You know a lot about your business. Even if you are fairly new in a given field, you know a lot more than your customers and prospects. Show off what you know in a way that makes your audience’s life easier and you will make yourself an expert.
For example, my friend Peep Laja from ConversionXL decided to become the leading expert on conversion optimization. He started with epic, in-depth posts on the subject. Put in the hours and now he is one of the most highly rated conversion optimization experts in the world.
If you put in the hours of deliberate practice, you will get there, too.
Answer the most important questions your clients have. Find original ways to explain a concept that is memorable and opens new possibilities.
Good SEO is the side effect of blogging. Creating original and valuable content will make other websites link to you as an important resource in a given field. Great content will, in turn, increase your image as an expert.
When the readers land on your page and see your in depth and quality content, then they share your material with their friends and colleagues. Sharing has a potential to launch a viral loop that gets you a lot of new visitors.
You can show that you are not only about sales. Talk about your team. The charities you are supporting. Show the human side of your business, and this will make you more likable.
Your human face and helpful content will help to show that you care and are there to go the extra mile for the client. If you have no trust, you have no business.
Blogging is good for you, too! Making complex topics easier to understand will also clarify your thinking and exercise your idea muscle. Regular research and writing will make you better at what you do.
Write down ideas every day. Even if you don’t publish everything, you will get better at solving customers’ problems. The more you do that, the better you get.
Add the author to your blog posts. Write from the first person view. Use I, you, and we a lot. Avoid anonymous and third person marketing hype. Your blog should be from human to human.
Do you have a new product or service to launch? Use your blog to engage potential customers in the development process. If you can’t do that before the launch, then try to get a lot of feedback during the launch and from early adopters.
Social media needs an endless stream of content. Your blog will provide the most of that content. You can use each section of the blog post as a tweet or a Facebook update.
Differentiation will simply happen. You and your team are different from your competitors you will inevitably create the message that sets you apart from others. Don’t imitate, go your own way.
Always give value. When your reader spends their time on your site, then they should come away richer than before they started reading.
I already mentioned search engine rankings. Better rankings will get you more traffic. More traffic will get you more shares and links, which in turn improve search engine rankings… See the pattern forming?
Month after month, year after year, your site will grow. Your brand will grow. Become the leading voice in your field. The most trusted brand.
Well, it’s business. We do all this to make more money. More trust, better brand, expert image, lots of traffic… all this will lead to more sales.
As you can see the value from blogging kept the site above 15k visits per month even when no one laid a hand on it for almost THREE years.
Like Karen (below comment), trying to figure it all out.
There are some solid reasons listed here that encourage ongoing blogging. The challenge is simply to create relevant content. Thanks for the encouragement!
WoW! I guess that says it all! I’m a new blogger, still getting my feet wet and trying to figure it all out, but lovin’ it!