As many businesses are dedicating more time to integrating their brand with the likes of social media and the rest of the Internet, several are realizing the power and importance of having a blog. A blog acts as an incredibly cost effective way to promote your business. With the right content, you can bring in new customers and readers all through the power of your words.
The Blogging Side of Things
If you are currently debating whether or not your business might benefit from a blog, the answer is yes. While you may be concerned a blog is a frivolous detail to add to your website, it is in these details that you may win over most of your new customers. Your blog is a way to reach out to an audience that other marketing and promotional materials may miss. For tips and tricks on how to start blogging and how to maintain your blog, read on.
Connect with Customers
As you start writing your blog, you’ll understand how you can reach your audience in ways that you never have before. The ability to speak on specific things allows you to reach your customers on a rather personal level. Your blog should provide new insights about your industry or allow customers to get to know your products and services better.
The best way to ensure your customers connect with your blog is to be active on social media. As you get started, you can see how well people respond to your posts. Having a blog and sharing it opens the door to starting a conversation with your consumers. As you share your blogs and content, pay attention to the comments you receive on social media, making sure to reply to them as well.
Plan for Popular Content
Many people are deterred from writing a blog due to the fact that they are lacking ideas and time. However, these are only excuses. Topics that may seem relatively simple to you may be what your consumers are dying to know more about. When searching for ideas to blog about, it is helpful to think about frequently asked questions. These are generally hot topics that consumers will likely be drawn to.
Creating popular content like this will inspire other people to look into your company that would otherwise have not heard about your business. A blog essentially starts the dialogue and establishes your business as an industry leader in the top.
A great way to find out what consumers want to know is to search for keywords. Using a tool like Google Adwords Keyword will help you discover keyword phrases people are using to look for your business’s services. These keywords can be included in your blog and will allow people to find your content easily.
Writing Valuable Content
The way to ensure that your business is the leading authority in the industry is to make sure that your content is actually valuable. This means to make sure that your content is valid, of course, but it also something that consumers may have never known without coming to your business.
Of course your blog doesn’t need to provide company secrets, but it is a good idea to teach your readers something new so they aren’t just reading washed up content. Be sure to do a search on the topics you are considering blogging about before actually writing your next one. By checking out articles that already exist, you’ll know what to leave out and what to put in your next blog.
If you don’t in fact have time to write your own blog, you can enlist the help of a content writing service. With the right writers, you will have new, quality blogs in no time. These blogs will be tailor made to fit your consumers’ needs and will help your business by driving up readership and sales.
Blog Consistently
With social media, new content is king. The amount of new information that people get on a regular basis is astounding and can make it hard for anyone to establish a voice in today’s world. This is where consistent blogging comes in.
The best way to make sure your blog is updated consistently is by maintaining a blogging schedule. Typically, businesses update their blogs weekly or bimonthly. Planning will help you ensure you have enough content to discuss each time. A regularly updated blog will allow you to stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds and keep you ahead of the game. Websites and blogs that are updated frequently are able to rank higher in search engines and will gain visibility with your target customers.
Focus on a Blogging Style
As you get used to writing more and more, you will get a sense of what your blogging style is. The best thing about blogs is that they are an informal way of communicating thoughts. This is essential when connecting to your audience. When businesses use blogs, this allows their consumers to see a more human side of them rather than just a corporate shell. The best business blogs show the writer’s personality and aren’t incredibly heavy with the sales pitch. With the right tone, your blog will generate both responses and sales.
When blogging, you may wonder if you should be writing posts that are short and sweet or long and explanatory. The general school of thought for business blogs is keeping the word count down to about 400 words. With web content, people are always skimming through, so it’s best to keep things on the shorter side.
As you start blogging more often, it may be disappointing to see that you do not have many comments or responses. However, this doesn’t mean that your readers are not following along. For all the posts being shared and blogs being read, many people do not actually comment. As you keep blogging and your readership expands, you will find that you receive more comments and responses.
Keep Your Content Sharable
In order to reach the far corners of the Internet, your blog should be easy to share. When you post your blog on your site, you should have share icons readily available. These are the icons for the various social networks that your business uses. These make it easier for consumers to share the post and will help to drive more traffic and sales to your site.
As readers share your content and respond to it, you will want to be able to monitor your blog’s performance. Many people use Google Analytics to see how people are responding to your content and find out where and how they found out about your business. This in turn will make it easier for you to know what to focus on for your next blogs. The fastest way for people to learn about your company is through viral content. The best way to set up yourself for a situation like this is to ensure your content is easy to share and popular enough to gain the attention of a lot of people.
As you foray into the world of business blogging, keep in mind all of the aspects of blogging that were discussed. You’ll want to make sure your content is valuable enough for consumers to read and want to share. The right content will keep consumers interested and will even bring in new people that are interested in trying out the services and products of your business. The best way to start your blog is to just sit down and start writing.