Copy Cat

The Business Blogging Series Part 2: Consistent posts generate huge benefits

Renae

Do you want more people to find your website, see you as an expert in your field, and ultimately become paying customers? Adding a blog to your website can do these things and more.

In Part 2, we’ll take a look at the many benefits of using a business blog as part of your marketing efforts. If you missed Part 1, click here to get caught up.

Consistently adding content in the form of a blog provides numerous benefits for your business. Blogs generate:

Many of these benefits are closely linked to one another and feed off each other’s activities. Let’s talk about how each of these benefits brings more clients and sales to your business.

Increased brand awareness

Brand awareness takes time to build. Businesses must get in front of potential customers over and over in positive, useful ways that distinguish their brand when it’s time for customers to buy. It’s not easy to do, and there isn’t one silver bullet.

One key is to supply fresh content to keep them interested in what you have to say.

Because prospects spend so much time online, you must be there, too. When they see you over and over, they’ll know what you do or sell and be more likely to think of you when they need what you offer.

Build trust with your fan base

Studies show most people don’t trust advertising. Those feelings have become stronger as people are inundated with more information every day. To build trust, you have to provide information prospects care about—information that impacts them in some way.

When you show prospects they’re the priority rather than the sale (even if it really is the sale that’s important), they begin to build a relationship with you. You can’t build trust without building relationships first. Creating content prospects want builds relationships and leads to trust. And I know you see where that will lead. Sales!

Establish yourself as an industry leader

Now that you’ve built trust and made prospects aware of your brand, establishing yourself as an industry leader will flow from those activities. You’re sharing the knowledge you’ve gained about your business with your audience. They trust you.

Now they see you as an expert in your field. This is your ultimate goal.

For example, when you want to know something about the future of technology, you might turn to Apple or Microsoft to get the latest information. They’re leaders in their industry. They offer great products, yes, but they also provide great information to their fan base.

You don’t have to attract everyone to your brand. You only need to focus on people who would benefit from your product or service (and you should know which audience to focus on if you’ve done your homework). Focus on serving them with fantastic information, and they will see you as their guide when it comes time to buy. Guide them to you.

Create fresh material for social media marketing

This benefit is so great! Sometimes it’s hard to know how to use social media to build a following. You know you need it, but what do you post?

A blog posted at least weekly is the answer. Post a link to your blog on each of your social media sites. Ask your followers to share it and comment on it. Get them involved.

An engaged fan base brings you more fans.

Letting your raving fans spread the word for you builds the trust you’ve been trying to earn. What do most people do when deciding to buy something? They look online for reviews. When online friends share something they think is great, it’s as good as a glowing review. Use it to your advantage by providing great content your fans will share.

This is where the magic really happens.

Increase your online following

Posting fresh content consistently over time naturally builds a large online following, assuming customers and prospects find your posts worthwhile. A large following increases your ability to generate leads who eventually purchase your products or services.

Let the web do its job—let it spread the word about your business for you.

An additional benefit occurs when your current followers like the information you provide for them and share it with their followers. Valuable content posted over a consistent period will spread like wildfire through your fan base, reaching new people who may not have known much, or anything, about you previously.

Drive traffic to your website

All that social media activity and growing fan base will bring additional traffic to your website. If you’ve focused your site on serving your client, newbies who come in through your blog should find additional valuable content. The longer they stay, the better the odds are they’ll turn into a client somewhere down the road.

If those prospects spend very little time on your site, you might revisit the content of your site. Does it focus on features rather than benefits? You may need to tweak some things to bring the focus back to benefits. Don’t waste all that new traffic.

Here’s my one thing to remember at this point. If your website is new, it will take time for people and search engines to find you. Posting a regular blog can help speed up that process, helping them find you sooner. It still may take months but keep plugging away. It will happen.

If you have established traffic, a weekly blog will only enhance your brand recognition and increase your followers. You will see more visitors and they’ll come back more often. Talk about brand and trust building! See how this all works together?

Generate leads to make more sales

Now that you have great traffic finding your website, turn these visitors into leads. At the end of each blog post, you’ll ask your readers to do something—a call to action. If you skip this step, you’re missing the primary purpose of writing and posting all those blogs.

The call to action doesn’t have to be asking for the sale, and most of the time it won’t be. It should be something that will accomplish a useful goal for you and help the prospect at the same time. Here are some examples:

Eventually, if your reader has returned over and over to read your posts, they will participate. They’ll come to trust you and see you as an expert. Soon enough, they will call for an appointment or buy your product when they decide the time is right. And they might even be excited about handing their money over to you to get it.

Give your fans a reason to come back for more

You’ve been consistently posting useful, entertaining information geared toward your prospects and current clients. Your followers have grown, and they’re seeing your content every week. You are their first choice for the service or product you provide.

Way to go! You’ve done it! That is exactly what all your work can accomplish if done well and consistently.

Here’s YOUR call to action

Now you get to see an example of a call to action. Nice of me, huh?

If you think this all sounds sensible and like something you want to try, get to it! Don’t waste another minute thinking about it. Start writing your blog to draw prospects in.

Or, if you want to do it but know you don’t have the time or skills to take it on yourself, give me a call. We can discuss your needs and goals to see if working together makes sense. There’s no obligation. I promise, I won’t even bite.