Blogging is one of the best and lowest-cost ways to generate traffic and sales for your store, so “write a blog post” should be firmly planted on your content marketing to-do list. But when it comes time to sit down and face that blank document? Crickets. And a solid hour of deleting every sentence you put down.
You’re definitely not alone on this, since writing probably isn’t what got you into the business-owning game in the first place (unless you started with a blog and monetized it).
But since everything you’ve ever heard about how great blogging is for your business is true, we want to make it a bit easier to get those high-impact posts out the door.
That’s why we put together four free blog post templates you can use in your writing process for your ecommerce store’s blog—and wrote this post to take you step-by-step through how to do it.
1. Gift guide post template
Gift guides are the perfect way to remind your audience that, hey, insert-gifting-occasion-here is coming up soon, and your wares would make a great gift.
This type of blog posts does double duty, because it can become a shareable wish list your audience will pass on, and it can be found via search engines by desperate gift hunters who have no idea what to buy for guitar players or football fans or vegans or yogis.
Hey, maybe they’re shopping for a guitar-playing football fan who loves to chow down on vegan grub after yoga class, and that’s your ideal target market. You never know. That would (potentially) be a hard person to shop for, and you might have the perfect thing for them! A gift guide blog post is a great way for you to fill the void.
You’ll be able to include your products, along with some other stellar ideas you think your target audience would love. It can be anything from related books to items from other brands, but your goal is to provide a genuinely helpful list of gifts your audience will adore. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Rowan, for example, caters to a specific target audience: it sells dog care products, so its customers usually own, if not love, dogs. This blog post offers a numbered list of nine gift ideas for “glamhounds”—the dogs themselves.
You’ll notice the list includes a combination of Rowan products as well as complementary items from other merchants. Each gift suggestion has basic pricing information, a link, and a short writeup to describe the product.
For gift guide posts, you’ll need:
- A list of eight to 12 items that would be perfect gifts for your target audience (including one to three of your products)
- An image of each item
- The price of each item
- A short description of each item and why it’s a great gift for your audience
- A link to each item
Once you’ve got all that content, your post is about 80% of the way there. Now here’s how to structure your post.
For the best results, aim to include a variety of products and price points, all aiming for the same niche customer. If you know other small business’ products that would be perfect to include in the guide, reach out to them as you’re putting it together—it could be a great way to collaborate with other business owners.
Gift guide blog post headline formulas
- A [Holiday] Gift Guide for [Audience]
- # of Gift Ideas for [Audience]
- A Gift Guide for [Audience]
- The Ultimate Guide to Gifts for [Audience]
Introduction
- What makes your audience hard to shop for?
- What does your audience look for in a gift?
- You can include any anecdotes, stories, or information you think would be relevant in the introduction as well.
Gift (repeat for each gift in the guide)
- Image of the gift
- Gift details
- Name of the gift
- Price of the gift
- Link to the gift
- Brief description of what makes it a great choice for your audience
For the best results, include a variety of products and price points, all aiming for the same niche customer. If you know other products that would be perfect to include in the guide, reach out to the brands themselves as you’re putting it together—it could be a great way to collaborate.
Ora Organic has a diverse range of recommendations in its sustainable holiday gift guide blog post.
In fact, one of the gift ideas isn’t even a product—the brand recommends gifts you can’t wrap, like a warm hug.
The post also includes other tips for more sustainable gift giving likely to be of interest to its audience.
2. Roundup or listicle post template
Think about your ideal customer. Is there anything they’re especially excited about? Struggling with? You can put together a post that gives them all the resources they need to manage it, or learn more, without having to create the resources yourself. That’s what a roundup post is for.
For example, if you sell vegan-themed apparel like Wholesome Culture, and it’s close to a major holiday, your audience might be gearing up for parties, potlucks, and family meals that include a lot of animal products. You could round up a list of great vegan recipes for holiday events, which would be a seriously helpful—not to mention on-brand—resource. Get inspiration from Wholesome Culture’s Memorial Day menu or this list of vegan recipes for spring.
Your roundup post is going to be different based on your audience and what resources are already out there, but they all follow a similar structure. You can even do an expert roundup post where you feature someone from your company or a subject matter expert, or collaborate with influencers to curate the list.
