by Melissa Drake
Blogs aren’t just for parents, or those traveling the world. Blogging can help nearly any business achieve greater success. An effective blogging strategy can help connect a business with their customers in several ways.
Through those connections, blogs help to:
1. Demonstrate areas of expertise and showcase your skills to existing and potential customers. If you’re a marketer and know the ins and outs of marketing and branding, present those skills on your blog to ensure your voice is prevalent and your skills are displayed well to your target market.
2. Provide a way for existing and potential customers to learn about your business. Use your blog to inform consumers of what’s happening in your industry, your community and specifically in your business.
Use your blog to tell the story of your business. What are your employees up to and what progress is your business making? Get customers interested in the happenings of your business so they want to stay connected.
3. Invite your customers to know your personal story. Get vulnerable. Tell your customers who you are as a person. Let them know your personal story and what you’re about. Show them the woman behind the curtain.
Why would consumers want to do business with you? What makes you different from every other business in your niche? Ultimately, the answer to this question is the main reason why your business will be chosen over all the others in the same category.
4. A blog post is a tangible way for customers and prospects to share your service and story with others. Social media platforms make it very easy for your customers to share blog posts that resonate with their friends and family members in just a few clicks. In moments, your business story can be shared with hundreds, if not thousands, or hundreds of thousands of a customer’s contacts.
The days of handing out business cards have now passed. Sharing social media links are the norm. Create compelling and relatable blog posts your customers will be proud to share.
5. Frequent blogging keeps your business top of mind with customers. By writing regular blog posts and/or sending newsletters via email—with weekly updates for example—you keep your business in front of your customers and prospects.
This gives you an opportunity to keep fans apprised of new product introductions, exclusive offers, and opportunities to stay in touch with your brand. Ultimately, this means more sales.
6. Updated content on your website improves SEO rankings. Search engines like Google look for fresh content when indexing search results. Having frequently updated blog posts (at least weekly) gives potential customers the best possible opportunity to find you.
Maximize every opportunity to connect with your customers and prospects to share your knowledge, keep them up-to-date, reveal who you are as a person (not just a business), provide them with an effective way to pass your business story on to others, and stay in touch on a regular basis.
Doing these things help build rapport with existing clients, draw in new prospects, and generate referrals for new business, which add up to profitability in the long run.
Effective communication is always worth the time and investment because of the dividends it returns.
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Melissa Drake is an intuitive editor, writer, and coach who helps others live their truth, write their story and empower others through publishing. Her truth has been featured in Women for One, elephant journal, Scary Mommy, The Good Men Project, Thought Catalog, and on The SHFT Blog.
