After working with countless small marketing teams, we know that small brands don’t always find it easy to jump into the world of content marketing. Naturally, the connection between small business blogs and improving e-commerce performance might not be clear if your primary goals include increasing sales and building your customer base.
Sure, blogs don’t necessarily work as direct sales portals. But we’ve found that they can boost your company’s e-commerce in a few key ways. Find out how small business blogs can drive sales — and how we can help your brand can maximize this strategy.
Attract Customers at Every Stage
If you’re like most small business owners, you want to encourage customers to buy every time they visit your website. But what if they aren’t ready to make a purchase? Sending customers right to a product page on your e-commerce site might not get the results you want. Instead, blog posts can attract customers at every stage without making a hard sell.
Someone who’s learning about your brand for the first time might need to get to know you before making a purchase. Similarly, someone who typically buys from your competitor might need to know why your products are better, more delicious, or easier to prepare. With a smart content marketing strategy, you can give customers the information they want — while still sprinkling in subtle sales signals.
Appeal to Existing Buyers
Converting a new customer can definitely be a cause for celebration. But most brands we know really want to cultivate loyal customers who buy again and again. It’s easy to assume that your existing customers already know and love your products. So can’t you just send them a link to your online store? After all, they know what to do.
Not so fast. Even loyal customers need reasons to fill their virtual shopping carts, especially for upmarket purchases. Carefully crafted blog posts can give much-needed context to your products — inspiring loyal fans to stock up for the upcoming season or to make your latest mouth-watering recipe.
Showcase Your Top Products
Most small business owners we work with are incredibly proud of the products they make — as they should be. So what’s the best way to promote them without sounding like a broken record? Product pages are the perfect places to feature the benefits and highlight the amazing properties of your products. But you need more than a brief product description and a “Buy Now” button.
With small business blogs, you can showcase your top products within a compelling framework. Share your favorite way to prepare your bestseller, talk up its high-quality ingredients, or answer some common questions. You’ll give extra value to your customers while guiding them toward a purchase.
Increase Brand Visibility Without Paid Ads
Almost every brand we work with wants to improve brand awareness and increase visibility. But as a small business owner, you’re trying to stretch a tight budget as far as you possibly can. That means paying to play — using Google Ads or Facebook Ads — may not be your top choice for driving sales.
One of the biggest benefits of updating small business blogs consistently is that publishing relevant content can boost your website’s SEO. That means new customers will have a much easier time finding your site when searching for relevant terms. Creating great content also means that you can drive more traffic to your site without having to pay for ads. A small business blog can be a savvy sales tool, especially if you take a long-term approach to content strategy.
Create Shareable Content
Improving SEO is a smart strategy for driving more customers to your site. But it isn’t the only way for small brands to increase visibility or generate sales. Naturally, you’ll also want to grow your brand awareness on your preferred social media sites — like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. As you’ll quickly learn, though, your social followers won’t exactly love constant pushes to buy, buy, buy. After all, they’re real people with interests, needs, and desires — not just faceless followers.
Fortunately, small business blogs fit neatly into your social media strategy, too. When you share high-quality blog posts on social media, you’ll pique the interest of your followers. Their engagement — including likes, shares, and comments — will expose your brand to fresh eyes. If your content strategy is on point, those fresh eyes could quickly become new followers and your brand’s next customers.
Curious to learn how content could improve your brand’s marketing strategy? Let’s talk. Schedule a call or send us a message to find out how small business blogs can boost your e-commerce efforts.
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