When chatting to many business owners it is interesting to see how many have moved away from blogging in favour of other social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook. It is important for a businesses to use all marketing avenues available to it in order to broaden their customer base, particularly when it has such a low cost/high return attached to it.
Your blog may currently be sitting in cyberspace being ignored and this may be having a detrimental effect on your business without you even realising it. Firstly, search engines will not favour your blog if no new quality information is being added to it on a regular basis. Secondly, potential clients or customers may come across your abandoned blog and be put off by the fact that there has not been a new post added in the last six months. I know I would be as this shows to me, a general lack of foresight and mismanagement on behalf of a business.
If this is you – then it is time to reconnect with your laptop and revisit blogging as a marketing means. I have said it before and am only happy to say it again – the benefits of blogging are golden to a business.
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A blog allows you to be seen by a wider online audience and not just those registered as a member of a particular social network.
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Your business is seen to be operating on an extremely transparent and communicative level which ultimately manifests as trust by the client or consumer.
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A blog will enable you to be seen online – whether through a specific search or by following a backlink on other site thus resulting in an increase in traffic to your website over time.
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You will become known for being an expert in your field which will promote both a solid fan base of readers creating potential word of mouth marketing opportunities.
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A blog enables you to target your audience directly – if they are not looking to use your services then generally they won’t be reading your blog. If they like what you say then ultimately they will be back for more.
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Customers can leave feedback directly on your blog demonstrating to other potential customers the high level of performance or service you give.
Finding motivation to write a blog post however can be another thing altogether. In my next article we will address ways to motivate you back to the blog or failing that – how to utilise a ghost writer to make it look like you are doing all the work!
About Michelle: Michelle’s career spans 20 years in various administrative and marketing roles. She has owned and sold a successful online store, written articles for a number of online magazines and now focuses her energies on writing – proofreading and editing, ghost and copy writing and blog management.
You can read more about Michelle on her profile page.
