Blogging can win you customers if you develop your blog as a way to reach, engage, and convert your leads into customers.
Every business owner wants the low-hanging fruit, the customer that needs your product now. The relationship starts strong with a firm yes, the project gets going, and before you know it, it’s done, and you’re getting paid. Those are great for the bottom line. We all need customers like this from time to time.
But for every one of those customers, there are 100 others who aren’t ready to make a decision. Consider using your blog to reach these customers. Here’s how:
Show your expertise
From plumbing to web design, we all have an expertise in some area. After all, you’ve worked hard to get where you are, and people come to you for answers. A blog is a great place to show what you know.
Customers like doing business with the best option, and a blog is where you can convince them that you are the best. If you are an expert in vintage trailers, write blogs about maintaining them, decorating them, or where to find the best deals on trailers for sale. Would you be surprised to know that “vintage trailers” and “vintage camper trailers” garner more than 9,000 searches per month? That’s 9,000 people that could possibly land on your website because of a topic that YOU wrote about.
Answer questions that you get repeatedly
Imagine you are in an email exchange with a customer that is on the brink of a “YES.” They ask you, Mr. Software Developer, what makes your approach unique and who they will be working with on a regular basis. Well, it just so happens that you’ve written a blog post outlining why your approach to their specific industry is unique as well as employee spotlights on two of the people they will be working with. You take a minute to link those blog posts in an email, and hit send. This information might just push them to a decision.
FAQ pages can only tell so much before they overwhelm the visitor. Your blog is a chance to answer specific questions that you get most often. These blog topics are great because they are more evergreen, meaning they can be used for years to come on social media, in email newsletters, and in every day emails.
Give value
Your blog is a place to win customers by giving value. If they are spending 5 minutes on your site reading about you, will it be worth their time?
Do you have a free download that you can offer your customers? A blog is a great place to link this content (and say why it’s important) and ask for an email address in exchange for the information. Once you have their email address, you can market to them through email automations, Facebook, or you could be brave and send a personal email thanking them for taking the time to learn more.
Convert
Convert visitors to customers through your blog. After you have displayed your expertise, answered questions about who you are and what you do, given them something of value….ask for the conversion!
Ask them to call you or email you.
Ask them to sign up for a free trial.
Ask them to make a purchase.
Not every visitor will convert, in fact, visitors may need to see your content anywhere from 7 to 20 times before they click a call-to-action button. But if you are blogging consistently about relevant topics in your industry impacting your audience, you will see conversions rise over time.
Improved search rankings will help these numbers as well. The more you blog, the more keywords you can target. The more specific keywords you can target, the higher you rank in search results. The higher you rank, the better your traffic will be. New customers will find you because they find a blog post.
Both SEO and user experience is crucial when it comes to blogging. Think about when you search. A question is typed in the search bar like “What are the rules on image copy write on social media.” The results page is filled with blogs on the topic. You click to one of the blog posts (thanks to SEO tactics) and get your answer. Later on, you may or may not remember the source of your information. If the site was not maintained or the information was just ok, you probably won’t.
But what if they offered you a FREE download of royalty free images within the blog post? That’s relevant and valuable to you (user experience at its finest!), and you will probably return to the site in the future for more information.
Conclusion
Blogging can win you customers, but it takes planning. Know your audience, know your business, and develop a blog strategy that not only reaches and engages “on the fence” customers, but converts them into paying customers.