blogging for ecommerce

Blogging for eCommerce

Mike Redbord & Mike Ewing

Ecommerce Directors @HubSpot

Twitter: @redbord & @inboundcommerce

Attracting qualified visitors that generate leads and sales

Today’s Agenda

Blog Definitions

Optimizing Content For Traffic

Improving Product Visibility

Engaging Your Audience

Growing Conversion Rates

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A New Era for eCommerce: Writing Content that Attracts Buyers

Blogging for eCommerce

What is a blog?

Part of a website which can be regularly

updated with content

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What is in a blog?

Articles

• Educational & Informative

• How To

Product Guides

Video

Images

Contests

Industry News & Updates

Event Coverage

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Why should I blog?

Drive Qualified Traffic!

Optimizing Your Blog Posts: On-page SEO

Blogging for eCommerce

Plotting Your Course – Choosing Your Keyword

• Less Difficult

• More Qualified Visitors

• Limitless Opportunity

Visualizing The Long Tail

On-page SEO Elements

Page Title

Page URL

Headings (H1)

Meta Description

Images

Alt text

File Name

Enhancing Your Product Pages:

Internal Linking

eCommerce and Inbound Marketing

Linking the blog and product pages

Why?

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How do I position products in a blog?

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Anchor text

Where should I place product links?

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Increasing your site’s authority:

Attracting Quality Inbound Links

eCommerce and Inbound Marketing

How do inbound links affect rankings?

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Inbound links act as a vote or a reference.

Some inbound links are more or less

valuable than others.

Total authority is split equally amongst

all outbound links on a page.

Which would you rather link to?

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vs

Growing Reach:

Keeping Your Audience Engaged

eCommerce and Inbound Marketing

Engage via FREE product

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DO: run giveaways, contests, and give away product

Do NOT: expect visitors to engage without incentive

Source: community.ronayers.com

Provide relevant tips and guides

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DO: share guides and interesting tips related to your products

Do NOT: write something that under 50% of your audience would read

Source: blog.shopodyssa.com

Strut your product expertise

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DO: use your product expertise to promote your products

Do NOT: expect repeat visitors if your content is boring or not in-depth

Source: blog.andythornal.com

Provide industry-insider views

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DO: use your industry expertise to educate your audience

Do NOT: engage in too much industry-chatter unless you see demand

Source: blog.gillespieflorists.com

So you’ve got content – now what?

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Link from homepage to blog

Blog & landing pages capture emails

Site Traffic

(search, direct, email, social, etc.)

Remarkable Blog Content

(giveaways, contests, news, expertise)

New blog posts update subscribers via email

Result: Traffic and engaged subscribers

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See their case study on HubSpot.com: http://www.hubspot.com/customer-case-studies/bid/7240/Ecommerce-

Website-Increases-Online-Sales-by-40-Percent-With-HubSpot

Offers to keep visitors engaged

Contests

Coupons

Quizzes

Giveaways

Bundled deals

Event-related

In-store coupons

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Ebooks

Checklists

Printable coupons

Buyer’s guides

Calculators

Surveys

Webinars

Enhancing Your Conversion Rate:

Converting Visitors into Emails & Sales

eCommerce and Inbound Marketing

Holy Blog! Sales & Email Collection Done Right

29 Source: info.swankyblooms.com

Experiment with different offers!

30 Source: moosejaw.com

Surveys with attached coupons net

you valuable information and keep

your customers happy

Direct Visitors to Products!

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Direct Visitors to Products!

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Segmented email marketing

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As you learn more about your customers and

future customers through their site interactions, you

can do more and more segmented email marketing

HubSpot Can Help Make It Happen

Inbound Marketing Works

eCommerce and Inbound Marketing

eCommerce Live Software Demo

Register at hubspot.com/ecomm to

learn how to the HubSpot software

can help you:

• Generate more qualified traffic

• Turn that traffic into leads and

customers

• Analyze your sales and marketing

efforts

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