A blog is a lot like a conversation. Most of the time, it may look like you are the only one talking but remember – blogging is a dialogue. That in itself is one of the primary reasons why you should blog for your business.
You can be sure that your business will benefit from this conversation long after it has taken place. What’s even better – you can converse as many times as you like and as extensively as you wish. Your print advertisement or TVC is a one way communication when it appears on traditional media but through a blog, it can easily become an interactive experience.
The best thing about being online is being able to interact with more people than you can count. You can reach niche communities and find your own following. Are you thinking marketing? Yes, blogging is perfect for marketing your solutions, products, apps and services. It’s not easy to sustain but it’s effective beyond you can imagine.
Building personal brands and business authority
If you are a professional, a blog can help you build a personal brand. With the online media becoming more influential by the day, this is one thing most professionals today should be doing to keep their careers on track.
Why should you bother?
Simply because, by blogging you bring a part of you to life. You display your strengths, your insights and expertise.
Think of it this way – everyone has ideas and opinions to share. But what good are those opinions if you never shared them. This is important. Social media gives you some exposure but blogging is the real deal.
If you are an individual, your insights matter here. If you have experience, your knowledge is a learning experience for youngsters. If you are a trainer, people need to hear from you.
If you are an expert – your blog can influence opinions and shape ideas. And if you can’t possibly find the time to build a blog on your own – then find the time to blog for a community that can benefit from what you have to say.
For businesses, the ideology is more diverse. Yes, blogs create a voice for the business and a way to be found easily by customers. But more importantly – it helps to put faces to businesses – humanizing them in the process and building valuable networks online.
Blogs help you rank higher on search engines. Blogs increase your visibility. Blogging brings you leads. Blogs reach your customers.
On creating customers and becoming an authority
In my short experience of blogging for business, most of my leads for clients have read my blog to contact me for their respective needs. Amazing, isn’t it?
People ask me if any of my clients are from Pakistan. You’d be surprised to learn that almost all my clients are from Pakistan. And almost 60% of them come to me through my blog.
And I never sold any of my services through the blog. All I am doing here is sharing my insight. The important aspect here is that blogs do generate leads for businesses.
E.L Doctrow once said, “The art of composition is a series of discoveries.” Blogging for business is a lot like that. As you go down this street, you will discover strengths, find new ways to do things and best of all will be able to build a dialogue with your customers.
You will have real numbers on what people like and what they don’t. And you will be able to ask for insights, directly. That’s invaluable for a business looking to make profits. One good reason to blog for your business.
Blogging is also marketing
[tweetthis]Blogging is an opportunity. Not #blogging is an opportunity lost.[/tweetthis]
Look at it this way, if you are selling a product, you need to market it. Not marketing it, you lose out on a customer base that was never reached. It doesn’t make much sense to not market your product. Yes – that’s exactly my point.
For those businesses who already have websites and online presence, blogging could be the next step. The best thing about this is that to get your blog running is not as expensive as running an advertising campaign.
It’s less costly on the pocket and the results are great.
Let me be clear here that we are not comparing advertising, marketing and blogging. All these methods have their own purpose.
But what I am getting at is that blogging to tell your business stories is an effective way to generate discussions around your products, services and business presence.
So if you would like to start a blog for your business, make use of the following tips. If you need help, get in touch with me and I will get back to you.
Tips to start your own business blog
– Decide on the objective of the blog – whether you want to create a soft business image, generate leads, build customers or carry out market research.
– Choose topics and interesting subjects ( Include interviews – those are a big hit).
– Create your own exclusive content (videos, multimedia and infographics are all fantastic engagement tools). Use a unique voice (style, presentation)
– Build an editorial calendar. Engage thought leaders in your niche to contribute.
– Hire an editor to manage your blog.
– Engage a designer and if needed a developer to manage your layout.
– Write consistently. Produce high quality content.
– Don’t aim to sell through the blog.
– Offer your products only when people ask for them.
– Develop the voice of an expert in your business niche.
– Offer free giveaways – reports, books, information.
– Build a following.
– Build a social network around your blog.
Of course you need a website and hosting to do all of this. But the good news is that with a domain and hosting service, several open source platforms have made it very easy to run a blog these days. If you need some advice on what you need to do this, write to me.
Until next time, best of luck and happy blogging!
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