So, it’s January 1, 2012 – and in 2011 I was quite inconsistent with my blogging and with growing my business. But I’ve made some changes to my business and my focus – so all of that is going to change in 2012.
My focus this year is going to move well beyond “creating” websites – to finding and implementing “solutions” to help businesses use the internet to grow their business. Thus, the name change from LizM Creations to LizM Solutions …
In honor of my new focus and goals for my own business, I decided to start with a post about Blogging. I plan to add content to my site at least 3x a week in my own efforts to grow my business.
First to answer the question from the title of this post … YES – blogging CAN and WILL help grow your business as long as it is done right.
But now I’m sure you are asking “how do you “blog” right and how does it help grow your business?”
Lucky for you, I am going to tell you – briefly anyway…
The first benefit of blogging is that it provides GOOD and USEFUL content for your website visitors, who are your potential customers. When you blog you want to provide helpful information. No, you don’t have to give away your secrets or tell people exactly how your products are made or how you provide your services – but you do want to give them a little bit of useful information. Some examples …
for an attorney – small tidbits of legal advice
for an accountant – any number of small/brief tips to reduce taxes
for a landscaping company – tips on keeping your grass healthy related to your local service area
for a business coach – small things that a business owner can do each day to keep up motivation.
Those are just a few ideas that I came up with in just a few minutes – the possibilities are endless. But, done right, blogging provides your website visitors with good information, it makes them want to stay on your site longer find out more about your business and possibly come back for more information, or give you their name and e-mail address so they can be updated when you add more information. It is a win-win situation – your potential customers get the information they were looking for and you look great to them and are more likely to turn them into a customer.
The second benefit of consistent blogging is that it gives …
potential customers a reason to come back to your website
and
current customers a reason to go to your website (or refer people to your website)
Another win-win situation …
The third benefit of consistent blogging is that it gives Google a reason to keep coming to your site and indexing it high in the search engine results. When you provide the information that web searchers are looking for that makes the web searchers happy – which makes Google happy – which means that Google will keep your site high in the search engines! A win-win-win situation:
website visitors get what they want – Google gets what it wants – You get better search engine ranking, more website visitors and MORE customers!
Do you need more reasons to blog to grow your business? I don’t … that’s why blogging 3x a week is one of MY resolutions for growing my business in 2012.
Come back for more tips on how to use the internet to grow your offline or online business!