THE LINGERIE STORE OWNER’S GUIDE TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BLOG

Blogging is an excellent marketing tool for lingerie store owners.

A blog can position you as an expert in your industry and give you a platform to communicate your brand’s mission and message. Your loyal customers shop at your store because of your expertise, but what about the women in your local community who don’t know (yet) that your store exists? A lingerie blog can increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your doors, and help you build lifelong relationships with your audience.

As a lingerie store owner, you don’t have a moment to waste. When you’re not working in your business, you’re likely working on another part of your business or spending time with your family and friends. You need a clear, actionable plan that will help you get the most out of everything you create – and free up your valuable time so you can invest it into the areas of your business that need your expertise most.

Fortunately, with the right plan in place, a blog can run with little effort on your behalf. It’s very possible for even the busiest lingerie store owners to run successful lingerie blogs.

Looking for a more efficient way to run your lingerie blog? Here are a few ideas to help you out:  

 

Create a content plan

Your time is precious. If you haven’t started a lingerie blog because you don’t have the time to write blog posts, consider hiring a freelance writer (or two) to write the articles for you. A dedicated team of writers can also be beneficial if your blog lacks consistent fresh content because you’re strapped for time. Your writers will take care of the articles and write based on ideas you send them or topics they pitch to you. While these writers may need training on lingerie and a little guidance in the beginning, they’ll likely be able to write without much input from you after a few blog posts.

 

Use an editorial calendar

Editorial calendars are a must-have for lingerie bloggers. If you don’t have an editorial calendar that you’re using every single day, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You may be the only person writing for your blog. An editorial calendar can keep you organized and on track. Most significantly, editorial calendars give you the space to pre-plan your content and track the keywords that you’re trying to rank for in one easy-to-access file.

A useful editorial calendar lists article titles, publishing dates, statuses (in progress, revised, published, etc.), author names, cost per article, and the keywords you’re planning on targeting. Editorial calendars can also be used for managing your social media posts – enabling you to maximize holiday sales without worrying about posting redundant content.

 

Outsource or automate everything you can

If you’re looking for a way to save time blogging, consider outsourcing anything that doesn’t require your expertise. A virtual assistant or blog manager can help with formatting and publishing your blog posts, scheduling blog-related updates on social media, and managing your team of freelance writers. You could also consider hiring a local photographer to take photos for your blog posts and social media, so you don’t have to worry about photos.

If you prefer to take care of everything yourself, an automation tool like HootSuite can help you plan and schedule your blog posts ahead of time. Plus, there are free tools in blogging platforms like WordPress, for example, that can benefit your blog and save you time. WordPress integrates with tools like Google Analytics (which is free to sign up for) and hosts a wide variety of plug-ins that can be used to monitor traffic, improve SEO (Yoast is a favourite), and compress your pictures (which can help your web pages load faster).

 

Take pictures for your blog posts throughout the week

Did you just receive a new shipment of lingerie? Perfect! Now is a great time to take photos of your new products for your blog and social media. Are you experiencing a slow traffic day at your store? Grab your cell phone or camera and lay out a few pieces for a photo. Does one of your staff members have a passion for photography? Come up with ideas of what you’d like the imagery to look like, offer her some time to come in before the store opens to take photos, and pay her and give her credit for any photos she takes and edits.

No matter which lingerie-related topics you choose to talk about on your lingerie blog, it’s best to include photos of your store and your products throughout the blog posts. Not only will they come up in search results (don’t forget to name them properly and add a description and alt text), but they’ll link back directly to your business. High quality photos play an important role in improving SEO and photos that are relevant to your business can result in increased business to your store.

 

Promote, promote, promote

Many content marketers follow the Pareto Principle when creating and promoting content. Created by management consultant Joseph M. Juran, the principle can be effectively applied to business and marketing as well. Successful marketers spend 20% of their time creating content and 80% of their time promoting it. Lingerie store owners can borrow this principle and apply it to their businesses too.

By spending 20% of your time creating content and 80% promoting it through your email newsletters, website, and social media platforms, you’re increasing the amount of people that see your content. You can create the best article in the world, but if only one or two people see it, it probably won’t go viral or bring business to your store in the way that you had hoped. So instead of hitting ‘Publish’ and hoping for the best, why not spend some of your content creation time creating newsletters, website graphics, and social media posts that promote it?

 

Get to know your stats

How do you know how you’re doing if you’re not tracking your efforts? It’s great if you’re writing stellar content, posting consistently, and engaging with your audience, but you need to spend some time tracking and analyzing your stats too. Schedule your time each month to dive into your Google Analytics. Make a cup of tea or pour yourself a glass of wine and take a good look at your website’s numbers. If you’re looking for a simpler way to track your website and social media stats, try a tool like Cyfe. Cyfe organizes all of the data into one easy to read dashboard. Day to day, it’s a good idea to use an SEO tool like Moz or SemRush to help you meet your keyword goals. These tools will help you see how your website compares to your competitors and give you actionable tips on how to improve your Google search ranking.

 

Conclusion

Building a successful blog takes time, but even the busiest lingerie store owners can run successful lingerie blogs if they have an actionable plan in place. Pre-planning content, outsourcing articles, automating the formatting and scheduling of blog posts, and taking pictures throughout the week can free up your time so you can spend it in the areas of your lingerie business that have the most direct impact day to day without sacrificing the long-term benefits of SEO and building a loyal audience online.