Gain new customers by blogging

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15/06/2017

A small business owner should always be thinking about how to boost brand awareness. In other words, how can you let people know you exist? One technique that can help is starting a company blog.

Blogging is a great option, because it helps keep your business website updated with fresh content that lets your brand personality shine through, and you can promote the blog through your social media platforms to increase the amount of traffic to your website.

The blogging basics

You don’t have to be a literary whiz to create a blog, but there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to build an audience:

• Regular blogs – try to aim for a couple of new blogs per week. If you post new content regularly, you encourage customers to come back to check out new posts.
• Make use of CTAs – this stands for Call to Action and it means that there is a clear action for the customer to complete when they land on the webpage. It could be a sidebar or a button at the end of the blog – anything that’s clickable and encourages your audience to stay on your site. For example, if you’re blogging about an event where you’ve promoted a new product, you might have a CTA which links to a special deal on that product.
• Make use of images – they say a picture is worth a thousand words. It can be intimidating for your audience to wade through big blocks of text, so break it up with images and make your content more visually appealing.
• Offer your audience the chance to respond – add a comments section at the end of your blog so customers can let you know what they think. Alternatively, if you don’t want to deal with moderating public comments, you can encourage them to email you or comment on social media.

The great thing about blogging is that it’s an informal medium that allows your customers to get to know you better. You don’t always have to blog on your business or what’s happening in your industry – you can comment on other topics as well.

It’s a good idea to stay away from religion and politics, and obviously you want to promote what you’re selling, but you could blog about something that’s more of a sidebar to your business. For instance, if you sell equestrian gear, you could blog about a recent show-jumping event that’s taken place in your area. Like social media, blogs give you the chance to forge a personal connection with your customers, and industry research demonstrates that they’re more likely to buy from you, as a result. Your blogs should be informative, easy to read, and entertaining – remember they are a reflection of you, your website, and your business.

Advice and resources

• 19 more reasons why your business should be blogging