For list posts, you’ll need:
- An introduction to the list—who it’s for and why you put it together
- A list of all of the resources you’re including (posts, products, etc.)
- A link for each resource
- An image for each resource
- A short description of each resource
- A price for each resource, if applicable
Roundup blog post headline formulas
- # Ways to Help [Audience] Do [Action]
- # Ways [Audience] Can [Action]
Introduction
- Who is this roundup for?
- What are they going to learn or get out of the resources?
- Why is that valuable, specifically for them?
- You can include any personal stories or anecdotes relevant to the list of resources and the goal of the post.
Resource (repeat for each resource in the post)
- A link for each resource
- An image for each resource
- A short description of each resource
- A price for each resource, if applicable
Once you’ve got the general structure of a roundup post locked down, it’s one of the most versatile posts out there. Sure, your first one might be a roundup of resources around a specific theme, or of other great posts from around the web, but this general framework works for so much more.
You could use the roundup post structure to pull together your top blog posts from the past year, your favorite products from the last year, or your own bestselling products. Any time you’re struggling to come up with a blog post that you need, like, yesterday, this flexible framework can be your new go-to.
Plus, once you’ve got the idea and written down a list of what to include, you’ve done the hardest part—the writing will be much easier from there.
Online apothecary Anima Mundi Herbals, for example, has a blog where it shares recipes, tips, and information about herbalism. This post rounds up the 15 plants you need to create your at-home first-aid kit.
It also includes an infographic for saving, sharing, and reference. These graphics are easy for the brand to repurpose for use on other channels like social media or email. They’re also shareable, allowing its audience to spread awareness on the brand’s behalf. Note the subtle “@animamundiherbals” in the design.
3. How-to guide post template
If you want to go a bit further than a helpful roundup, why not dive in and teach your audience something with a how-to blog post?
If a roundup post of recipes is good, a how-to post of one of your original (and delicious) recipes would be even better, and it’s not just for brands who talk food.
Your audience is looking for information, and there’s definitely something they could learn from you, whether it’s styling a perfect fall look, organizing their home office, or choosing the perfect glasses for their face shape.
Take this blog example from cosmetics brand 100% Pure. It saw an opportunity to help its audience transition their makeup routine from summer to fall, so it put together a helpful guide for each major category of makeup.
Sencha Tea Bar has a robust blog with recipes, guides, and information about its products and related topics. This post, for example, is a how-to for making bubble tea at home.
Formerly Cup & Leaf, the Sencha Tea Bar store actually started as a blogger’s site. It was so successful the creator opened a retail shop, effectively monetizing the food blog.
When it comes to your own how-to posts, think about what your audience already cares about, and how that overlaps with your brand. What could you teach them that would be a good fit—and that they would trust you to know how to do?
PLANNING TIP: Make sure you choose a topic people are interested in by doing your SEO research ahead of time. Here’s an in-depth guide to keyword research that can help you snag a topic that will deliver plenty of search traffic over time.
For how-to posts, you’ll need:
- An introduction (tell the reader why you’re teaching them this skill and how it will help them)
- A list of each step in the process
- An overview or guide to completing each step
- Images as needed (you might not need an image to clearly communicate each step)
Here’s the template to write your how-to guide:
How-to blog post headline formulas
- Learn [Task] in [Time] to [Outcome]
- How to [Task] in [Time]
- How to [Task] With Only [Resources or Time]
- How to [Task] to [Outcome]
Introduction
- Why does your audience need (or want) this skill?
- What will it help them do more of?
- What will it help them do less of?
- Why are you teaching it? Do you have great results with it? (Hint: If yes, show off a little!)
List of steps
- List each step in the process as your subheadings
- Aim for more, smaller steps, to keep it easy and achievable
For each step, you can include:
- An overview or guide to completing each step
- Images as needed (you might not need an image to clearly communicate each step)
This post from skin care brand Versed shows readers how to go about their morning skin care routine. It starts out with a graphic that quickly summarizes the steps before going into each one in detail. This is a great tactic to promote shareability, and it makes it easy to repurpose the content for promotion and distribution on other channels.
The post then dives into each individual step, including photos and specific product recommendations.
