The world of blogging may seem unnecessary if you are in a business where you first thought is "what would I write about?" But if you want to dominate your niche blogging may be an essential element to consider.
Why? Because blogging sets you apart from the others in your sector.
Let's say you are a dentist.
What possible chance do you have of gaining new customers with traditional methods of advertising when there's forty pages of dentist in your yellow pages.
Blogging provides a medium for you to establish yourself as the expert in your field in YOUR area.
Don't think about becoming the maven nationally.
That's unrealistic but by blogging in your local area you can establish yourself as the "go to" dentist.
In addition blogging is very important as your present customer base can stay informed and see you as a dentist that is adding value to their lives and can easily forward your information.
The other factor that will happen is that blogging will help you grow your business if it is being used with a well SEO website that is ranking on the front page of Google in your area.
The general consensus on the amount of blogs to produce is 3 a week.
You can do them all at once and set the time for them to be published.
Once you make the commitment to blog realize it will be forever but the good part of that it will grow your business forever.
You should really get in the habit of carrying a good old fashioned pen and small pad to jot down ideas as they will come when you least expect them.
If writing is not your strong suit just do the best you can and hire someone to edit and polish it up.
In the online word you are what you publish.
Many businesses make the the mistake of thinking that blogging is a sales piece.
It's not.
Effective business blogging should always have the audience in mind.
In other words using a different example of let's say a landscaper.
You would want to blog about the seasons, plants, arrangements, pests, best practices.
In other words all things landscaping not all things 'what's on sale this week.
" Another example might be if you are a pet shop owner you would not want to blog about your special on gold fish for the week.
Instead, you might relate a touching story about a young girl that you sold a gold fish to and how much it meant to her and that it was her first pet.
Or the benefits of starting a fish collection and things to look out for in an aquarium.
Another thing thing you want to be careful about in a blog is pictures.
Search engines do not see images.
So less is better and be sure you use alttext with them.
Alttext which is a standard feature in most blogging platforms that allows you to write text "behind" the image letting the search engines know what the picture is about.
A picture or two helps break up the text and that's good but just don't overdo it because it can even cause the search engines to stop scraping your site.
They will move on to something easier to look at and you may lose your position in the rankings.
Who should do the blogging? Really anyone that loves the company and understand what blogging is about.
It's about connection, interaction and listening.
And so done by anyone, the CEO, the product manager, the sales team, and it helps love to write and can write.
It's possible to hire an outside source and bring them into the fold so to speak, let them get a feel for the company.
Personally I would never do this because blogging is one of the most personal ways you have to directly communicate with your audience.
In today's new marketing world I would not allow just anybody to do the blog post.
It's fine to do a rough draft and have an intern rewrite it or even edit it but I would insist on signing off on the final draft before it is published.
If you have a seasonal business I would highly recommend you use the off season to mass produce blogs and also keep up your regular blogs.
Just think of it as a cash less way to stay in front of your customers and get instant feedback.
That way when the busy time hits you don't find yourself exhausted at the end of the day trying to come up with an idea because you "have to" get a blog out.
The quality will suffer and people will just unsubscribe.
You have to keep them engaged, excited and entertained.
Blogging is all about earning an audience and then keeping them It's like my sales manager used to say to me after I crowed about a big sale I'd made the week before, "that's fine Jake, but what have you done for me lately".
Why? Because blogging sets you apart from the others in your sector.
Let's say you are a dentist.
What possible chance do you have of gaining new customers with traditional methods of advertising when there's forty pages of dentist in your yellow pages.
Blogging provides a medium for you to establish yourself as the expert in your field in YOUR area.
Don't think about becoming the maven nationally.
That's unrealistic but by blogging in your local area you can establish yourself as the "go to" dentist.
In addition blogging is very important as your present customer base can stay informed and see you as a dentist that is adding value to their lives and can easily forward your information.
The other factor that will happen is that blogging will help you grow your business if it is being used with a well SEO website that is ranking on the front page of Google in your area.
The general consensus on the amount of blogs to produce is 3 a week.
You can do them all at once and set the time for them to be published.
Once you make the commitment to blog realize it will be forever but the good part of that it will grow your business forever.
You should really get in the habit of carrying a good old fashioned pen and small pad to jot down ideas as they will come when you least expect them.
If writing is not your strong suit just do the best you can and hire someone to edit and polish it up.
In the online word you are what you publish.
Many businesses make the the mistake of thinking that blogging is a sales piece.
It's not.
Effective business blogging should always have the audience in mind.
In other words using a different example of let's say a landscaper.
You would want to blog about the seasons, plants, arrangements, pests, best practices.
In other words all things landscaping not all things 'what's on sale this week.
" Another example might be if you are a pet shop owner you would not want to blog about your special on gold fish for the week.
Instead, you might relate a touching story about a young girl that you sold a gold fish to and how much it meant to her and that it was her first pet.
Or the benefits of starting a fish collection and things to look out for in an aquarium.
Another thing thing you want to be careful about in a blog is pictures.
Search engines do not see images.
So less is better and be sure you use alttext with them.
Alttext which is a standard feature in most blogging platforms that allows you to write text "behind" the image letting the search engines know what the picture is about.
A picture or two helps break up the text and that's good but just don't overdo it because it can even cause the search engines to stop scraping your site.
They will move on to something easier to look at and you may lose your position in the rankings.
Who should do the blogging? Really anyone that loves the company and understand what blogging is about.
It's about connection, interaction and listening.
And so done by anyone, the CEO, the product manager, the sales team, and it helps love to write and can write.
It's possible to hire an outside source and bring them into the fold so to speak, let them get a feel for the company.
Personally I would never do this because blogging is one of the most personal ways you have to directly communicate with your audience.
In today's new marketing world I would not allow just anybody to do the blog post.
It's fine to do a rough draft and have an intern rewrite it or even edit it but I would insist on signing off on the final draft before it is published.
If you have a seasonal business I would highly recommend you use the off season to mass produce blogs and also keep up your regular blogs.
Just think of it as a cash less way to stay in front of your customers and get instant feedback.
That way when the busy time hits you don't find yourself exhausted at the end of the day trying to come up with an idea because you "have to" get a blog out.
The quality will suffer and people will just unsubscribe.
You have to keep them engaged, excited and entertained.
Blogging is all about earning an audience and then keeping them It's like my sales manager used to say to me after I crowed about a big sale I'd made the week before, "that's fine Jake, but what have you done for me lately".
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