Blogging Tips for Online Shop Owners
It’s more important now than ever…Your Online Shop would really benefit from a blog (or some other type of free content, maybe a Podcast or YouTube channel)! In this blog post, I am going to explain why your shop should have a blog but you can interchange “blog” with whatever content you are using to help potential customers get to know you.
I know! Really? A Blog? You are already so busy running your shop, keeping the inventory full, handling customer questions, running your social media…but, YES! Now more than ever, I feel that any business, shops especially, can benefit from a blog. Blogs increase visibility online! Blogging for your shop is a great way to engage with your customers, allow people to get to know you better and to continue to grow and meet new potential customers!
What’s holding you back? Maybe you don’t love writing. You can do this. When you talk about your expertise, the words come easier. Keep it simple, use commonly used words and phrases (your keywords) for your business and let the writing flow. Maybe time is an issue. We are all so busy in our day to day. But I promise you, it’s worth the time investment and I will tell you why below. Keep in mind, you can also hire someone to write for your blog. There are lots of resources available to help you with this. It is well worth the effort to get a blog added to your shop as it will greatly increase your shop’s visibility online.
Why a Blog is Important for Your Shop
Increase Your Shop’s Visibility Online
One of the main goals of having a blog for your shop is to improve and increase your shop’s visibility online. A blog increases your presence and content online and offers more opportunity for you to be found on google and Pinterest. When you write quality, valuable content for your ideal audience, they will be able to find you via your blog. This gives them a way to find you beyond only searching for products.
People Want to Get to Know You and Your Story
It’s true. Your fans want to get to know you. And new viewers and potential customers, they want to know what you are all about, how you got where you are and what your shop has to offer. We all love a great story and small businesses almost always have a great story. Getting to know you allows your potential customers to establish trust with and feel comfortable with you. Give them this extra, valuable info to help them become your best customers and fans.
Keeps your Content Fresh
At a time when we are all competing for the attention of potential customers and shoppers, a blog helps keep your content/offering fresh and new. New content is imperative to engaging and keeping new potential customers coming to visit your shop. If you are a Pinterest user (and I hope you are), it is critical that you are offering new fresh content (fresh links/URLs) for searchers to discover. New content helps improve your reach on Pinterest. And a greater reach means more potential viewers.
Share your Expertise
You have expertise and knowledge within your niche. No matter what you sell in your shop, you have a specialty that others want to learn about. I am not suggesting you give away your secrets but I believe sharing tips and tricks around your specialty will help bring new traffic and potential customers to your shop. For example, if you make jewelry with precious stones, teach your readers about what the different stones represent. If you sell home decor items, share how to style a particular type of product. By adding valuable information about your expertise in a blog, you will attract readers that may never have found your shop otherwise and these people will turn into potential customers.
Keeps People Coming Back
When you consistently provide new, valuable blog content, people will keep coming back for more because they like what they see and what they are learning from you. The more that people come back, the more likely they are growing to know and trust you and the more likely they are to become paying customers. Publishing blog content that is of interest to your ideal customer helps to attract them to your site. More traffic means more customers in your shop.
Power of Pinterest
If you know me, you know I am a big believer in the Power of Pinterest for business. Pinterest will help drive passive traffic to your shop site and blog content gives you one more way to share your shop with Pinterest searchers. Pinterest is a search engine and people go there to find solutions to their problems and issues, new products and ideas.
Pinterest is the number one driver of traffic to my website as well as many of my clients. Why? Because it is a place people go to plan. They search, they find information about their search topic and they click or save for later. It is an amazing source of referral traffic for your business. And when you share valuable blog content, you are giving people one more way to find you instead of just pinning your products.
In addition to people finding you and visiting your site…they are also saving your pins and in doing that, they are allowing their audience to see your pins as well. This allows your visibility to grow and grow. Pins are evergreen and circulate on Pinterest indefinitely. This is very unlike social media where a post is there and gone in a matter of a day or days.
Ideas of What to Blog About
Your Story
Your audience whats to get to know you. So tell them your story. Share how you started your business, why you started it and whatever little bits of info that will help them get to know you and your business.
How To
I am not suggesting you give away your secrets BUT share DIY ideas around your niche. Perhaps you sell home decor items, you can share how to use a type of product in a home. Share types of lighting and what situation to use them. If you sell jewelry, share how to style or layer jewelry. People love DIYs so think of how you can share a valuable DIY lesson with your viewers.
Gift Guide or Product Roundup
Everyone loves a gift guide or product roundup. This type of blog can be featured during a holiday or anytime during the year as a general guide or roundup of favorite items. Tip: If you are using Pinterest, remember to start pinning a couple months ahead of the event to give Pinterest time to index and circulate your Pins.
For the holidays, you can create a post leading up to a particular celebration like Mother’s Day or Graduation. Share your favorite gift suggestions from your shop and if possible you can even mix it up by sharing from other shops that aren’t your direct competitors.
A roundup post can be created at any time. Consider a theme (cozy items, items to organize, gadgets, etc.), or a listing of favorite things that could be a mix of items from your shop and from others that are complimentary to what you sell.
For example, you sell small home decor items so you share your items but show them on a larger table from a furniture store that doesn’t directly compete with you because you don’t sell large furniture.
Another example, you sell wedding jewelry (earrings and necklaces) and create a blog post around accessories for your wedding day. You share your beautiful jewelry but since you don’t sell hair accessories, you share something from another shop that does.
What’s Trending
Show your viewers what is trending in your niche. Tell them about the newest styles, trends and what is popular in your niche. I suggest you do this several times a year to capture different seasons and seasonal trends. Your niche will help you determine when it’s most appropriate to share trends in your industry. Not only will this type of blog post provide valuable information to your potential customers but it will also introduce them to your website and shop where they can purchase trending items.
Show Your Product in Action
People like to see how they can use your products or ideas. A blog about styling your product is a great way to share. Perhaps you sell scarves, share 5 ways to style a scarf. If you sell jewelry, show how to layer necklaces. I also recommend talking to your customers, maybe they would like to write a guest blog about how they use your product. For example, if you sell home decor items, have an interior designer give tips to style a room and encourage them to place one of your items in the room. If you sell clothing, perhaps a clothing influencer would like to show how to style items and one of those items can be yours.
Blog topics are endless and as you continue to add to your blog, you will find new things to share.
Conclusion
I hope I have convinced you that a blog is a great addition to your shop. During a time when businesses are competing for the attention of potential customers online more than ever, a blog will help attract new customers and give your potential customers get to know you. Customers want to learn about how you got where you are. And you can offer lots of tips and tricks related to your products. All of this gives you more content to Pin on Pinterest, share in Newsletters and on Social Media. All of this will help encourage your customers to come back for more!