Local Business Blogging: 6 Reasons Why and How

With each of my clients, I recommend they start a blog and before I finish getting the word blog out of my mouth I hear following:

“I don’t have time.”

“I have no idea what to write about.”

“Uh…why?”

All valid objections.

As small business owners, we are wearing many hats and most entrepreneurs (me included) would never win a spelling bee let alone literary awards.  There are so many marketing tactics that we could employ at any  given moment, not to mention all that other operational stuff that keeps a business functioning, that we need a very good reason why to use any tactic in particular.

Reason Why #1
Online reputation: Your reputation as an expert and, more importantly, as a decent human being is going to be a major factor in people choosing a business to patron.

Reason Why #2
Getting found: The Internet has evolved to the point where people look for information, entertainment, products and services in a variety of places online.  Your business website (especially if it is all ‘corporate’ in design and copy) is probably the last place web surfers will look.

You need to show up where ever your target market goes.  It is becoming more difficult to make the go where you want.  Go with the flow and be where they go.

Reason Why #3
More money: Reasons 1 and 2, though not tangible, will create more customers.  On your blog, you can advertise your business, product specials or even promote joint ventures with other businesses.  How about selling advertising?

The biggest thing to get visitors to convert to customers is to give them a reason to do so.  Create a compelling offer and give a call to action.

How #1
Time: Have someone else write your blog.  If you have a really small company, say 4 employees, you could have a new blog post written every every week, but only take 30 minutes a month from each employee to accomplish.

You can outsource it.  Find someone who can write and preferably someone local so she/he can cover topics of local interest.

Or you can make the commitment to turn your local activities (dinner out, special events, the county fair) into blog posts and become a local online celebrity.

How #2:
I hinted at this in #1.  Turn your activities into news.  A blogger I like to read posts restaurant reviews with pictures of his meals.  His topic is Internet marketing, but nothing says he can’t write about other things he likes.

Another blog from a fitness trainer covers, of course, fitness and nutrition, but also has posts about other businesses.   He is visiting these places anyways, he has a large readership that is local, so he writes about them and recommends them.  I don’t know, but I suspect, he is getting paid to do this.

How #3
Shoot video clips about some topic related to your business.  This could be like a frequently asked question.  It could be a product review.

I have recommended to used car lots to post a video walk-through of each car they have.  People hate going to see a car they saw advertised and find that it wasn’t what they expected.  Video walk-throughs are perfect for pre-selling products.

Furniture stores should be doing this, too.

Hello, anyone listening?  How come you are still reading this instead of shooting some video clips of your products?

Thanks for reading and as always feel free to comment, ask questions or add to conversation.

Cheers,

Tim Conley

PS. Oh, and use WordPress.  It’s easy to set up, use and manage.

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