Of course you, your customer and your product/service is gold for your business but what is a way to really mine for Gold with your business, online – your blog! When you are in front of people, you can sell yourself, you can sell your products, you can explain the value and how it works, but when folks find you online, who is explaining it then? Sure, you have a product/services page for each of your services/products, but then what?
Don’t make your customers work for it
Keep in mind; you want to make it easy for your consumers to find you, your products and/or services. Hopefully you have a page for every service/product listed on your website with a keyword rich description of each. Does it really explain all of the moving parts? Does it answer all of the pains a consumer may have, to need your services/products? My industry is often misunderstood, or folks don’t think they need services in social media, search engine optimization or even paid ads on Google, so my job becomes more of that of a teacher, an educator and taking the pains that folks have with their business and answering them in bite size chunks, with my services.
Blogs are bite size pieces
Remember, it has to be about educating them of how you can help… but word vomit isn’t the way to do it. This is especially true if your industry is often misunderstood or confusing, like mine. You need to break things down into bite size pieces as well as terms that folks understand. They need to be able to apply it to their business or visualize it working for them. It also provides an opportunity for you to offer your services or further reading should they want to take that next step.
Every Gold Digger’s Dream LOL
Okay, maybe not a gold digger, but every business owner wants to reach more people all the time, and to answer the pains for their consumers so they will want their product/service and ultimately become a testimonial. What would be even better is if the product/service began to sell itself by the testimonials, right?
How could your business sell itself?
With the internet, the reach of your product or service is limitless as long as you provide a means to do
so. Blogging provides added value to the consumer by constantly trying to answer their pains with your product/services and other ways to learn about your industry. Blogs have the potential to reach more folks by sharing on social media and with a little luck and great content can go viral. Could you imagine if 10% of your blogs went viral? Just think, what kind of reach your website could have? Imagine how many eyes would be seeing your website and your product and services? Huge win, don’t you think?
Work Smarter Not Harder
What would be better than to make more money by doing what you love, but with less work (and still superb quality), right? Put your blogs to work by breaking out every part of your industry, every part of your product or service and explain it on a blog, answer all of the pains folks have with their business or personally that your product/service can answer and then share it, put it out there! This is EVERGREEN content folks so most likely it can be regurgitated or recycled and then reshared often – make it viral!
Blogging provides client value by answering their pains & SEO value to help them find you. Click To TweetThe Bottom Line
Unless you want to reach your target market 1 by 1, you need to have a website. Now that you have a website, you need to have a blog. A blog provides additional value to your consumers as well as keyword rich content about your industry which helps the search engines find you so more consumers can find you when they search for your industry online. Any questions?
Check back for next weeks Must Have Components of a Blog to keep you in check! But if you do have any questions about search engine optimization and how a blog can work for your business, contact me for a marketing consultation – it will truly help your business and your reach!
~Kristen
Good stuff, Kirsten! I don’t think people really yet get it as to how important it is to make their blog posts easy to find by the people who are looking for the very content you provide. I love the suggestion of taking your whole niche apart and writing about each little segment.
Nope, you are correct… and blog posts provide a lot of information for the consumer, and search engines. thanks
I agree that the business owners that keep to the core of their vision to address the pain points of their target audience will be one step ahead from the competition. Great post Kristen.
So very true Heather… we need to stick to what we know and target those we can alleviate the pains. Thanks!
A great blog post, and I definitely need to start being better with my blog. 🙂
You are doing great… just be consistent!
Making blogs easy to find it definitely a necessity to reach more people in your target audience but also wording it in a way the every person will understand is key. Breaking it up into smaller parts also helps as to not overwhelm the potential customer and also understand in depth exactly what you are offering.
No point in having a blog if nobody can understand it, right? Thanks Mike!
Oh My Gosh!! I love this! YES- Don’t make your clients work for it. Things should be EASY for them. Great post.
Awww, thanks Bobbi, bite size pieces makes it also easier to apply! 😉
Thank you for emphasizing the importance of having a page for every service/product listed on your website with a keyword rich description of each. It is frustrating wandering around a website to find the good stuff. Thank you for sharing some great nuggets about websites and blogging!
Yes, often times businesses just have ONE page for ALL of their services… I think, how much can you explain in one paragraph, plus you are making your folks have to scroll to find the one product/service that they want.
Great information. I will keep these tips in mind when I write next week’s blog.
Awesome Christie and I think you are doing great, keep it up!
I have been guilty of putting too much in one blog when it could be broken out into more pieces. More content for my website equals more for the reader to click on and hang around for a while.
Sometimes we can get carried away, I do too, but if you start with one nugget in mind… and hope they get at least that.. then you should be good!
Although I did my blog the opposite way to most people, (I post on the Huffington Post first), I do get that your blog is a snapshot of who you are and what you stand for and do in the world. I never gave much thought to it “selling” my services, as what I do is write and start conversations. I’d like to hope the feedback I get confirms this is what I do in my writing. Now if I could actually monetize that…life would be grand! Thanks for the great post, Kristen!! Love your info and style.
Well.. it isn’t meant to be a hard sell, but to share what you do and help them with their pains.. and if that leads to selling your services, then win win! Thanks for the compliment!
Perfect timing for me: “…a page for every service/product listed on your website with a keyword rich description of each.”
I’m re-writing a website now to give each of their products a page…but getting push back from the client who doesn’t think we need to educate so much.
I need to stand up to them….and I’m gonna keep your post for just that.
Your posts are excellent, Kristen.
So glad to hear and I think I will be doing a blog on that… after the next one. 🙂 You DO need to stand up to them. BTW.. I emailed you! 😉
Great post…I need to be more focused on using key words when I write my posts. I tend to write like I teach & I realize I need to adjust for the online world. I appreciate the tips.
Thanks Liz, yes you do.. it is beneficial in so many different ways.. for the consumers, for them to find you via the search engines!
Word vomit..ha! I suppose some may accuse me of some form of it since I tend to write a lot but hopefully to entertain and ultimately I get my message across. That said, I am about to take on writing another blog in addition to mine. It will be for my husband’s mortgage company which isn’t exactly a “fun” topic. But you know me…I will definitely figure out a way to make it interesting 🙂
Had a feeling you would like, and be able to relate. LOL I have been known to give a little more than necessary! LOL But we usually entertain in our writing.. so I think that helps. 🙂
Actually, if you can turn something like mortgage, or legal stuff, as I have to at times, into a light reading… you are killing it! 😉
Great post. You really hit the nail with your well-explained information on how your customer and your product or service are categorically regarded as goldmines of your business. Their roles in your online business cannot be ignored. Both complement with each other to arrive at desired outcomes.
Thank you Lorii… I appreciate it
Right on the money (no pun intended), babes. To your comment about having a website and a blog, I would add — your blog needs to live on your website. Capture those people with your stunning content and have links in it to take people to pages where they can learn more about what you offer. Great stuff, as usual, Kristen!
Thanks Jackie.. and great addition.. it does need to live on your website, otherwise you are splitting the SEO juice, great point!