10 Business Blogging Tips to Attract, Retain, and Convert Your Audience
Blogs—they’re no longer the wild west of marketing, but rather a common practice for most businesses in the Internet age. Blogs are an affordable and easy way to get your brand in front of buyers, and to open a forum that inspires interaction with your ideal prospects while fostering their loyalty.
Not to mention, when your prospects interact with your blog and like what they see, by the time they approach you about your services, they’re already on the path of being “sold” on working with you.
Take your readers on that path when you implement these 10 business blogging tips that promote sales without ever giving a pitch:
#1. Be Consistent. The easiest way to fall off your prospects’ radar is to go radio-silent. Keep your business on your prospects’ minds by maintaining an active, engaging blog with clockwork posts. Set a day when you post new entries, and stick to it. You’ll inadvertently train your audience when to tune in for the latest from your business and ensure your posts continue to gain exposure.
#2. Educate Potential Buyers. Blogging to educate potential buyers means convincing them that your products or services are indeed a good idea. You may want to cite third-party studies, testimonials or case studies, or generally accepted knowledge on the subject to show your readers the benefits of the products or services you offer.
#3. Share Tips on Best Use. Your blog is the perfect place to unveil new products from your business. But it’s also the venue to show your readers what benefits they can expect from your products or services. For example, if you’re a travel agent, your blog might tell readers where to stay, eat, shop, and visit when they travel to Italy. Not only are you educating them about the services you offer (putting together travel packages), but also you show them how to use the service (where they can go and what they can do).
#4. Strut Your Knowledge. Let your business blog do the work of a one-on-one sales call where you impress your potential clients with helpful insights and demonstrate your expertise. Expert articles allow you to mirror that client conversation in writing and reach more potential clients with the same effort. In addition, you build a solid online reputation and position yourself as a credible source for valuable information. But remember—blogging in this instance is about sharing those little gems without giving away too much knowledge.
#5. Blog About Problems Your Customers Need Solutions To. Give your readers what they really want: a resolution to the problems. Sit down and think of your customers’ pain points, or your customers’ curiosity points, and write posts centered on addressing those needs. Offer good advice or interesting stories. When in doubt, ask your readers what they most want to read about, and be sure to follow through with a thoughtful post.
#6. Feature Guest Bloggers. Further position your company as the go-to source for quality information by featuring other experts in your industry. This will give your readers a fresh perspective, and it’s a great way to network in your field.
#7. Ask Questions. A blog is an excellent way to get direct feedback from your readers. If you’re struggling to channel the muse, ask your readers what they want to hear about, and create your next posts around the responses you receive. This gives you on-the-fly content and makes your readers feel as though their input is valued.
#8. Keep it Fresh. Whatever you do, don’t let you blog become formulaic and redundant. Keep your readers coming back to your blog by changing up the medium with a video blog, an interview, infographics, or a new blog series.
#9. Give Your Blog a Voice. The informal nature of blogs lends itself beautifully to capturing the spirit of your business. Let your company’s personality shine through all your content, and your readers will connect with your business on a fundamental level.
#10. Boost your S.E.O. Try running the post through Scribe. It’s a monthly subscription service that analyzes content and offers suggestions to help with search-engine optimization so more people can find your blog posts.
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