This month, SimpleClick asked one of our clients, Ann Larson from www.lujos.co.uk to write a guest blog for us. She wrote about what she does so incredibly well - blogging! To read Ann's own fantastic blog 'Leaving the fast lane for a slow life in Spain', go to lujos.wordpress.com.
There is no denying that blogs are everywhere. You can find a blog that deals with almost every aspect of business and life! There are thousands of blogs, and even more readers of blogs.
Itʼs easy to dismiss blogs as just another form of media that is mainly used for social purposes and is just another fad. However, they can have big impacts on your business, with added customer value and SEO benefits.
Here are some ways we feel that blogging has helped our business:
- It has established us as subject-matter experts. It may seem odd, but blog entries are very convincing, and tend to be given a lot of credence by its readers. (You have to be careful not to abuse this trust, but it can be useful as a tool to win over your readers to your opinions)
- It gave us free publicity through search engine results. Google likes regular content updates, and creating frequent blog pages, with relevant keywords, can increase traffic by improving your search engine ranking chances. This can be a cheaper alternative to Pay-per-Click advertising campaigns and means you are doing your own Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
- It brings more web traffic to our business website. Readers of our blog come to our business site to find out what itʼs all about.
- It makes our business seem more lively and friendly. Rather than being just another anonymous business, readers of our blog see us as friends. They comment on our blog frequently, and often send emails asking for more information or advice. Itʼs almost the equivalent of being a friendly corner shop!
- It has built a following of regular readers, who may turn into clients one day.
- It allows us to provide additional information in a subjective forum – again, all part of establishing us as subject-matter experts.
The Lujos approach to blogging
Before we even launched the Lujos business, we decided to create a free Wordpress blog, that would be additional to our website, without directly being a part of it. This was a deliberate decision, as we felt that blogs that are part of the business website tend to have less credibility -they are seen as just another business tool.
We wanted our blog to attract visitors to the Lujos business site that we might otherwise not reach - in short, to channel blog readers who were interested in the Lujos ethos to our product site. We also felt that the blog should not just be all about the Lujos products. We talk somewhat personally about our lives in Spain, our olive farming, skin care in general, and so on. This is partially due to Wordpress frowning on direct selling via their blogs. The main reason, however, is that we felt that we wanted to win “hearts and minds” to ourselves and our business, rather than the more traditional “pitch” to buy.
This approach, of course, may not suit all businesses.
Our blog is linked to from our business site, as well as featured in every newsletter, email and PR spot.
The downside of blogging
We think blogging has been great for our business! However, it is not without cost. Just like your website, your blog content must be kept fresh. If you donʼt blog frequently, visitors will stop coming to your site, and automatic feeds from your blog will be turned off.
For a small business with already over-stretched staff, blogging can be a step too far. But if you are willing to commit to regular blogging, it can be a valuable addition to your business.
To find out how Ipswich web developers SimpleClick can help you to set up your own blog, branded to fit your business, visit www.simpleclick.co.uk and get in touch.
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