Gaining the Most from your Business Blog
By: James Pruitt, Senior Staff Writer
1) Establish your Authority:
Through advice, anecdotes, and selective marketing, a blog allows business owners to establish themselves as leaders in their field. An interior decorator can post home repair advice. A computer technician can share cybersecurity tips. Your business is helping your customers in their everyday endeavors. A blog allows you to provide free tidbits to demonstrate your potential, nudging viewers toward deeper engagement.
2) Promote your Brand to Attract Talent:
A blog allows a chance to profile your company’s employees, showing the human face of your enterprise. Whether a college degree, special award, or new business license, a blog enables a business owner to boast about their talents and human assets. This is the time and place to boast about achievements and milestones. Whatever a business has to offer, a blog allows a channel to share the value of their human capital.
3) Share Testimonials:
A blog lets potential customers hear from the horse’s mouth. Did you know that 50 % of customers make purchases after researching products online, and 92% trust referrals from people they know? Online testimonials offer a personal connection in researching your product or service. Blogs are the perfect venue to showcase good karma and positive goodwill.
4) Drive Traffic to your Website:
When customers read your blog, they are nearly twice as likely to click on your website. The more engaging the blog, the more hits will accumulate on your main website. Blogs offer the perfect chance for engagement with clientele. One simple link multiplies exposure to the site providing information
5) Analyze Demographics:
Any marketing campaign needs user data. The back-end data from site visits provides feedback on the geographic and behavioral characteristics of your audience, and hence allows wise use of advertising dollars. Google Analytics and SEO software can prove valuable tools in breaking down this information.
6) Promote Business Partners:
Most businesses have partners involved in their supply chain or service delivery. A blog provides opportunities to plug fellow companies. Business relationships are by nature reciprocal, and owners can expect good karma from small acts to promote your fellow travelers in the industry.
7) Involve Employees:
Your business allows creation of a fun, vibrant workplace community. A blog allows the showcasing of get-togethers, life events, and updates about your workforce. Every time a worker shares these updates on social media, more attention is drawn to your company. Every time they tell a friend about their fun workplace activity, you spread positive word of mouth.
Better yet, with each share, your SEO numbers go up. Engagement with your own website increases, and your business will more likely appear in search results.
8) Earn Cash through Promotions and Advertisements:
A blog provides advertising space, and selling these promotional opportunities only adds to your company’s value. Not only can a blog provide saleable advertising space, but other ideas may include selling products online, providing internet-based courses, and conducting online market research.
9) Inform Customers of Socially Conscious Activities:
Community engagement provides some of the best advertising opportunities. Did you know that 85% of customers are more likely to support businesses that donate or volunteer? Bloggers should not hesitate to draw attention to their good works and promote relevant causes. Goodwill from customers and good karma follows.
Conclusion:
Online marketing is all about engagement. Engagement provides outreach as well as market feedback necessary to adapt products and services to their relevant markets. Blogs are vibrant, living documents that provide a dynamic, engaging sphere for client outreach. The above strategies can maximize traffic to both your blog and your website, adapting your business to your specialized market niche as well as changing demands.
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