How blogging can boost your bottom line

Writing a regular blog takes time, effort and energy, so at first it might feel like a drain on resources. But there's a good reason to do it. Blogging can contribute significantly to your bottom line.

Increase your touch points

Marketers often refer to the seven "touch points" needed before a sale is made. The idea is that potential customers have a chance to learn about you and trust you and your company before they become a customer. Weblogs offer an opportunity to attract and engage with customers in an informal way. They are a great source of information for potential customers. If you provide value to customers first, the sales will follow.

Make your personality work for you

As a small business, you have a distinct advantage in that you can easily let your personality into your communications with customers. Doing this separates you from the competition and allows people to connect with you. This is a deciding factor for customers when making a purchasing decision. A 2011 Accenture Survey found that service experience and brand awareness (including personality) are the top factors for customers when making a purchase.

Customer acquisition

Research has shown that customer acquisition grows directly in line with the frequency of blog posts. A 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report by HubSpotfound that 78 per cent of businesses that blogged daily attracted customers through their blog, while 92 per cent who blogged more than once a day won customers in this way.

Customer feedback

Blogs give your customers an opportunity to comment and interact with you, and a chance to provide feedback. If the feedback is positive fantastic! If it's negative, even better. It's an opportunity for you to make things right and demonstrate that you're listening and willing to take action. In most cases, customers who have taken the time to complain are looking to be delighted. Treat a complainant well and you could end up with a loyal customer for life.

The power of 'word of mouth'

With the ease of viral sharing on Blogs, your message can be spread into new markets and be seen by totally new audiences.  If you are a Bloomtools client, ask your Consultant to show you how you can utilise your Blogs content to populate your own Social Media accounts, quickly, simply and effectively to spread their value even further.

Search engines will pick you up

Finally the all important SEO (Seach Engine Optimisation) benefits where the likes of Google sees that a website that has for ever changing content is worth more (ranked higher) than one that isn't.  Each blog entry is seen as a new page of content for them to reference, and give you extra points in their Algorithm

Have you noticed a difference after starting a blog? Share your experiences or comments below.

Other resources:  How Blogs work for everyday businesses - webinar recording; Five tips to make your blog stand out from the crowd - article