It also notes when a step is optional. This can build trust, as the brand isn’t overly salesly and promotional in telling readers they must purchase all these products to include every single step.
The post ends with a specific call-to-action (CTA) for readers to visit a similar post about evening skin care routines. This encourages users to engage more deeply with the content and the brand, building more trust and product awareness over time.
4. Interview post template
One way to guarantee your post gets shared beyond your audience is to interview other people. No one’s immune to ego, after all, and they’ll probably share the interview with their audience once it’s up.
Plus, getting experts to talk about what they’re passionate about can be entertaining and useful for both you and your audience—and it’s a great way to generate content without coming up with all of the blog post ideas yourself.
Before you get started, consider the strategy for your interviews—both who you’re going to ask, and what you’re going to ask them.
Are you aiming to give your audience a sneak peek behind the scenes? Are you aiming to help teach and educate? To figure it out, go back to your audience and what they currently need, like, and want.
One great example is from Colorado Crafted, a gift and subscription box brand. It has an ongoing series of behind-the-scenes interviews with the entrepreneurs behind its curated products.
Now that you’ve got some ideas going, it’s time to reach out to the people you want to interview. Here’s an outreach template you can swipe and modify.
Hi INTERVIEWEE,
I’m YOUR NAME, from YOUR COMPANY. We make YOUR PRODUCT for YOUR AUDIENCE.
I love THINGS YOU ADMIRE ABOUT THEM and I think our audience would too—would you be open to being interviewed for our blog?
The interview will take about AMOUNT OF TIME and I’d be happy to work around your schedule.
Thanks!
YOUR NAME
Once you have a yes from your interviewee, and a clear interview direction, you’re most of the way there.
You can also look internally for interviewees, leveraging your own people and their subject matter expertise. Clean laundry care brand Dirty Labs does exactly that with this post, interviewing its chief scientist about the sustainability of various laundry products and detergent alternatives.
This interview post isn’t formatted like your typical Q&A. Instead, the brand interviewed the subject matter expert (SME), summarized the background information, and presented it in a legible and organized manner, with a couple of images to break up the text.
For interview posts, you’ll need:
- A list of questions
- A way to record your interview (voice recording, taking notes, or doing the interview by email all work well)
If you want to level up the post, you can add:
- An image (or several) of the person you’re interviewing
- An image or two featuring quotations from the interview, for sharing on social media
Then you’ll need the following for your interview blog post:
List of questions
Stuck on ideas? Start with one each beginning with
- “Why …”
- “How …”
- “What …”
- “Where …”
- “When …”
Images
- Photos of your interviewee
- An image or two featuring quotations from the interview, for sharing on social media
If the images stress you out, Canva is a great place to create images for social media—and you can snag free stock photos from Burst. Don’t forget to optimize your images for web use before publishing.
5 tips for making the most of your blog post templates
While templates are helpful to guide you through writing your blog post, there are some considerations a template can’t account for. It’s important to understand search intent, know when to promote your products, optimize your headlines, and more.
Understand search intent
Your website’s blog is a valuable asset for search engine marketing and increasing your visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). And while you certainly want to do keyword research to optimize for relevant searches, it’s also important to consider the user’s experience—what are they looking for when they perform that Google search? What kind of content experience do they expect? What would be most valuable to them?
Effective SEO marketing goes beyond keywords and snippets. It requires putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and creating an experience that meets their needs. For example, searchers who query “how to” do something likely want to see a step-by-step guide or tutorial that shows them exactly how to accomplish that specific task or goal. But if they’re searching “what is,” they’re likely more exploratory and in early research phases.
Skin care brand Common Heir understands search intent with its blog posts. Many posts are educational, so the content is informative and helps readers learn more about topics relevant to the brand’s products.
However, it also publishes some more promotional posts and blog content (like this one), though these don’t appear to be as optimized for search as the informative posts. This is likely because Common Heir has a great content strategy, which could include other tactics such as paid promotion or backlinks.
Cross-link to your products
While blog posts are often “top of funnel”—in other words, it’s content consumers engage with early on in their purchase journey—it’s still important to introduce and cross-sell your products. That’s what’s going to generate a profit at the end of the day.
