Blog With Purpose: 3 Tips to Start

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is creating articles of no value for their blog.

I know most businesses understand that blogging can be very helpful, but they are not sure what they should be blogging about.

I am going to give you some ideas that can be helpful.

I would also consider making a rule for your writing staff that there will be no blog posts published that do not have a defined purpose and the purpose should in some way help your business.

Here are three ways you can blog with purpose:

1). Create Trust

You can begin to create trust with potential clients by making it very clear that your business is great at what it does (but without bragging or selling). I always tell businesses to offer “What to do” and “What to avoid” posts to their readers. Most people today are researching what they need to know before hiring a business to perform a particular service.

Tell them what to look for, what not do and which companies to avoid.

By giving the reader helpful information that can help them avoid a costly mistake, you create trust. Readers that are looking to hire often look at company blogs, website pages and additional information almost like an interview process.

Use blog posts to sell your knowledge and expertise and grab a new client. Some readers may not live close to you, but are researching.

They may or may not become a future client or customer, but when trust is created information is shared and shared information can very easily bring you business.

2). Breakdown Each Service You Offer

Each service you offer should be explained in an easy-to-understand manner. Educate your readers on each aspect of the services you offer, one-by-one.

A service may be complex and need more than one blog post to explain it, so break it down into parts and label each post with “Part 1”, “Part 2”, etc. Also, make sure that you link to each part of the series in each article so readers can read all parts of the series.

Explain why each service is important, why the reader could benefit from it and how to choose the right company for the job. You don’t have to say “hire me” to sell your services; you just need to make them trust that you know what you are doing.

And when discussing a service always link to the service page on your website in the first paragraph.

When you take the time to explain the services you offer you are educating the reader. This creates trust and also sells the services you offer. Service blog posts can also inform current clients of services they were not even aware you offered.

3). Answer Questions

One of the easiest kinds of blog posts to do is Q&A. Take common questions you hear from potential and current clients and answer them, one-by-one.

Answering questions serves multiple purposes:

• If people are asking you the same questions over and over, it means many people have the same questions. Most likely many are searching for answers online. You can drive in traffic to you site by helping people find answers to questions; traffic can help with ranking in search engines.
• You could pick up new clients by answering questions and creating trust.
• You can create a Q&A category and tell new clients that they can find answers to common answers there. This category could save wasted time and phone calls answering questions.
• You are establishing your business as an expert in the field.

It is always good to essentially say the same thing at the end of these posts, but change up the verbage a bit – tell the reader that if they have any additional questions to please leave a comment or contact you for more information.

Last Tip: Don’t Forget To Link

Whether you are creating trust, explaining services or even answering questions, it is important to link to related pages and helpful blog posts. There are several purposes for this, but I will touch on three:

One

People are click happy. They like to click. The search engines monitor how long people stay on your site and how many pages they visit. The more pages people view, the better.  So give the visitor more pages to visit.

Two

People will not work hard to find what they need. If they can’t quickly find a service on your site, they will just back out and leave and find a site that makes things easy for them. Always link to the service(s) you are discussing and make it easy for the visitor.

Three

Always link to related services or blog articles. If you offer carpet cleaning services and grout cleaning services as well, let people know that. At the bottom of the post have a “Related” area and link to other blog posts that could be helpful or related service pages.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

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