Do Ecommerce Sites Need a Blog?

Examples of blogs on ecommerce websites

We want to prove that blogging on Shopify is a viable way to improve your ecommerce income stream. Here are some examples that prove that blogging and Shopify ecommerce work well together:

• Veloforte – sells nutritional supplements aimed at cyclists and runners and publishes content on fitness, health, and nutrition.
• Cameras by Max – sells modern and vintage cameras to photography enthusiasts and publishes buying guides, camera tutorials, and general photography advice.
• Caribshopper – sells authentic Caribbean delicacies and goods and publishes mostly recipes and holiday gift guides.
• MTL Weights – sells weights and gym equipment to customers primarily based in Canada and publishes exercise guides, training videos, and fitness advice.
• Polaar – sells organic cosmetics sourced from Arctic flora and fauna and publishes makeup tutorials and skincare advice.
• Thula Tula – sells hand-crafted blankets made by indigenous communities in South Africa and publishes about life in rural South Africa.
• Mrs Highbrow – sells eyebrow-care products and services and publishes fashion trends guides, cosmetic product reviews, and lifestyle advice.
• Lee Coreen – sells handcrafted, 100% vegan handbags and wallets and the vendor blogs about travel, animals, and sustainable fashion.
• Ayr Barns – sells vintage home décor and accessories and publishes interior design advice, recipes, and short prose about country living.
• Flow Yoga – sells specialized yoga apparel and blogs about yoga, mindfulness, and other New Age topics.

All these ecommerce websites have one thing in common – they use Bloggle as their Shopify blogging app of choice.

Bloggle is an excellent replacement for Shopify’s default blog editor. It provides extensive ecommerce features for transforming your ecommerce blog into an effective sales channel. These features include:

• Blog post layout customization and blog templates which help with scaling your content production.
• SEO Analyzer tool to keep your content SEO-ready without reliance on external tools.
• Product embedding in posts, a necessary tool for conversion rate optimization.
• Support for Klaviyo sign-up forms, ideal for a data-driven approach to capturing leads.

If you want to boost the sales potential of your ecommerce blog, be sure to give Bloggle a go.

Why you need a blog for your ecommerce store

So, why is blogging useful for Shopify ecommerce? 

There are a couple of reasons and benefits to consider. From boosting organic reach to providing engaging customer experiences at scale, here are 10 reasons why you need a blog for your ecommerce store.

1. Search engine optimization

The main reason you want to engage in ecommerce blogging is SEO. There is a limit to what you can achieve in terms of SEO with product descriptions and homepage content alone. Blogging opens up a range of content opportunities you can pursue, giving you a clear advantage over competitors in terms of organic reach.

If you want to be really efficient with SEO content production, you can take cues from our list of Shopify blog examples. For a more in-depth examination of the topic, check out our 2023 guide on Shopify Blog SEO.

2. Provide value to customers

Ecommerce blogging is an excellent way to provide value to customers. At its core, content is just information, and information can be good or bad. Good information can educate customers and help them with their problems, whereas bad information can mislead them and create confusion. This makes good information extremely valuable to customers.

Any useful information you can share on your blog will improve user experience for both newcomers and existing customers. This will improve your blog’s sales potential and open up advanced up-selling and cross-selling tactics.

3. Create linkable assets

External links are essential for improving your domain authority on search engines. Quality external links are hard to come by for regular Shopify vendors because most of their content is contained on product pages. In contrast, Shopify vendors that blog regularly have a greater variety of assets for attracting links.

Linkable assets come in many forms. What usually works best is topical, well-researched, and actionable content related to your industry. Examples include original research, industry reports, downloadable templates, and other forms of content with a practical value.

4. Free content for social media

One of the best features of Shopify blog content is that you can easily repurpose it for social media.

Instead of creating a separate content cluster for social media, you can simply publish excerpts from your blog as social media posts with minimum editing. Consistency between different marketing channels will strengthen your brand and cost nothing extra to produce.

Another reason you want to share blog content on social media is for linking purposes. This enables two-way traffic between your blog and social media accounts, which ensures that your conversion funnel works both ways.

5. Build trust and loyalty for your business

Word of mouth travels fast online, so you want to keep your business in good standing in the eyes of the public. To accomplish this, you need to portray yourself as an expert in your industry niche.

We’ve already mentioned one way to do this – by publishing trustworthy industry-related content. This shows customers that you know what you’re talking about, which gives credibility to the products you sell.

Another way to build clout online is by encouraging customers to leave reviews on your Shopify website. This can act as a clear signal to prospects in the consideration stage who want confirmation from  others that your value proposition is good.

6. Create an online community around your brand

To expand on the previous point, you want customers to talk about your brand as much as possible. Over time, some customers will start to evangelize your brand, which can considerably reduce the cost of your digital marketing efforts.

The blog section of your Shopify blog should be the first stop for customers looking to discuss your brand. Be sure to keep the conversation civil by keeping the comment section free of spam and negative comments, and try to respond to customer questions and concerns in a timely manner.

7. Set your business apart from competitors

A business with a compelling story is a step ahead of competitors. And the easiest way to do this is by publishing regularly on your Shopify blog. With a couple of dozen posts published on your blog, you will catch fleeting customer attention more effectively than businesses that sell products without considering a narrative.

8. Capture email leads

Blog posts are not just about text. They can also contain multimedia elements (images, videos, tables), as well as functional elements (CTAs, links, forms). These elements are essential for boosting the conversion rate potential of your blog, and they can open new conversion opportunities, such as capturing leads for your email marketing efforts.

To capture more leads with your blog, you’ll want to leverage Bloggle’s Klaviyo integration feature. Klaviyo collects on-site data from your users and displays sign-up forms based on user behavior and intent. This makes it easy to build email lists at scale.

9. Budget-friendly content marketing

Content is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing. Writing quality content pays huge dividends over time, as it costs a fraction to produce compared to running paid ads.

Creating content is not easy. But as you keep doing it, you’ll quickly improve, which cuts down on production time while your posts keep improving.

As we mentioned, content can play double duty if you share it on social media and use it in your email newsletter.

10. Personal fulfillment

Last but not least, you should consider blogging on Shopify for personal fulfillment. It’s easy to fall into a mindset where only business goals matter. To avoid this, consider writing about topics you enjoy from time to time. Write about events and people that personally influenced you, touch on topics you find interesting, share a personal anecdote, etc. Your customers will appreciate your honesty and benefit from a positive experience.

Start your Shopify ecommerce blog with Bloggle

Starting an ecommerce blog on Shopify is easy with Bloggle. First, you need to create a blog using your Shopify dashboard. To do so:

1. Log in to your Shopify account.
2. Navigate to Sales channels > Online Store > Blog posts.
3. Click Manage blogs.
4. Click Add blog.
5. Provide blog details and click Save.

Next, install Bloggle from the official Shopify app store page.

Once that’s done, you can start creating posts with Bloggle’s editor:

1. Navigate to Sales channels > Online Store > Blog posts.
2. Click Add blog post.
3. Customize the post with Bloggle’s extensive list of blog post elements, and then customize them further through settings.
4. Click Save.

And that’s all there is to it!

Conclusion

Blogging is one of the most powerful strategies at your disposal as a Shopify vendor. Use your ecommerce blog to boost sales, reach, and branding by following the advice outlined. Also, check out the rest of our blog for more tips on how to be successful with Shopify ecommerce.

You can start using Bloggle by signing up for a free 10-day trial. We promise you won’t be disappointed.