How to get found online: Connecting with your customers via blogging
The internet is loud! As a small business owner, you must find a way to stand out in the busy business world so customers can find you and trust you have the solution to their problems. That’s where business blogging can help.
Business blogging is about sharing knowledge and educating prospects and current customers. When you use it as an educational tool, rather than a 100% “news about us” section, you show off your knowledge, and people will learn to trust your expertise and experience.
Here are five ways to use blogging to get found online and genuinely connect with your followers.
1. Educate and Entertain
Our first tip is don’t be boring! If your copy is bland, monotonous, and lacks brand personality, no one will read it.
Feel free to write your blog articles slightly more conversationally than you’d typically write. Use each article as an opportunity to teach others about your industry or how to work with you. You can write about your FAQs, foundational information about your niche, comparisons between two products or services (yours or your competitors), interviews, or what it’s like to work with you.
Focus each article on educating, not selling. While you can include links to your products and services within the article, the main focus should be teaching your customers about your expertise.
2. Appease the Google Algorithm
Your second priority is to write your blog posts to appease the Google search algorithm. This means applying search engine optimization (SEO) keywords to your copy. Online tools (and digital marketing agencies like STGP) can help you research the best keywords for your content.
The goal is to pick a keyword you think people will search for in Google, and use that keyword in your copy. Ideally, it should be in the title and a few times in the body copy (no more than 2-3% of the total copy). Work it in as authentically and naturally as possible so it doesn’t sound like you're trying too hard to rank for that keyword.
Copy and paste your full article into this keyword density checker to check your keyword density.
3. Use AI for inspiration (not copywriting)
Many business owners turn to AI to write their blog content and brag to their business colleagues about writing dozens of blog posts weekly. While this seems like a dream come true, it can actually harm your brand.
Even “trained” AI programs will write inauthentic or incorrect content about your brand and niche. With AI copywriting, you lose the personalization you get from writing the content yourself. This is why incorporating your real experiences, stories, and case studies into your blog posts helps you stand out from others who rely on AI to write their content.
Instead, use AI tools as a brainstorming tool to help you develop your content. Ask your AI tool for blog topic ideas or outlines, but never copy the content it gives you verbatim.
4. Don’t forget to share it
After you’ve published your blog, make sure you promote it online. Social media is a great place to share your blog posts. Schedule posts on your business social profiles that tease your blog post and link your followers to the article on your website.
You can also share your blogs in other online groups (check the guidelines regarding sharing self-promotional content because even though a blog is educational, they may consider it self-promotion).
5. End with a call to action
What do you want your readers to do after reading your blog post? The last part of every blog post should be a hyperlinked (aka clickable text) call-to-action, leading them to another piece of digital content. This call-to-action could be a link to:
a related blog post you wrote
a related product or service page
Subscribe to your newsletter
Follow you on social media “for more content like this.”
Ensure that these call-to-action links are to your content and not third-party sites as much as possible. Redirect people to your website or social channels for some extra SEO juice.
Practicing what we’re preaching…here’s our call to action
Our fifth tip was to end every article with a call to action…so here’s ours:
If you’re ready to harness the power of blogging for your business but don’t have the time or skills to write it yourself, the Small Town Girl Promotions team has Canadian-based, expert-level copywriters ready to jump in!
Our copywriters can become instant experts in your niche and will write your blog for you. We’ll incorporate great copy with powerful SEO keywords so your blogs get found by your target customers. We can also help you promote your articles on your social channels.
Interested in learning more about how blogging can benefit your business? Book a complimentary chat with Kim today to learn more.
