Your website can be a valuable marketing tool when you start your business. In this day of technology and convenient internet access, we turn to search engines whenever we hear about anything new. Your website can be the face of your business. Presentation of your site, and what you have to offer will leave a strong impression on potential customers. However, small businesses are sometimes reluctant about this excellent marketing opportunity; it may be because to have a website, you must be willing to take on tasks such as web development and web designing which are not everyone’s cup of tea.
Blogging can be the most prominent and efficient solution to promote your business online without having a website. Online platforms such as WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger offer free services to help you run a blog about your business. These are also known as content management systems which let you create and organize different ideas. The initial concept of a blog was similar to having an online diary, but with time blogs have become a viable tool for business owners.
You can easily use your blog as your official business website. Here are the 5 things you should consider while blogging for your business.
1. Consistency Counts
If you post something every day on your blog; keep it that way. Your growing readers would like to get updates on what’s going on with your business, so share information with your audience. Follow your scheduled timeline because, over a period of time, people start expecting a new blog post on the days you usually publish one.
For ideas, you could leave your customers with teasers of your upcoming products or services, or you could make announcements about upcoming events your company will be involved with. Make sure to keep the conversations lively and entertaining. To get a clear idea about how that can be done, check out Sixpenceee. It is a blog run by neurology students and their unique posts have managed to engage millions of internet users.
2. Polls, promotions, and reviews
Want to know whether or not people like your newest product or service? Post a few polls on your blog and get reviews. Not only will it show that you value your customer’s opinions, but it will also encourage them to make a connection with what you have to offer. What’s more, it is the easiest way to obtain the necessary feedback. Businesses are willing to spend thousands of dollars for this kind of customer feedback simply because it helps them learn what’s working and what needs improvement.
Your customers are always expecting something new from you, so presenting them with some promotional schemes every now and then will make them look out for more, and attract new crowds to your business.
3. Build a Community
You can not engage your audience by only talking about your business, they want to get to know you, the person behind the scene, and they want to know more about the industry they are operating in. Your personality can play a vital role here; you want to make your audience feel welcome. You want to make them feel like they are a part of your business family.
You will seem rigid to customers with strict business talk only, so every once in a while snuck in something about yourself or what is going on with your life. Offer value to them by writing posts about industry insights. Your customers will appreciate you all the more for that and it will also keep them hooked to come back for more.
Websites like AirG are the primary example that your blog doesn’t have to be about a business only even if it is for your business. When you make personal references, it is considered a sign of goodwill and increases the trust factor in your audience.
4. Make an FAQs Section
If you are a business owner then you already know what it’s like to be bombarded with questions every day related to your product or service. Blogging could be an exception but it’s not stress-free. Except for rare cases, almost all visitors to your website ask the same questions. With your hectic and demanding schedule, you cannot possibly answer them all repetitively, even if you’d like to.
Your blog can be an excellent resource to answer all of these frequently asked questions (FAQs). So when a potential customer decides to convert, he will already have all the information he needs to know about your product or service. Tumblr FAQs section is a shining example of how you can answer questions in a fun and playful way.
5. Credibility
When people decide to buy from you, they are putting their trust in your business, and you want to keep it that way. Don’t misguide your valued customers for one-time profits. Promoting inferior or scaled-down products damage your reputation and shortens the lifespan of your business. It is therefore important to remember that trust and credibility are everything here. James Krieger runs a fitness blog and with millions of loyal fans who follow his every word, simply because they trust him.
So is blogging relevant for a business? Whether you have just started out as an entrepreneur or you already have a small company; online marketing has become a powerhouse for any business. The possibilities are endless when you are coming up with ideas to promote your business online, and blogging has become an essential tool to promote your business across the globe.
Photo credit: Cory Doctorow / Michael Pravin / Abel Maestro Garcia
