Join the GenieLab Community
Receive regular updates and inspiration to help your business stay ahead of the game.
Need Assistance?
Contact US today It’s free – Click HERE.You may also like...
How to Use Shopify's Design System Polaris
Shopify”s design system polaris is designed to help developers create high-quality and consistent user interfaces. It...
Business Money Management For eCommerce
Business money management is an integral part of running a successful eCommerce business. It involves setting a budg...
ECommerce Product Management
ECommerce product management involves recurrent activities like satisfying customers’ needs, addressing criticism, a...
How eCommerce Recommendations Drive Sales
Recommendations drive sales by making it easier for customers to find the products they want. This can be done by re...
What Is Corporate Culture and How Does It Affect Business?
Building a strong corporate culture is a key factor in business success. Companies who prioritize their culture expe...
Filing Small Business Taxes for eCommerce
If you're running a small business, there are certain taxes that are required to be paid. These taxes depend on your...
So you’ve heard how important it is to have a blog on your website. Positioning your brand as an authority in your field and reaching new customers in a way that suits them, an onsite blog is an absolutely essential part of online marketing in 2013 and beyond.
But what does your website’s blog need? How do you turn a rudimentary blog into something more valuable? Here are the five things no blog can do without:
A good title
Blogs live and die by their titles. Unfortunately, you can put in all the hours you want on some exciting, interactive and well-researched content but if it doesn’t have a good title it won’t get half the clicks you deserve. Make sure your piece’s moniker really surmises all that you’re trying to achieve and pulls the reader in, appealing to their interests and issues. You’ve done the hard work – now sell your blog!
Struggling to think of a great title? Brainstorm 10 or even 20 different title ideas for your blog and then pick the best one – you’ll be surprised at the quality you’ll dig up by thinking outside the box.
Images, and plenty of them
Did you know that 65% of people learn visually? You can put the most interesting content onto your blog, but it won’t reach the amount of people it should if it doesn’t have an aesthetic quality. Your content needs to look good as well as be good.
If you’re still undecided on whether it’s worth sourcing some relevant images online, or generating your own visual content, know this: 41% of visitors on an eCommerce site are more likely to read on if your blog has pictures.
You see that dog, up there? Engaged you in the piece, didn’t it?*
*With all that said, your images need to be relevant. You don’t want to confuse your reader. We included the dog to make a point. And because we like dogs.
No-one likes clutter
That said, you don’t want to confuse your reader with too much information. Website designers must resist the temptation to place adverts, buttons, badges and awards all over the page. All you need is a sleek sidebar and some cracking content – anything else will alienate your reader.
Easy navigation
Hopefully, you’ll have a lot of interesting content on your blog. So you need to make it as easy as possible for your readers to find all the articles you’ve written. And remember, people respond in different ways, so you need to give them different methods of locating your content. Use an internal search box, category links, archives and related posts to ensure that you’re servicing a variety of needs.
A call to action
If you don’t have a call to action at the end of a blog article then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. A good content strategy will use blogs near the start of the ‘customer journey’: the process which hopefully ends in them purchasing from your business.
As a result, at the end of a blog you need to direct your readers to their next port of call. Whether that’s another blog that will help them to learn more about your industry in more detail, a landing page in order to sell them a particular service or a simple phone number to speak to a real human, the choice is yours. But you need to direct them somewhere. Otherwise, they’ll just go back to Buzzfeed or wherever.
Ready for our call to action? Here we go:
Looking for a blog that’s easy to use behind the scenes and looks good to everyone else? Talk to us about how we can build you a brilliant, beautiful blog that pulls customers in. Give us a call today on 01633 415 364.