It’s important to strike a balance between promotional and educational, and this is often subjective. Gift guide posts, for example, lend themselves more to product promotion. People reading those posts are likely ready to head over to your product page to make a purchase. But someone reading a post about how to make chocolate chip cookies may not be ready to purchase your baking sheet right now.
You can also build this product promotion into the design of your blog pages so every post has a linked product, regardless of whether it’s mentioned in the actual content. That’s the approach LastObject takes, as you can see the product module on the right rail of each post.
Write a great headline
Your post title or headline is one of the most important elements. This is usually the first thing people see, and it’s responsible for piquing their interest enough to make people want to click through and read more.
But writing a great headline is easier said than done. The best headlines are both descriptive and straightforward while incorporating your unique brand voice and a bit of creativity. Plus, if SEO is part of your strategy, your headlines need to be optimized to lure organic traffic from searchers.
Cocofloss is an excellent example of an ecommerce blog with awesome headlines. The brand strikes the perfect balance between playful and informative.
If copywriting and coming up with great headlines is challenging, you’re not alone. There are apps and tools you can use to help write and optimize your headline ideas. One such tool is American Marketing Institute's Headline Analyzer. While it’s not perfect, it can give you tips and ideas to help you brainstorm and tweak your headline until you find the right one.
Include a “soft” call to action
Every piece of content you publish should include a call to action (CTA). However, your CTA doesn’t necessarily have to be a product plug. In fact, “conversions” take many forms on your website.
Sure, the ultimate digital marketing conversion is a completed sale, but you should also consider secondary conversions. These “softer” conversions could include things like an email newsletter signup, a like on your Facebook page, or an opt-in for an upcoming virtual event.
Path, a virtual photo editing studio, publishes a blog. Rather than jumping right into a hard sell for its products and services, it offers a softer CTA at the top of the post for readers to sign up for its email newsletter. This is a more logical “conversion” for a blog reader, as they may not be ready to convert to a sale just yet.
Remember promotion
It’s all well and good to spend time on content creation, but getting blog posts finished is only half the battle. Promotion is an equally important pillar. That’s why it’s important to have a promotion and distribution plan for every new blog post you publish.
Other than the how-to guide, every other post on this list involves at least one other person or business you can reach out to and ask them to share the post. After hitting Publish on each post, reach out to anyone who’s products, posts, or names were included, and let them know about it.
Here’s a sample email you can swipe.
Hi NAME,
I’m the owner of [your company]. We love what you’re doing with [their company]. I wanted to say hello and let you know we mentioned [their company] on the blog today. Here’s the link: [URL]
Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
NAME
Internal link building is another promotional activity you can do to boost visibility of your new posts. This includes finding relevant anchor text in previously published posts and adding a link to your newly published post. This will not only bring traffic from those older posts, but it also signals to Google that your content is related to the anchor text—so remember to use keywords in the anchor text!
Publish your next blog post
One of our takeaways is that while it’s great to use a template to help guide you through the content creation process, it’s still important to focus on creating unique, high-quality information for your audience.
To help come up with topic ideas, look to your audience. What questions do they ask? What are they talking about on social media? Then think of ways you can lend your expertise and position yourself as an authority on the topic by providing helpful information. Your blog is a great way to drive more traffic to your website. Make sure it’s an authentic reflection of your brand.
Read more
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- Four Small Business Collaboration Ideas to Boost Your Sales
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- How to Invest in Your Business- What You Need to Know Before You Get Started
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- How to Create a Marketing Plan [+ Free Template]
- Faster Checkout on Instagram and Facebook with Shop Pay
Ecommerce blog post template FAQ
What is a blog post template?
A blog post template is a structured outline you can follow when writing your own blog posts. There are four free blog post templates in this post.
Why use a blog post template?
Using a blog post template makes the writing process go more quickly and smoothly. A blog post template also helps ensure you don’t leave out any important elements or information.
Won’t a template make my blog sound generic?
A template won’t make your blog sound generic if you focus on creating unique, compelling content that authentically represents your brand voice and identity.
What makes a good ecommerce blog post?
- Understands search intent
- Cross-links to products
- Has a great headline
- Includes a soft CTA
- Optimized and promoted
