By definition, a blog is a website where all the entries are classified in non chronological order. The last entry is the first thing you see. It was originally made to create an online "diary", and a lot of people like to use it to tell about their personnal life. But, as we will see in this post, you can make a better use of it for a real online business...
1. Your blog creates a good relationship with your visitors
When you manage a blog, you show to your visitors there is a human being behind the computer. Your website is not just a "stupid script" anymore. With a blog, you can speak directly to your users, and they can answer to you, using the comments.Take the time to make interesting blog posts, with, for example, some free advice and tips, and you 'll create a tribe around your products. And, for a successful e-commerce, having a tribe of customers is very important and useful. If you want to know more about how to create a tribe, and its benefits on an online business, I invite you to buy and read "Tribes : We Need You To Lead Us", from a very famous marketing Guru, Seth Godin.
ยป You can buy "Tribes" here
2. Your blog helps your website to be easily seen on search engines
The other main advantage to edit a blog : it will help your site to be seen on search engines. Why ? For 3 main reasons :- - When you add a blog post, you refresh your homepage. And it is important to show to search engines that your website is "alive". Search engines like textual contents, and with the blog, you can feed them every weeks.
- - To be well seen, you have to write about your thematics, and add interesting keywords related to what you sell.
- - By writing interesting posts, you will probably obtain some links from other blogs who likes your content. And, as we will see in a further post, having a lot of external links is crucial for your SEO.
3. Your blog is a good way to have feedback
With a blog, you can have a real-time feedback of your online activity.If one of your offers is not clear, or if someone doesn't understand something on your website, you'll be quickly informed about what is confusing with your business - if you have not locked the comment fields, obviously !
4. Your blog is a good sales events tool
As we have already seen ( don't close your store if you go on holidays ) you can, sometimes (not every week !), use your blog to create a "mini sales event". For example, you can propose a promotional code or some free goodies for the first 10 replies of your last post. And if you relay it with many social tools, you can easily make a little buzz, and increase your popularity very quickly.
5. Your blog is reflecting the health of your business
By writing some news about your activity, about your products, or about you, you'll show that your business is in good health. It is important to make frequent updates, for instance if someone wants to buy, he wants to know if your offers are still valid. But you have to be regular, and post at least once a week, because on the contrary people could think that your website is abandonned !
So, now, what should you do ?
In the first instance, you should think about what you want to write exactly in your blog. Define your editorial line, think about 3 or 4 first categories to create, and begin to write some articles in each of them.
For example :
- - "News of our business" or "Our news" : in this category, you'll speak about official news of your firm. Did you recruit someone ? Will you sell a new product range ? Will you open an other shop ? Tell us, we want to know !
- - "Our products, our passion" : in this category, you'll write about your products, and why you are passionate about them. If you're not passionate about your products, let someone else speak about it, invite your customers to write about it. And if no one is passionate about your products... find an original way to speak about it !
- - "Customer testimonials" or "Customers feedback" : in this category, you'll write on what your customers said about you. Don't hesitate to publish a thank-you letter as soon as you receive it, for example...
Next time, we'll see in practical terms how to create posts on your blog and how to write for the web.
