Blogging is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself and stand out from your competitors. However, make sure that you are blogging on your company’s website and don't be tempted to set up a separate blog if you are writing articles related to your company.
I quite often hear people say, "That blogging thing doesn't work" and of course it is natural and correct to be sceptical and questioning. However, research and studies conducted on blogging speak for themselves and websites that have a blog are known to get seven times more traffic than those that don't.
If you are a small to medium sized business, blogging can to some extent help you to compete with larger businesses as you have the opportunity to provide your own unique thoughts and insights about the services that you provide. By delivering well-written, informative and helpful articles, you naturally grow your search traffic, which leads to customer trust and ultimately, sales.
Look At The Competition
I entitled this, "Standing out from your Competitors", so have a look at the blogs that your competitors are actually writing. You might discover that this exercise has quite surprising results. You will probably find that very few of your competitors actually have a company blog and those that do seem to only add fresh material occasionally or if they do it's just promotional stuff and sales pitches. Some might have a “News” section but this is often "copy and paste" and isn't driving traffic to their website.
OK, you are going to find some of your competitors do have blogs and my guess is that they are very successful enterprises. They are companies that focus on all elements of their businesses including devoting the time and energy to maintaining a regular blog and it is really paying dividends.
Blogging Tips
• Keep It Simple
• Check To See What Your Competitors Are Doing
• Write Using Correct English - Grammar, Punctuation
• Focus On the Content
• Introduce Images and Pictures
• Plan
• Publish Regularly
Plan And Publish Regularly
Key to your blogging success is to plan and have an editorial calendar. A big mistake that a lot of business owners and marketers make is to start really enthusiastically and roll out the first few blogs quite quickly and then think that there is nothing left to say. This often leads to the blog going to the bottom of the "to do" list with a feeling that “it hasn't worked”!
Having an editorial calendar for your blog will help you to become more organised and it's a good idea to schedule them into your diary so that they are ready by a certain date or day of the month. You wouldn't let a client down on a time deadline, so don't let yourself down.
Be Patient - That Light Bulb Moment Will Happen
Writing and Blogging has seen dramatic returns for businesses that blog regularly although this may take some time and can be dependent on how often you post. Always remember that with every blog post, you are adding an extra page to your website which gives more opportunities to be found. Many of our clients report to receiving enquiries from articles that have been written in the past making your website the sales force that never sleeps.
Writing and Blogging not only writes for many successful businesses, so that they always have their blogs ready for posting but also holds one to one sessions with clients so that they can learn more about why they should be blogging and how they should be doing it. For more information, call Annie on 07742 321513 or email annie@writingandblogging.co.uk