Business blogs are powerful tools for modern marketing. They bring eyes to your website, highlight your products and brand, and can help you to create engagement in your business model. But one thing which every blogger knows, is that it isn’t always easy to design content that brings customers down your sales pipeline without being irritating or boring.
As a result of this, many bloggers focus on other areas which are much less difficult. Creating indexed pages for SEO, creating social media goals, and finding good SEO keywords are all great uses of a business blog which will help you increase your visibility. But once you are visible, how do you turn these viewers into sales?
Understanding YOUR Business Model
Every business has a different type of client they serve. And depending on the service you offer, the neighborhood you are in, your clients might vary vastly in motivation and means from another service. A funeral home gains clients in an incredibly different way from a hobby shop. Understanding your customers mindset and the appeal of your product is the best place to start when looking to create blog content which will directly lead to sales. The proper application of this knowledge is key.
So take some time and understand your customer. What drives them?
This knowledge should be part of your repertoire of business strategies already. If you have a successful business, you are already managing to successfully identify what people want, and convincing them that you can provide it.
Work off of that. If you know that you typically attract curious and do it yourself type customers, make sure that your blogs are designed to appeal to these people. Create guides for how to solve common problems using your products. For example, an electrician might create content explaining how to solve or diagnose common electrical problems.
The type of customer attracted to this is likely to fit the above model. Conversely, if your customers are without financial means, focus on your affordability, or appeal to their need to save money. This profiling of your client will allow you to create content which not only appeals to them, but which explains how your product fits a need they have. Successful use of this technique is key in creating this type of post.
Understand Short Term vs Long Term
A properly run business blog should allow for both short term and long term growth. Long term growth is accomplished through methods such as SEO tweaking, establishing trust and rapport with your community, and growing your social media audience through advertising and networking. But the growth we are discussing here seeks to create shorter term growth.
This is the type of post which seeks to get a customer into your shop right away. If your business is struggling to make it through, focusing on this type of content might be key in allowing you to stay open. While you will want long term growth for stability, this type of grown does not have the immediate spike in revenue allowed by creating targeted and product based content.
Highlight a Service
One of the best ways to create quick interest in one of your products or services is to highlight it in a blog post. This type of post is very easy to create, and should always follow a few simple rules. First, you need something to catch the potential customers eye. Your ideal customer is someone who could benefit from this product RIGHT NOW.
If you are selling hard drives, a post about general computer knowledge might help you reach people who could use your services in the future (curious tech users who are interested in the knowledge which is out there), but it is less likely to connect you specifically with people whose hard drive has just broken. Therefore, you should instead create posts which will appeal to any individual who has had a hard drive break, whether they know it or not. For example, you could create a blog post helping users spot a failing hard drive.
This way, if someone enters “computer making strange clicking sound” into their search engine of choice, they can find your page, and learn that their hard drive is failing. This instantly puts them in a position where they need your services, and they know it. Then explain the benefits of your service in particular. Whether it be price, reliability, or ease of use, sell your product or service.
In my next post, I will go over several other methods of creating immediate interest in your service. This strategy for getting your ideal clients into your shop right away can be a serious help in giving you a short term boost of cash flow and revenue. So get started and create some great content.
