Blogging as a marketing tool
When you think of social media, the first platforms that come to mind are probably Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Have you ever considered using a blog as a social media marketing tool? Blogs can help drive traffic to your website, help search engines to find your firm and can enhance recognition of your brand.
Blogs are a way of sharing regular, up-to-date content with your existing and target audience. They provide an opportunity to create content which shows off what your business has been doing and promote the products or services that you provide.
If you want to create a successful blog you need to start with your content strategy. First of all, think about your customers. Who are they? What type of people are they and what are they likely to want to read?
The most successful blogs are compelling and normally part of a series, drawing their readers in consistently and encouraging them to share the posts with their own networks. As such, you should ensure that your blog has links which make it easy for users to share on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
You can also use your blog to drive traffic to your firm’s website. The blog should cover a variety of different topics to increase your potential readership and drive more people to click on links to your website.
Blogs tend to gain a following if they are useful to their readers. Whether it’s news, expertise, humour, insight or fun, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that when someone reads your blog, they get something out of it. You should try to make this relevant to the type of business that you run so that your readers associate your firm with your content. This can help to build your firm’s reputation.
Your blog should not be a sales pitch. In fact, directly selling your products or services via your blog should be avoided. You can refer to the products or services that you provide, but the purpose of your blog is to build your reputation and encourage people to become familiar with your firm and its brand. If you target the right people, in the right way, the sales enquiries should follow naturally.