A lot of people tell us they don’t have time to blog. Or they don’t know what to write about. Or they don’t like to write. We get it.
We’ll let you in on a little secret … We don’t particularly enjoy writing either. We struggle with it. We prefer to write like we talk … which is what we’ve realized works for us anyway, thank goodness!
Look at our blog here on our LO + CO website … we have a hard time staying consistent and blogging on a regular basis. We get busy with multiple projects going at one time. We both take a vacation and head to Holland or South Africa. Life happens. And sometimes, we just will do anything else we can except write a blog post. Even exercise …
But you need to have a blog on your website and you need to try your darndest to keep it up. Why? Because it improves your search rankings, builds regular traffic to your website, helps you grow your email list (which is like money in the bank) and helps you gain the trust of potential customers. Here is more about that in detail …
SEO
Search Engine Optimization isn’t going away. It changes a lot. But it is still a big deal. Take a look at your Google Anlaytics and see how many people find your website from search? Think if you could improve that number by just 5% or 10%. How many extra eyeballs would you have on your website that could potentially turn into customers?
Adding a blog to your website is the easiest and most effective way to grow your search rankings. The main reason is that every blog post will help you rank for a new keyword and topic. Think about how many pages you have on your website. Probably not hundreds … it’s probably under 20. Every post you add to your website is working the same way as a page on your website in that it has a unique URL and a unique set of characteristics on the page that help you rank. Now please note: this blog post isn’t about “optimizing” your blog post … that comes later after you start blogging! Just know that every post you write lasts forever and boosts your SEO.
Traffic
We talked before about how traffic equals opportunity. The more opportunity you have to be in front of a potential customer, the more opportunity you have to turn that person into an existing customer. When you write a blog post, you will get traffic from search like we mentioned above in the SEO section. But you also have a great piece of content to share on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. And … a great piece of content to share in an email.
The more you share the blog posts on your website, the more traffic you will direct back to your website. Amazingly simple!
Email Growth
Adding a blog to your website that you actively use will help you drive subscribers to your email list. You’ve probably heard this before, but all the experts say email marketing drives more sales than any other form of online media. We have to agree with this based on personal experience. But, you have to use all the other tools like Facebook Ads, social media posts, etc to get people to notice your email opt in.
We like to add an email opt in to the bottom of each blog post. This means that each blog post is enticing the reader to want to connect more with us. If a blog post that we write adds value to the reader, they will opt in for our emails and give us the opportunity to get to know them.
Gain Trust
Speaking of getting to know your potential customers. People like us like to do business with people we know. Think about a blog you read on a regular basis. Do you feel like you know them without even meeting the person? We know this is true for us. When we attend a conference and meet someone we follow online, we go up to them and act as if we already know them! That always makes for a funny moment, but it is authentic. And the reason we connected in person is because of first connecting online.
Your blog is just that … a way to build a connection without being face to face. We can go down a whole conversation slide about how technology takes away the face to face but in our mind, we see it as a way to build more authentic connections than we ever could before. We can share our thoughts about something we are passionate about, Online Marketing, and hopefully connect with you and multiple other people at the same time. This doesn’t make it less worthy because we don’t see each other face to face. When you reply to this blog post with your thoughts, we start to feel like we know you, too!
Think about how great it would be if you blogged regularly and grew your business through relationship building. Awesome!
All In All …
… Your website is selling your business 24/7/365 and it matters big time the amount of effort you put into it. What we want you to do today is make a list of 5 common questions you are asked by potential customers during the sales process. These are the first 5 blog posts for your blog. Make your blog work for your customers and it will work for you. The SEO, the traffic, the trust and the email growth will come naturally if you write for your potential customers. Just like we did here today, we helped you understand the importance of a blog on your website and hopefully inspired you to add a blog to your website … or start using the one you have!
You won’t be perfect. That’s OK. Be the best you can be and know that sometimes other aspects of your business will come before a blog post. But know that each blog post is a way to connect and build relationships, so do everything you can to make time to write. Next week, we promise to share the method we use for writing a blog post. Hint: it involves the buddy system which makes everything easier.
OK. Enough for today. We would love to hear your 5 blog post ideas … comment below or shoot us an email. We will be your loyal readers! See … not hard … you already have two fans!