And do it better and cheaper than any Yellow Pages™ ad or “static” Web site. Thats right, blogging is the best marketing tool you can and should be using to drive business to your business. If you don’t have a blog, please take notice of this list and carefully consider if you should be or shouldn’t be blogging as part of your marketing efforts in your business.
- Blogs are not expensive and in fact, cost less than most other marketing efforts. If you create your own blog with one of the templates provided by most blogging platforms, the cost is usually less than $20.00 per month. And even if you have your blog professionally designed, the cost is considerably less than other marketing efforts. If you truly want to DIY, don’t overlook the possibilities you can achieve using Headway Themes.
- New blogs launch quickly and are easy to use. There is a very low learning curve with a blog. And, you cannot tell the difference between a well-designed blog and a Web site.
- Search engines love blogs and they love them because blogs are easily updated. This is a key to blogs and blogging. Because a blog is designed to be easily updated, you will update it with new, relevant content to your target market. If you can write an email, you can update and post to a blog. New, relevant content is key. Not just content, but relevant content.
- Publishing a blog shows your readers who you are. Your target market will find it easier to connect to you and your business. Because most blog readers will subscribe to your blog, they will come to know you and who you are over time.
- Blogs offer you a completely new way to communicate with your clients, prospects and fellow business owners. Blogging is so much more than other marketing efforts. It goes beyond sticking a Yellow Page™ ad in the book each year and hoping someone will read it and see you. Blogging is so much more than putting up a “static” Web site and never updating it and hoping someone will read it. Blogging is a communication between you and your target market. It is a conversation both you and your target can participate in. And “blogging is changing the way we communicate with our target market, clients/customers and fellow business owners.”
- Your target market is using the web to search for everything, including the services or products you are offering. Our prospects and our market are demanding more than we can provide in a Yellow Page™ ad or on a “static” Web site. You can provide up-to-date, relevant and much needed information with a blog, which your target market is demanding. If you blog and your competitors don’t, you will be positioned well ahead of them.
- Blogging can position you and your blog as the place to go for the information that is needed on the Internet. This is accomplished by providing up-to-date, relevant content. A blog puts that information in a form and fashion your target can understand and use. It is projected that 75% of the general public is going to the Internet first to find those things they need. Blogging and its success in search engine placement will put you in front of your target market. And in turn, will drive business to you like no other marketing effort.
- Blogging and posting relevant content can position you as a “thought leader” in your niche. If you use a blog correctly and take advantage of the techniques blogging offers, you will be able to grow your audience. In turn you will see your position as a “thought leader” in your niche move towards the top too.
- By hosting a conversation on your blog, you will be positioned to succeed. Blogging is a conversation and those who participate in this conversation and allow their readers to do the same, will see their business grow. The ability of your prospective clients/customers to communicate with you and between each other, will set you apart from those businesses who are not. By providing a platform such as a blog to your target market you will be years ahead of those businesses who simple put up a Yellow Page™ ad and a “static” Web site.
- Having a blog puts you in control of your own Web based magazine and talk show. Because you are in complete control of your blog, you put up the relevant content you want to put up. And, you also have the ability as no one before you has, you can broadcast your very own radio or TV talk show. WIth the Web based technology available, you can publish podcast and video podcast as often as you want. You will be able to interact with your target market in a way you could never do with a Yellow Page™ ad or a “static” Web site.
- Your blog post will never disappear from the reach of your target market. While this may be a concern to some, and it should,(Be careful what you write), your Web content is forever. Consider for a moment just how long that newspaper ad stayed in front of your target. Consider for a moment how quickly that newsletter stayed on your target’s desk. And what about that mass email effort. How quickly was the delete key hit. What was the “shelf life” of any of those efforts? Very short I would venture to guess. Good, up-to-date, relevant content on a well designed, updated, maintained blog will last forever.
- Get with it and blog, because if you don’t, you will be left behind. If you wait and spend too much time over-thinking the idea of blogging, you will truly be left behind by your competitors who are blogging. Many ask me why should I be blogging. My answer is usually why aren’t you blogging?
