Evolution of the blog: Ecommerce blogs are here to stay!

Aug 12, 2015 1:29:44 PM

Blogging has been a pastime of many a person. From fashion blogs, to current affairs, they strive to keep their audiences engaged and up to date.

Ecommerce brands, big and small, have also utilised a blog page to produce relevant content to keep their customers happy and tempted to come back for more. The panda has a question, however: has the traditional blog taken a step back recently, to accommodate new content strategies? Or are ecommerce blogs here to stay?

With the help of our wonderful guest panda, Jessica Hall, we had a quick browse of how blogs are being presented to the customer, and how effective they might be. With this in mind, we want to focus on the role of content writer within the ecommerce world.

A quick browse of blogs

Jessica and I chose a few brands we had shopped with previously, and other smaller brands that have garnered some attention. With a steely determination not to fill our online shopping carts, we had a browse through some examples.

  • ASOS have a style feed, one each for male and female customers. They are a mixture of vlogs, and outfit ideas. Their call to actions brings customers right to the relevant products if the post appealed to them, allowing them to ‘shop the story.’
  • Topman have a monthly bulletin, full of pop culture events their audience might be interested in. Of course, you can’t go to these without a nice, new shirt to show off? They blend the persuasion to buy, with customer engagement very well.
  • New Look split their content between trends and ‘Look of the day.’ Focusing on look of the day, it features a celebrity figure with a detailed description of what they are wearing. In terms of content strategy, this is extremely beneficial if customers are being very specific about what they are searching for.

That’s just a quick look, so not all retailers will follow similar content presentation. Smaller businesses seem to utilise blogs more fruitfully, updating their followers about their journey and gathering a bigger following. 

Social Media and the blog

Social Media channels have become a way to get content distributed to a wider audience. Of course, they don’t allow full engagement of the piece, but if used right, the social media teams can get the traffic through to the site. Working out what will get them to click through, with unique content they can’t find on social media, will make the distribution of content worthwhile.

Blogs allow the work to come together; content writers, digital designers and marketing can all play a role to engage their audience.

Do blogs still have a place within ecommerce?

Of course they do, but they need to be innovative. Like some of the examples above, they need to really appeal to their target audience. Blending content that informs the customer about the product, its place in recent trends and places they can wear it. A ‘vlog’ can add some dimension to a blog post, with an interactive or informative video accompanying the story of the products.  

content writer can work with so many different teams, to talk the customer through the journey of the product; effectively allowing the customer to walk alongside the brand. Make the customer care, and it will be enough for them to follow the call to action right to the product page. Better still, being up to date with trends with blog posts will bring people to the site if they are searching for that new must have!

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