Blogs can be an inexpensive yet effective way to reach, not only your current customers, but potential ones as well. More than 57 million American adults read blogs on a regular basis and, as a result, 52 percent of those readers make purchases online. Can you imagine what a blog could mean for your business?
Benefits of Having a Blog
Creating and maintaining a blog for your company’s website has many advantages. Writing knowledgeable thought-provoking blog articles, or “posts”, will essentially establish your business as a leader within your industry. A successful blog will help drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into leads.
Although beginning a blog isn’t difficult, it isn’t enough to simply begin writing and publishing. There are a few particular steps that you must follow in order to set yourself, and your business, up for success. The main goal of your blog is to generate revenue by promoting your company’s product or service, while also building credibility as the go-to source within your field.
Blogging: Steps to Getting Started
1) Research
2) Write Engaging Content
3) Be Consistent
4) Pick a Platform
Research: Get Familiar with Your Product or Service
Knowing your product inside and out is the only way you’re going to effectively communicate its benefits to your audience. Test your product and use it as if you were one of your customers. This is a fool-proof way to gain knowledge and write from a perspective that your customers can relate to.
Write Engaging Content
The quality of your blog’s content will determine whether or not your readers will come back. Therefore, it’s important to stay up-to-date on current trends within your industry, while also maintaining a personable and friendly approach. If you have passion for what you do, then conveying your knowledge in an entertaining way will be easy.
Be Consistent
Consistency is vital when it comes to blogging. Whether it’s consistency of publishing, post length, or content quality, it will play an important role in building trust with your readers. An easy way to accomplish this step is to decide how many posts you are going to publish per week or month and plan to write your posts ahead of time.
Pick a Platform
If your company has a website, then you will most likely have access to a developer that can help you with the technical aspects of setting up a blog. If you don’t happen to have a developer that can help you, you can turn to the many readily available, and often free, blogging platforms including WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger.
Take the time to follow these simple steps, and you’ll build a blog that will be informative and fun to read, as well as build credibility with your readers and encourage them to come back time and time again.