Retail businesses have their own pros and cons. Generally speaking, retailers either like to write blogs or read blogs. They get a lot of their information about the industry they are operating in from articles posted by other retailers.
A retailer can be from any industry, including electronics, clothing, toys, stationery, cooking utensils, or groceries. Although the demand and trends for all these products would be different at any point in time, there are certain aspects of business that all retailers go through and are aware of.
For example, most of the retailers go through an on season and an off-season. They are all worried about making it till the end of the month with enough sales revenue to pay the rent for their outlet and still be left with some profit.
These experiences are often revealed by retailers, directly or indirectly, in a retail blog.
What is a Retail Blog?
A retail blog is a blog written, owned, or organized by a retail store owner or manager, which discusses the unique experiences that a retailer goes through. It discusses the problems faced in a typical retail business and makes suggestions on how to deal with different retail situations.
Retail blogs are like the latest fashion versions of magazines. For those who are into retail businesses or want to pursue one in the future, a retail blog is an informative and interesting place to be for browsing through and reading the articles.
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In the earlier days, blogs used to be for aspiring writers, journalists, or the technically gifted. But today, many businesses and retailers in particular, have realized that writing a retail blog can become an asset to their business operations.
But a retail blog can only provide value to the retail business if it is carefully planned, designed, organized, and updated. The articles must make sense to the other retailers in the industry. It shouldn’t sound too personal and not too general.
If a retail blog is not managed in the right way, it might harm the reputation of the retail business. It is, therefore, important to know how to write a retail blog before you get into it.
Today we will discuss some tips for writing a retail blog. But before that, let’s see why retailers should blog.
4 Main Reasons Retailers Should Blog
A retail blog can really benefit a retailer’s business. Here are 4 ways how this can happen.
1. Attract New Customers
Having a retail blog is just like having a magazine for your business. When you write about something and people read it, they become familiar with your brand, your retail store, and the products that you are selling. Who knows, someone coming across your retail blog gains interest in your retail store and your products?
This is likely to happen, especially if the content that you post on your retail blog is interesting and up-to-date. When that happens, you will attract new customers through your retail blog.
You can even attract customers from far away locations through your retail blog. Since a blog is something that’s online and available for anyone on the internet to visit and read, your retail blog’s audience will not be limited to the people in your locality. People staying far away can also discover your retail store by reading your retail blog.
2. Provide Expert Advice
Writing about a niche or an industry is a good way of building your online presence in a way that establishes you as an expert in your field in the eyes of your audience and your customers. If you write quality articles that are full of advice, guidelines, and recommendations about running a retail business, your audience could get impressed by your knowledge. They will start thinking of you as a subject matter expert for the retail business.
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This is a tremendous benefit for your business. When people see you as an expert in your field, they trust your brand, which builds up brand loyalty. More brand loyalty means you can make more sales from your retail store.
3. Build a Brand
Having a blog is a part of the branding process for your retail store. Your blog will have your brand logo on it, and a brief introduction to your retail business. It will be designed on a theme that matches with the theme and ambiance of your retail store. Therefore, starting your own retail blog will contribute to building a brand for your retail store.
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4. Recruit Retail Staff
There are people who are interested in working at a retail store. Being a salesperson is often considered a straightforward job as compared to other technical jobs. Salespeople will learn to sell skills for the sake of maintaining their jobs. They know that the job of a salesperson does not require any specific qualification or certificate. It is a job that can be constantly learned, practiced, improved, and delivered.
Therefore, as a retail store owner, you can usually find salespeople without having to go through a lengthy recruitment process. If you run a retail blog of your own, it will be even easier for you to find suitable staff for your retail business. The more people read your retail blog, the more people will find out about your retail store, and come and offer you their skills to get a job in your retail store.
4 Effective Tips to Write a Retail Blog
Here are 4 tips that you follow for writing a successful retail blog.
1. Choose a Good Web Design and Keep it Updated
Your retail blog must look appealing, well-designed and organized. The web design, theme or template that you choose should be easy to navigate and responsive to all kinds of devices. If the theme needs to be updated now and then, make sure you update it on time.
Your articles should be arranged nicely. Thumbnails should look neat and well-organized. If you are writing on over one topic, the blog should be divided into different categories. Proper tags should apply to each article.
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2. Hire Professional Content Writers if You Are Not Into Writing Yourself
If you feel you are no good or passionate about writing, you can hire professional content writers to do the job for you. Since you need to post articles on your retail blog regularly, you might need to take help from other contributors and writers anyway in order to keep up with the pace. If you try to write all articles on your own, you might face a burnout.
You can hire freelance content writers from freelance websites or Facebook groups these days. Their rates are quite reasonable, and they have experience delivering quality articles to different remote clients.
3. Post New Articles Regularly
It is important that when you have a retail blog; you post articles on it regularly. A blog that does not come up with new articles regularly is bound to fail with very little or no traffic. The SEO of your retail blog will also depend on how frequently you post new articles on it. It is preferable to post new articles daily, but if that’s really not possible for you, then you should at least come up with a new article every alternate day.
4. Provide Venues For Interaction
Your retail blog could very well become a platform for your customers to interact with you and to engage with your brand. But for that to happen, you need to provide venues on the blog for readers to interact and engage.
Some ways to provide venues for interaction are as follows.
- Allow readers to post comments on each article.
- Use a live chat feature on your blog website for anyone to contact you with any kind of query instantly.
- Build a contact form on your blog website.
- Make use of a subscription form to build an email list.
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4 Good Topics For a Retail Blog
If you want to start a retail blog but are not sure what to post on it, here are 4 topic ideas for you.
1. Make New Product Announcements
A retail blog can be a good place to announce new product announcements. If your existing customers are reading your blog, they would definitely want to visit your retail store to check out the new product.
2. Share Customers’ Product Reviews
Your retail blog can be a place for you to flaunt positive product reviews from your customers.
3. Promote Special Offers at the Store
After all, a blog is a marketing platform, just like social media pages, a blog website, a brand community, or a retail store itself. You can promote any discounts, bundle packages, or special offers that you have on your retail store in your retail blog articles.
4. Discuss Hot Industry Trends and News
This is for letting your customers and readers know you are well-versed in knowledge about the industry you are operating in.
These were the ways for starting and running a successful retail blog. If you want the quickest possible way to start your own retail blog, sign up for a free account with us at Strikingly, select one of our ready-to-use blog templates, and start posting your articles right away! Some of the best retail blogs are built on Strikingly.
