Retail bloggers, professionals who use social media to sell physical goods, are at a disadvantage. First these poor folks have been ignored by the social media intelligentsia. Frankly, It’s easier for talk about promoting ideas rather than products. So, using blogging to sell services and ideas get the lion-share of attention.The good news is that selling physical products with your blog isn’t difficult. The key is to change your focus and think about your product as more than a widget.
This shift in mindset is critical for successfully using your blog to turn readers into retail customers.
The Retailer’s Challenge:
Retail bloggers have a specific subject to speak about — their product. They have specific features and a precise demographic. As a retail blogger it’s difficult to deviate from the spec-sheet and fill your blog with broad topics. At the end of the day, you get a sales report that shows which marketing techniques worked or failed. Blogging for engagement doesn’t hold up well to this scrutiny.Checking off the “blog marketing” box often means simply posting new product pictures with terse descriptions and promoting the latest sale. Predictably these posts get little attention further endangering the blogging effort.
Solving this challenge requires the professional blogger to creatively turn their physical product into Product Stories that are better suited for blog posts.
How to Turn Products into Product Stories
You can approach this challenge from a few different direction depending on your product.Product Use Stories
Every product is used in a specific way by their customers. These Product Use stories house story-telling nuggets that can be fleshed out into fascinating posts.For example:
Hiking boots are used by hikers to comfortably navigate difficult terrain. The hiking boot retailer can showcase hikers on difficult trails around the globe.
Chef Knives are used by amateur gourmets to quickly prepare ingredients for their dishes. The knife blogger can feature amateur gourmet cooks displaying their knife skills.
Synthetic motor lubricant is an important tool for muscle car restoration enthusiasts. Creative lubricant bloggers will get mileage out of offering tips on how to use their lubricant in hard-to-solve restoration situations.
Retail bloggers can tell their product use stories in hundreds of unique ways. Even better, the blogger can reach out to their audience for original stories.
Talk about Customer Heroes
People buy products from people they trust and admire. Retail bloggers must master the process of reaching out to their customers and giving them simple ways to tell their stories online. You can build compelling stories around customer photos, amateur video and short guest posts.Once you begin celebrating your customers other fans will raise their hands to tell you their story. These stories are marketing gold and you’ll want to dedicate significant resources to editing and publishing customer-generated-content.
Focus on the Customer Challenge
Every product solves a problem. Blog about the problem. What problem does the hiker have with poor fitting hiking boots? That’s right, you can talk about shin splints, blisters, flat feet, cramped toes, water-tightness, moisture wicking, sock+boot combinations, and much more.Blogging about the problems your product solves turns your blog into a relevant resource that will rank in Search Engines, establish you as a thought leader, and pre-sell your products.
How to Convert Retail Blog Visits to Sales
Understand that your blog should pre-sell your products. They set the stage for readers to consider their challenge and understand how your product solves it. Remember that blogs are meant to be non-threatening, transparent and authentic places for your customers to browse. Don’t violate this expectation. The goal is to subtly transition your customer from browsing into buying.Their are a few methods for getting this done:
DIY Contextual Linking:
Contextual advertising is a slick way of saying “Link relevant keywords to their product pages”. There are sophisticated software apps and plugins that do this already, but you can get the job done by simply linking product keywords to their proper landing page. Don’t go overboard, one or two product links in each post will get this done without being obnoxious.Smart Sidebar Promotion:
Your blog sidebar is an excellent spot to directly sell products. The trick is to only offer products that are relevant to the post. The WordPress plugin, Widget Logic allows you to configure specific widgets to only show on certain pages.Create a Purchase Funnel:
Blog readers are not ready to buy. They have come to your blog to research or casually get to know your company through your content. They expect to not be sold. Honor that.The best way to move readers into a buying mindset is to create a purchase funnel starting with an offer that entices them to opt-in to your mailing list. In each follow-up email continue to give them valuable information around product uses. Include product offers in your newsletters to transition customers to dedicated ecommerce product pages. The blog to email to landing page process is easy to measure and set-up.
Get Good At Creating Converting Landing Pages
Landing pages turn readers into buyers. As a retail blogger you will need to get comfortable with creating and testing landing pages for your products.The first step is to learn how to set-up your blog to run a landing page. Plugins such as Premise and OptimizePress make this process fairly easy. Specifically, Premise is an easy plugin download that packs in some powerful design and testing features. Once you’ve set up your landing page, direct links from posts and blog newsletters to the new page. Watch your stats closely to evaluate which type of posts convert the posts.
Retailer Blog Examples
We’ll talk more about retail blogging throughout the year. For now here are some great examples of retail and ecommerce blogs.Geek Squad Blog
The Geek Squad blog publishes geek-friendly articles on various DIY computing issues. Readers can use the info to diagnose their tech issues or…bring their gadget into Best Buy. This is retail blogging at its best.
Dodocase
Dodocase, the iPad and Kindle case maker, never misses an opportunity to showcase Dodocase users on its blog. Their concise and image-heavy blogs naturally transitions readers into customers.
Tattly: Temporary
Temporary tattoos are a hot now. People want ink without the pain and permanence. Tattly masterfully uses images of their customers sporting their Tattlys on their blog.
Sky Guide Service
This fishing charter service does an excellent job of celebrating its customers while weaving in the magic of a great vacation. Readers can’t help but investigate how to book a trip with the charter.