No doubt someone has told you how valuable it would be to start a blog for your small business. So, you follow their advice, set up a blog, post an article and wait for the sales to roll. Does this sound familiar?
Blogging is a complex yet highly rewarding marketing principle when executed correctly. Unfortunately, for most small business owners, this isn’t always possible. In the following article, we take you through why your blogging efforts have failed to provide you with any sales, the approach you should be taking to run a blog and how blogging can be highly beneficial for your small business marketing when implemented properly.
You don’t have time
For a blog to be truly successful, to be used as a marketing asset, you need to post a new article weekly, if not daily, in the beginning. What are you trying to achieve with blogging is engagement on your website, so just like with social media, the more you post, the more people will come back for more. To write the articles, sourcing the material and images, and posting the blogs takes time and effort, and most small businesses fall into the trap of not prioritising time to do this.
Blogging provides you with repeat traffic; more visitors coming back to your website, engaging in your advice, trusting your advice and then buying from you. If you can’t build that trust, give your visitors content, and set aside the time to actually do this, blogging isn’t a viable marketing approach for you.
You don’t promote your blogs
The notion of ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply to a blog; your ideal audience needs to know you have a blog worth reading, and encouragement to do so. There are many avenues in which you can promote your blog, ways in which most unsuccessful blog owners fail to explore. The following lists a handful of the best places to promote your individual articles as they are launched, and even past articles that are still relevant:
· Social media – across any of your channels, especially those that can link the article either in the posts (Facebook, LinkedIn), through the profile (Instagram) or the pictures (Pinterest)
· Email marketing – send an email to your subscribers and customer base promoting your new article
· Networking – feature yourself or your articles on other blogs, podcasts, speaking events, community forums and alike avenues
You don’t see value in blogging
Traditional marketing is still very much at the forefront of the small business owner’s mindset, and the value of modern approaches, such as blogging, is deeply questioned. Many times we have encountered small business owners who don’t see why a blog could be used a successful marketing tool directly over flyers, banners, and traditional mail drops.
With an ever-expanding online community, with traditional marketing sources like the phone book firmly extinct, the best practises for small business owners is to embrace blogging as the reliable, inexpensive marketing opportunity, that can transform a business. While it may seem uncomfortable at the beginning, blogging can generate great rewards from little startup and has already proven to change the small business landscape.
Whether you have an existing blog or are looking to start one, we can help you integrate your blog into your marketing strategy, and show you the exact approach to be successful. Contact us at Promotr and transform your small business marketing today!
