A business blog is a cost-effective way to market your products or services. It can help build your online presence, establish your business as an industry authority and drive more targeted traffic to your pages, all of which translate to more sales.
What makes a blog such a valuable promotion tool is how easy it is to start one. Even with little technical experience, you can create your own blog and start marketing it right away. Unfortunately, many businesses have yet to fully utilise their blogs to their full potential. Here we’ll look at how you can use a blog to market your business.
Write Useful Content For Your Audience
Just starting a blog for your website isn’t enough. The key to creating a blog that drives targeted traffic for your business is to publish useful content for your target audience. Blog posts you publish can rank in the search engine results for their target keywords and build trust with visitors who land on your pages.
Start by writing about problems that your business solves. This can be anything from frequently asked questions to comprehensive guides. Use online tools like Keyword Planner from Google to find keyword phrases you can target with your content. Utilising an editorial calendar can help you create useful content and keep track of your efforts.
Optimise Each Blog Post for SEO
It’s tempting to simply publish a new blog post immediately. But you’ll want to take steps to optimise your content first for SEO (search engine optimisation) to increase their rankings. Once you have a blog post that ranks in Google, it can continue to drive traffic and generate leads for years to come.
Include your main keyword in your title as well as throughout your content to improve its relevance. Use subheadings to break up your content and improve readability for your visitors. You should also optimise your images and link internally when possible. Be sure not spam your content with keywords as doing so could lead to a ranking penalty.
Use Clear Calls to Actions
If you want to turn a potential client into a customer, you need to include a relevant call to action. A call to action is simply an action that you want your visitors to take. Do you want them to subscribe to your newsletter? Or do you want them to fill out a lead form for your services?
Calls to actions are typically placed at the end of each blog post. They can be as simple as a sign up form with a message (e.g. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest content) or a button that directs visitors to a product page. Test different options and track the results to measure the effectiveness of your calls to action.
Promote Your Content on Social Media
Chances are your business has social media profiles on Facebook or Twitter. Use those to attract more attention to your content posting to any platforms you manage. The added benefit here is that new content you post to your social media profiles can help you build a following on those platforms.
A blog is undoubtedly a valuable marketing tool. But the key to driving measurable results for your business lies in consistent content creation and active promotion.
About the author
Alex Morrison has worked with a range of businesses giving him an in depth understanding of many different industries including home improvement, financial support and health care. As the owner of Integral Media, he is now utilising his knowledge and experience with his rapidly increasing client portfolio to help them achieve their business goals.
