Is Your Company Blog Putting People to Sleep?

The June edition of The Business Review Canada is now live!

By: Dave Thomas 

How do you go about attracting new customers and retaining old customers?

If you have trouble answering that question, it may be time to reconsider what you are and aren’t doing right with your business.

For many business owners, the time has more than come that they realize blogging, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), marketing, and other such efforts are not just a choice, but a necessity in order to stay competitive in today’s fast -paced world.

While some have proven better than others when it comes to a number of the above-mentioned items, others have unfortunately remained the same or even taken a turn for the worse. In such cases, it leaves their ability to reach out to customers tenuous at best.

If you are looking to make amends on some of the ways you connect with current and potential customers, look no further than your company blog.

In essentially what adds up to time and effort, you can craft your blog to be one that leaves consumers talking about, promoting on their own, and coming back for more. That being said, do you know how to go about it? If not, consider some of these helpful hints:

1. Be relevant - It may sound like a no-brainer, but how relevant is your blog to the products and/or services your company offers? Keep in mind that one of the reasons consumers come to your website in the first place is to be better educated about the products and services available. If you blog but don’t tie in the content to what you offer, why should the consumer keep coming to the blog page? Relevancy matters, so think about how each post you write will be relevant to your readers (i.e. customers).

2. Be authoritative - One of the main reasons customers will come to your blog page in the first place is to be educated about the products and services not only you offer, but to gain knowledge on the respective industry in the first place. Your blog posts should be informative, interesting, easy to follow along with, and serve as a call to action. If your posts come across as garbled, boring, providing misinformation, you will not be viewed as a leader in your respective industry.

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3. Be up to date - Another gaffe that can turn people off regarding your company blog is being updated infrequently. If you update your blog here and there, readers can put two and two together, realizing you don’t give much time to your blog. So, if you don’t give much time to the blog, what else do you give little or no time to with your business? Perhaps your customer service is so-so? Maybe you don’t after all offer the latest in products and services? While your blog should not be your center piece, it should be given the proper attention, meaning not just updated on occasion or when you feel like it. If you are struggling to place copy on it, check out other similar blogs for ideas and direction. The goal along with having good content is to rank high in search engines, meaning you can’t just update it from time to time.

4. Be a promoter - Finally, make sure your blog is properly promoted, i.e. social media for starters. You should use your company Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media pages to run links back to your blog page. Not only is the good for increasing traffic, but  it shows consumers that you are proud of and confident your blog is worth their time. If you have the opportunity to guest blog on other sites, by all means do it. You can win by getting link exchanges, along with opening up your business to other consumers who may not have been aware of what you offer. You also stand to gain traction on the search engines too when you promote.

While you have many important things to do each and every day in running a business, don’t neglect your company blog.

The truth is, your blog could be one of your best advertisers when all is said and done.

About the Author: With 23 years’ writing experience, Dave Thomas covers a variety of business and consumer topics, including the importance of doctor reputation when seeking medical assistance.