Have you been thinking about increasing sales for your business? Here is how to use blogging to generate leads and sales.
Small and local businesses have started to realize the importance of online presence. Very few have realized the importance of blogging or content marketing.
Most small businesses think that blogging is for large brands. The reality is quite the opposite. Blogging can help small businesses build trust and create lasting relationships with target customers.
Here’s how they can use blogging for online marketing and lead generation.
Fresh Content Can Boost Your Rankings
Google likes fresh and regularly updated content. For Google to pick up your posts or pages more frequently, you need to keep publishing new and interesting content. This can also help you take advantage of new trends or developments. Be the first to write about something in your industry. This will help you establish yourself as an authority.
Build More Links
Backlinks are the most important ranking factors. It is becoming incredibly difficult to get quality links. The only way to do this is to create extraordinary content. This will not only help you build links but also get shares and likes on social media. This will boost your rankings. And the higher rankings mean more target visitors. This can lead to more leads and conversions:
Build Trust And Credibility
The lack of trust is one of the biggest factors that stop people from making an online purchase. Blogging is one of the best ways to win that trust. You will rarely find a scammer or fraud blogging and interacting with customers on social media.
People are more likely to do business with you if they believe that you are trustworthy and credible enough.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging helps you get your content in front of people who already have an audience. That can help you build a list of potential customers that are more likely to convert if you ever send them offers. This will also bring you some high quality links. Make sure you are guest blogging on relevant blogs.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is the best way to grow your customer base. It makes customers come to you. The trick is to understand who your target customers are and what they are looking for. Then write an informative post about it. This strategy can help with lead generation if done right.
Build Authority
Search engines and users are looking for authoritative sites. Experts and authority figures that have blogs tend to rank higher than others in the same niche. A blog is one of the most effective ways to establish yourself as an expert or authority. All you need is to write about the latest technologies and developments in your industry. Your target customers will see you as an expert source. They will feel more comfortable while doing business with you.
Get More Subscribers
Email lists can be a huge asset for any small business. Blogging can help you build an email list. Your target customers and prospects will be more likely to give you their email address if they believe that it’s worth reading your posts. That helps them follow the latest news in your industry.
In a nutshell, blogging can bring many benefits for small businesses if done correctly. They can help drive better results than any other online marketing tool.
I’ve been using Cloudways since January 2016 for this blog. I happily recommend Cloudways to my readers because I am a proud customer.
Following are some tips to make the most of your blog:
Do Not Create Promotional Content
You can do a promotional post every once in a while but you will not achieve any of the aforementioned targets if you are writing only about your products. Nobody is going to share that or link to this kind of post. Always write something that is interesting, useful and valuable to your target customers.
Write Quality Content
Do not cut corners when it comes to the quality of your blogs. Your readers will stop coming if you don’t provide value. Avoid rewriting or rephrasing posts from the web. You can stick to just one or two posts a month but they have to be really good quality.
Create A Persona For Blogging
Identify who your ideal customer is and write for them only. Look at your competitor’s blogs and see what they are doing. Identify the similarities and try to emulate them with your blogging style.
Promote Your Content
Content promotion is equally important. Once you have completed a high quality post, find bloggers who have recently written about or linked to similar content. Reach out to them with a link and request to give it a read. You can post your content on all major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You should also comment on other people’s posts.
Don’t Lose Heart
If you notice that your blog is not performing as expected, try posting content related to trending topics in your niche. This will help you get more traffic once those topics start to trend. You can also change the focus of the posts and make them more relevant for today’s customers. You just have to experiment until you see results. Remember that getting your first few subscribers is going to be the hardest. Once you have some success, you can easily replicate the formula.
Optimize For Search Engines
You do not get fixated with keyword density. But you need to optimize your blog posts for search engines. This means using the keyword in the title and meta descriptions, heading tags, and image alt text. Also make sure that you are using structured markup to get rich snippets in search results.
Connect With Other Bloggers
Do you know that Google values links from trusted sources? Bloggers can be a great source if they have large followings. Reach out to them and request a link back to your website. If the content is good, then chances are that they will actually do it.
Wrapping Up
A blog is a great way to build trust and authority while getting your name out there. It’s also an excellent opportunity for improving search engine rankings, attracting more subscribers, and generating increased revenue.
The most important thing to remember is that blogging takes time and commitment. You need to be creating content on a regular basis, which can mean 3-4 posts per month if you want your blog to grow quickly. But the benefits of growing a successful blog are worth it!
Have you tried blogging to generate leads and sales for your business? Which ones did work best for you? Leave us a comment below about what worked.