It seems like everyone is blogging these days, but if you have something to say, a blog can be a good way to demonstrate your expertise.
Blogs are great for establishing credibility because they are not perceived as “marketing’ and therefore customers are more receptive to what they are reading.
Blogs are a great way of educating your customers, addressing their concerns – and they rank well in search results!
post not working in firefox
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll look into it!
I’ve read much regarding the power of blogging when it comes to driving traffic to one’s own website. Given that I’ve just launched my site, I’m curious as to how exactly this works? Currently, I’m doing all I can to market my website and push it out to the general public. It seems to me that if I were to add a blog to my website, I would then still have to push my blog out to the general public as well. Either way, I’m faced with the problem of marketing my website.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I hear you Anil. The last thing you want to do is to make more work for yourself.
For a business like yours which offers a service, the best way is to use the blog to educate your users and give them information that will be valuable to them. The advantage of a blog is that it allows you to communicate with your users and boost your search engine rankings. There are two ways you can approach it – or possibly combine them both:
* You could write articles geared towards people who are planning an event. Things like: “How to find the perfect photographer” or “Wedding Day checklist” etc. The benefit here is that you can target keywords that people are searching for and give them answers. It also will bring search traffic to your site and make more people (who are potential users) aware of what you are offering.
* You could do posts which are targeted towards service providers, with tips on how they can support their customers, how to respond to quotes, how to market their business through the site etc.
Hi Susan,
In response to your note to Anil, it does indeed make sense to offer prospective customers/clients valuable advice via a blog or to demonstrate industry knowledge via a blog. However my new business will be entering an already very crowded arena – I am about to launch an online children’s boutique and I’m sure you’ll agree there are hundreds upon hundreds of mum bloggers who have every possible subject related to parenting, motherhood and children covered. I have yet to start a blog as I am struggling to find something fresh and new to add to this area and don’t believe in blogging just for the sake of it. The blog also needs to be sustainable, so whichever subject area I go for, it needs to provide ample materials and content for regular blogs…
Your guidance here would be much appreciated!
Hi Lena,
I’m with you – there is no point blogging just for the sake of it (or for the SEO benefits alone) and you do need an angle that will be sustainable over time bother for yourself to keep writing and for your readers to keep coming back.
Without knowing anything about your business idea, I would urge you to define the problem you are solving for your customers. This is the single most important thing you can do in planning your new business. The clearer you can be about that, the more likely it is that you will find your unique angle not just for your blog but for your whole business.
Unless you can find a need that is under-filled (ie. a problem to solve that isn’t being adequately met), I would look for another business idea. Otherwise you are pushing uphill to try to get established in a niche that is, as you point out, very crowded with a number of established competitors.
Hi Susan,
I appreciate you coming back to me and for your valuable input which all makes great sense.
My business, http://www.miloetmimi.com is already set up now and I’m about to officially launch this week, so unfortunately, I can’t pull out of this particular idea, but could potentially adapt it going forwards. My USP, which isn’t a problem I’m answering, as such, is that I am offering a selection of children’s clothing, toy and accessory brands most of which are not widely available in the UK, if at all. So, I would say my USP is my product selection and range.
Since my last email, I have done some brainstorming re the blog, but have yet to hit an idea I am totally happy with, but, one idea, for example, is that this could be a fictitious blog by a ‘yummy mummy’ or the voice of a toddler? Another idea is to focus more on the clothes/products/fashion and perhaps do something on the styling, fabric, colours, trends aspect with photos of my toddler modelling the collections – a bit like 365 days/52 weeks (most likely!) of a toddler’s wardrobe…
Please do let me know if you have any other thoughts – it would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks again,
Lena
Lena, since you have launched, I would focus my attention on marketing the site and your products if I were you. Don’t worry about a blog – they are not mandatory. If an idea comes up for using a blog in your marketing efforts then by all means start one but until then, you need to market your tail off and get some sales in the door.
As you grow your business, look for a sustainable USP. Product selection and range can easily be copied by anyone else entering the market. It needs to be something than only you can deliver. As you develop you may get more ideas about what this is
Good luck
Susan