Brilliant Media Marketing is getting ready to hold a free Blogging for Business 101 course, for more information about how to apply the ideas in this article, please visit the following link.
BC – Your local business may be proudly bricks and mortar, but don’t let that stop you from diving into digital.
Small businesses can get huge results from being online. Blog articles in particular are a powerful online supplement to traditional business.
Blogging is brilliant for getting known, building trust, and even getting found through search engines. To make the most of of blogging, see it as an opportunity to provide valuable information – not as a platform for self-promotion.
Online marketing strategist David Meerman Scott sums it up brilliantly: “Stop talking about your products and services. People don’t care about products and services; they care about themselves.” Rather than writing solely about your business, become a source of helpful information so people look to you as a resource. This will help you build a relationship with the person before they even walk through your door!
Let’s explore 5 ideas for effective local business blogging.
Tutorials
How-tos are incredible for building trust and authority. Teach people ‘how to fish’ by giving them the information they’re looking for and they’ll come back for more! Plus, since these posts are often quite detailed, tutorials are excellent for search engine optimization.
Before + after
Take people through the journey of how your business’ product or service has made a difference. Everyone loves a good reveal – home renovation and talk show makeover shows can tell you that!
Even businesses which aren’t as outwardly appealing can benefit from this approach. An accounting firm which helped a small business owner organize their finances can get a great quote describing how the owner felt before (probably stressed) and after (a whole lot better).
Success stories
Everyone loves a great story. Plus, this serves as a fabulous testimonial – something which is a major purchase motivator. These stories also make for a great recurring blog topic.
Interviewing people you’ve worked with will uncover great gems. It can be as simple as emailing the person a couple questions for them to respond to in their own time. Request a great image of the person to give it a personal touch. Once the person has responded it’s as easy as cutting and pasting the answers into your blog. Give it a once-over to edit for grammar and spelling, press publish, and you’re done! It’s one of the fastest blog posts to put out.
Success stories are also great on video. Since most mobile phones now have excellent video capabilities, it’s pretty easy to videos on the fly. Plus, you can always upload them to a YouTube account to get exposure there too.
Answer FAQ
Those questions you get asked over and over again? They make for superb blog post topics.
Write the question as the headline, then go ahead and give a detailed answer. This is also great for SEO since people are often searching for that exact question. Your response may conveniently show up in the search results!
Local news + recommendations
This is a local SEO powerhouse. People searching online for your town can stumble across your local coverage in the search results.
Even the smallest of towns have enough action each month to provide blogging opportunities. Local events, activities, and news gives you the chance to bring your perspective to them – and if you can tie it into your business, all the better.
Business blogs are extremely valuable – just remember, they’re much less about your business than you’d first think. Create captivating and helpful content which people will be compelled to share. This will help your business become known and trusted as the go-to resource in town.
– This article was written by Katie Momo from Brilliant Media Marketing, to learn more about her business, send an email to hello@katiemomo.com.