Blogging is like sunshine for your website. Blogs are essential vehicles for conveying the life and personality of your brand and for attracting search engine traffic.
Many websites are essentially “online brochures” that are meant to explain a person’s or a business’s products and services. Without a blog that is regularly updated with new material, however, these online brochures are static — and they do little to attract new visitors who may be searching for the products and services offered.
A blog is an essential base on which to build a content-marketing strategy. According to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, a consultancy specializing in helping small businesses gain new customers, “A blog is pretty much the starting place for online content these days and content is the name of the game when it comes to inbound selling.” (Inbound selling here refers to people finding your website through search engines like Google, as compared to outbound selling – e.g., traditional methods such as running print ads or sending direct mail and email, doing cold-calling, and the like.)
WordPress is one of today’s best go-to platforms for websites and its options for establishing a blog are varied and easy to understand. The theme of your blog should relate to your products and services, of course, and the material should be “optimized” so that the blog attracts search engine traffic to the site.
Duct Tape Marketing’s Jantsch suggests six content ideas for business blogs: 1) Lists that help a site visitor understand what he or she will gain if they buy your products and services; 2) customer interviews that illuminate what they like about doing business with you; 3) employee profiles and interviews to shed light on the personality of the business; 4) contests, promotions or social media campaigns that shine a light on clients, customers or partners; 5) causes you support and ways in which the company and its employees give back to the community; and 6) stories that illustrate the company’s or brand’s trustworthiness and reputation.
Says Jantsch, “What stories have happened in your business that bear repeating? Your blog is an ideal place to tell these stories. Shared on social media, they convey the ingredients of your brand. Who doesn’t want to do business with a truly good Samaritan?” He adds, “…today’s blogs attract tomorrow’s business.”
Every community has dozens or even hundreds of WordPress designers and an equal number of people who will help you “populate” your website and blog with inspiring content that will speak volumes about why people should do business with you.