts are where good copywriting skills would come in handy.
3. Be personable, but not too personal. It’s OK to talk about stuff that doesn’t relate 100% to your products, but avoid personal stuff, because you don’t want that to turn people off and prevent them from buying from you. Avoid topics such as religion, politics, sex, and anything involving bodily functions and fluids (unless you’re selling medical equipment).
4. Find ways to reward existing customer involvement. One thing that convinces new customers to buy is that they see happy existing customers. Testimonials are great, but let’s face it, the interwebs are interactive and we can do better. Contests, quizzes, essay or haiku contests, or even scavenger hunts are all possible ways to reward existing customers with discounts and freebies. It’s easier to sell to existing customers and like I said, happy customers attract (and refer) new customers.
5. Show your passion for the product. I have said before that most e - commerce sites are boring. Blogging allows you to show the world that you are in love with what you sell in a much more powerful way than the product copy on your catalog pages.
6. Educate customers. No doubt there are helpful tips and tricks your customers might want to know about your products. There is an old saying: an educated customer is the best customer. The more someone knows, the more likely it is they will buy from you… if you’re the one providing the information. And people now do online research prior to buying. Blog posts rock for this.
7. Feature a product or product category on a regular schedule. For example, let’s say you sell housewares. You can make every Wednesday kitchen utensil day. Every Saturday could be garden tools day. You get the idea. You don’t have to put the product on sale, just feature it.
8. Have random sales and freebies. Why do people subscribe to blogs? Because they don’t want to miss the next post, which may be valuable to them. If a customer never knows when you’re going to announce a discount code in a random blog post, they will be motivated to subscribe. The element of surprise captures attention. Having someone’s attention like that will lead to greater sales that would never have happened otherwise, so it more than makes up for the discount.
9. Respond to customer service issues directly and forthrightly. People are afraid to have a blog on their e-commerce site because they fear getting hit with complaints in the comments. Think about this: the last thing you want is for people out there to be complaining about your products in a way you can’t address or even know about. When they do it on your blog, they’re doing it where you can see them and respond. How you respond will make a big difference to other customers. It’s your chance to shine and make a good impression.
10. Link to your product pages like the dickens. Back links to yourself count. Linking to your e-commerce pages from your blog is a great way to help your search optimization. It’s perfectly natural to link to yourself this way in your blog. You get to control what the anchor text is in the link (the words of link you click on, which matters to search optimization).

Do you have an e-commerce website but no blog? Talk to me. Who else is blogging about how to blog for an e-commerce site? Nobody! You don’t want to miss the good stuff so subscribe.