By Tess Wittler
In the last few years, blogs have become an indispensable tool for many businesses – including home builders, remodelers, subcontractors and even suppliers. When done smartly, blogs incorporate well into a company’s overall advertising and marketing plan.
Good Business Blogs Mean Good Business
Yes, good business blogs can definitely increase your business value by bringing you the most loyal of customers; at the same time, blogs can help you build trust among potential customers. A blog can play an integral part in garnering visibility for your business, keeping your website “fresh” with new, useful information. Plus, over time, they can be an important aspect of positioning you as an “expert” in your industry.
It is important to understand, however, that a blog will only bring value and desired benefits to any business if done in a strategic manner. Conversely, if blogs are not nurtured, they can actually be destructive to your business. Here are a few helpful tips to consider when setting up a blog for your business.
Take Good Care of Your Customers
Take care of your readers as if they are old and loyal customers. How do you do this? Make it a point to reply to every comment and email promptly and courteously. Furthermore, if you have to do some research to answer your readers satisfactorily, do so. This will ensure you create a blogging environment that is personable, customer oriented … and trusted.
Edit Before Posting
In the construction world, the term goes, “Measure twice; cut once.” Make sure you apply this to the blogging world, too – edit twice; post once. Before you post what you wrote onto your blog, make sure that you’ve edited it for grammar, spelling and readability. This way, you will appear sharp and knowledgeable to your potential customers – which will surely reap the benefits of credibility and loyalty in the future.
Clear and Concise is Critical
Blog readers don’t want to read a novel, so don’t turn your blog into long, drawn-out posts of information. You have less than a minute to capture readers’ attention and convince them that your blog post is worth their time reading.
So how do you do this?
- Keep your sentences short and sweet.
- Break paragraphs frequently (this makes your post easier to skim and ultimately read).
- Use bullet points.
- Use bold and/or italics to draw the eye to key elements in your post.
- Use illustrations, photos and graphs to help demonstrate points in the post.
By keeping these points in mind, your blog will come across as professional and will allow busy customers to skim through and get the general idea of your posts without having to read the entire post.
Be Personal and Yet Not Too Personal
Storytelling is very helpful in capturing readers’ attention. It makes your blog funny and interesting, and one that projects your friendly and cheerful spirit. Be sure to pick a story that is appropriate to your blog’s topic.
Additionally, infuse bit of yourself into your writing to establish a personal relationship with your customers. In doing so, you will be able to build a sense of trust between you as the business owner and your clients; this will eventually translate to good business.
With regards to adding your own personality to your blog posts, advice will range the entire spectrum. Personally, I write my blog posts in a conversational fashion – as if I was speaking to you in person – yet, I try to keep my posts and points short and sweet. It took a bit of work to perfect my point of view, but over time, you’ll find your voice as well (see post on this subject).
Tess Wittler Writing Services • Giving Your Visions A Voice
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