Blog writing is a strong local business marketing strategy that is often overlooked by many business owners who need a stronger connection with local consumers. This could be due to the fact that they think it won’t add any value to their business, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Content is king when it comes to online marketing. Therefore, the more content you have available on the web, the better. The search engines love fresh, unique content and they reward it by making sure it gets the attention it deserves in the rankings.
Furthermore, your customers and potential customers would find immense value in consistent content from your business. Not only does it show that you’re alive and kicking in your local market, but it also shows them that you are the authority.
Consumers are very picky about the companies they choose to do business with. Blogging allows you to build credibility with your local consumers. By reading your blog posts, they will build a stronger, trusting relationship with you; resulting in more sales.
However, as a busy business owner, you probably struggle when it comes to setting up and managing a fully functioning blog that works to generate more traffic and sales to your business.
Here are 10 tips to make sure you are on the right track with your business blog:
1. Choose a Blog Platform that Best Fits Your Business Needs – Some business owners choose to go with a hosted blog vs. a self-hosted blog. While both types of blogs can work, it is strongly recommended that you have a self-hosted blog as a business owner. This local business marketing strategy gives you more control of the look and feel as well as more options when it comes to posting and managing your blog’s content. Two of the most popular hosted blogging platforms are blogger.com and wordpress.com
2. Use Relevant Keywords in Your Blog Posts – When searching for local products and services online, people type specific keyword phrases into the search engines. By including some of these keyword terms in your blog posts, you are optimizing them so they show up higher in the results when these terms are entered. In other words, this local business marketing strategy will help draw in your target audience.
3. Incorporate Geographical SEO in Your Blog Posts – Try to include your city’s name in your blog post headlines as a local business marketing strategy whenever possible. This is another way to optimize them to catch local consumers in your city when they are actively searching for your type of product or service online. Be careful not to “over-do-it,” use keywords sparingly, and only use them where they make sense.
4. Keep Your Posts Short and Sweet – People today love high-quality content, but they do not want to read lengthy, drawn out content while surfing the web. Keep your posts “on topic” and get all of your important points across quickly.
5. Use Bullet Points in Longer Posts – If you do have blog posts that are a little bit lengthy break them up by using bullet points as a local business marketing strategy. Not only will this make your posts look more attractive, but they will be a lot easier to follow and read.
6. Proofread Your Posts Before Posting – First impressions are everything when it comes to generating new customers. Therefore, it is crucial that you proofread your blog posts before you post them. Although they do not seem like a big deal, small errors and typos could actually turn off potential customers, which is the last thing you want to do.
7. Use Images in Your Posts – People are just naturally attracted to images for some reason. When it comes to website content, most people are drawn to content that has visually appealing images. Therefore, be sure to add images to your blog posts to add a little spice to them as well as to break up the content. They’re affordable and extremely effective, so there’s no reason not to use them as a local business marketing strategy.
8. Remain Consistent with Your Posting Schedule – Once you start to post content on your blog, don’t stop using this local business marketing strategy. Also, don’t wait months at a time in between blog posts. Instead, come up with a consistent schedule to post interesting content that your target audience wants to know about.
9. Make a List of Blog Post Ideas Ahead of Time – One thing that prevents business owners from keeping their blogs alive is that they run out of ideas – or run out of time to create the content. To avoid this, set aside some time to write down at least 20 ideas for blog posts. Do this every so often so you always have fresh ideas. This way, the hard part is over. All you have to do then is write the content; you can even hire someone to take care of writing it for you.
10. Provide Value on Your Blog – Keep your blog entertaining, informative, and engaging for your target audience; this will keep them coming back for more. When trying to decide what you will write about on your blog, first stop to think about what your target audience would like to read about. Do they have some burning questions about your business? Do they want to keep up on new developments in your industry? Do they want tips and tutorials related to your product or service? Get answers to these questions and create your blog post content around them.
Blogging can help generate more local online exposure for your company when done right. Consumers love to keep up with their favorite local businesses online, which is evident by what the consumer-business relationships on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.
Therefore, adding a blog to your business marketing funnel is yet one more powerful local business marketing strategy that can potentially give your company more online visibility, more leads, and more sales.
Need some assistance in setting up and maintaining your business blog?
I specialize in helping small business owners drive more traffic, generate more leads and increase sales using proven strategies in lead generation and conversion, Internet marketing and social media. Feel free to contact me contact David Carleton http://LocalBusinessMarketingSuccess.com at 858-442-3131 for a free, no obligation consultation!
David Carleton is a San Diego Local Business Marketing Consultant who specializes in showing small business owners how to spend less and get more from their marketing and advertising using low cost strategies in local business marketing, lead generation and conversion, Internet marketing and social media. To download a copy of the free report, “7 Steps to Website Success”, go to http://LocalBusinessMarketingSuccess.com
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Topic: Local Business Marketing Strategy
