Want to attract more sales for your business? Invest time and energy into writing a business blog.
But I don’t know what to blog about.
Business owners, are you not sure how to write a business blog? Follow these four keys that will attract visitors, convert leads, and result in more sales for your business using your blog.
1. Blog about what you know.
When your customers are purchasing your products or services, they rely on your expertise and knowledge in your field to make the best purchases for their homes or businesses. Showcase your company’s credibility through crafting content that:
- Gives expert advice in your field
- Features customer testimonials or case studies
- Answers some of your customers’ commonly asked questions
And, most importantly,
- Is new, original, and offers fresh insight to your industry.
How do I know what to write on my business blog?
2. Listen to your customers.
- Ask for reviews, feedback, and testimonials.
- Write to solve your customers’ problems and to highlight success stories and favorite products.
- Keep an eye on Google Trend and Twitter to keep up with the issues in your industry.
- Participate in the social media conversation through sharing blog posts on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook and sharing photos of popular products or completed jobs on Pinterest, Flickr, or Instagram.
- Pay attention to the online conversation and blog about the topics your online audience is the most interested in.
That sounds like a lot of work.
Why are you writing a business blog in the first place? To attract visitors, convert visitors into leads, and to convert leads into sales. In order to get the most return for your investment, don’t try to do it all by yourself; invest in a Sales & Marketing mastermind: that is, hire a sales mastermind who is also a mastermind marketing whiz. In other words, hire an SEO company with a track record of increasing lead traffic and generating sales for businesses
I’ll save money and write the blog myself in my spare time. Or hire an intern to write the posts and manage social media.
Okay, but …
3. Don’t forget about SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of increasing the likelihood that your website will be found by search engines when prospective customers search by the keywords related to your business blog.
I don’t know how to create content for my website that will increase my search engine ranking.
That’s what SEO companies are for. Search engine optimization firms know how to make money blogging. They know how to attract website visitors and how to write content that generates leads. Search engine optimization consultants research the top keywords in your industry and monitor your website and blog analytics to determine which keywords are generating the most visitors to your website.
If you are not monitoring the effectiveness of your blogging, how do you know if it is actively generating income for your business? Many blogs don’t generate interest or income. They have no comments, no shares, and serve no good purpose. Attracting leads—well, that’s why we blog. Good content writers incorporate a lead magnet and a call to action in every blog and perform A/B testing to find out if lead magnet A performs better than lead magnet B or call to action A performs better than call to action B.
Hold on, what is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a freebie or an ethical bribe that convinces leads to give out their contact information. For example, a company may offer a 30 day software trial in exchange for a potential customer logging in and entering his or her name and email address and opting in to an email newsletter campaign. The most effective leads magnets have calls to action that provoke an immediate response. Here’s a good example: “Join millions who save on car insurance, get your free quote today.” If you hire a SEO company you will have access to skilled content writers who can assist you in developing strong content with lead magnets that will drive more sales to your business.
Create blog content that
- Shows off the expertise / knowledge / credibility of your brand
- Is customer-centered—it’s a popular topic in social media circles, for example.
- Includes an irresistible lead magnet and a convincing call to action
- Is optimized to please both computer and human audiences—the on page code utilizes keyword tags in all the right places and the content is so good that it is shared via other websites and social media.
How do I know if my blog is being shared?
SEO experts invest in marketing automation software like Hubspot that has all sorts of built in goodies like inbound link tracking and analytics programs that keep track of when your content is shared by your website and social media visitors.
This brings us to number four:
4. Use marketing automation tools to increase the effectiveness of your blogging campaign.
Hubspot features the following automated marketing solutions that will streamline your marketing campaign, like:
- A built-in blogging tool that gives SEO tips regarding how to improve on page SEO
- An automated marketing platform that allows you to manage multiple social media pages, blog posts and automated email marketing campaigns all from one platform
- A/B testing capabilities to monitor the effectiveness of different blogging campaigns in order to increase your website and social media marketing ROI, or return of investment
- Analytics tools for measuring social media ROI and blogging ROI
Blog like a professional: use marketing automation software to deliver your customer-centric, search engine optimized content to your target audience.
Blogging is a key component of the new inbound marketing strategies businesses are using these days. Not only does it direct attention to your business without the overtly glaring sales tactics of the past, it provides valuable and useful information to the consumer in ways that would have been impossible in previous years. Still, while most businesses recognize the importance of blogging, few really know and understand exactly how to write a business blog. The reason for this is simple, most people are not writers and learning how to write effectively so that you reach your target audience is not usually the primary goal of a business owner. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started.
The Attraction
Most people approach blogging as a way of dispensing information. They are usually in business because they are experts at what they do but your blogging must also have a purpose. Your goal is to attract consumers to your website by providing them with practical content they can use. So, as you’re thinking “how to create content for my website”, you need to think about the type of content that will attract not just your consumers but also the search engines. This can be utilized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The fact is that the more pages your website has the better it will for your SEO. This in turn, will allow you to rank for more keywords. And when you take into consideration what your consumers are really interested in when you write your blog posts, you’ll have accomplished a major part in attracting more visitors to your site. You let them know that your site is active and that it needs to be monitored. This helps you to increase your position on the sales ranking and makes it easier for consumers to find you. If you really want to know how to write a business blog, attraction must be your first consideration.
The Conversion
Your next step is to get those consumers to take some sort of action. As you’re thinking “what to write on my blog,” you also need to think about your conversion strategy. Every post you create has to be viewed as more than useful information; it must be a tool to increase your business. As you think about these things consider what you would make your content engaging for your consumer. What would motivate them to click on your call-to-action (CTA) button? What would be a useful offer to someone reading this blog? As you learn how to write a business blog think about the many tools that can motivate a customer to action. The message should be clear: ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, promotions, discounts, etc. Your CTA should be clear and eye-catching so that it draws the consumer in and motivates them to do something.
Lead Them Through the Sales Funnel
With the CTAs, you will have converted your visitors into leads. After this, you will need to cultivate or nurture those leads through other ways, such as social media and email, as you lead them along through your Sales Funnel. Attracting people and leading them through this Sales Funnel through your blog is just the first step that will lead to the final sale.
Learning how to write a business blog for the non-writer is not always easy, but when you think about what it could mean for your business there is no question that the value it contributes will make the effort well worth your while. Now, start writing!
