3 Easy Steps to Maintaining a Compelling Blog

Blogging is a great free way to promote your business. But it’s not just a way to promote yourself – it’s a way for you to connect with your customers as a solution provider for the daily challenges they face. Once a potential customer starts following your blog, they can become more than a one-time sale – they can become a loyal advocate for your business. The key is making sure you’re telling them what they need to hear when and where they can hear it.

Here are three easy steps to maintaining a compelling blog:

1) Listen to your customers and post what they want to know.
Not everyone has a business at which striking up an in-person conversation with a customer is easy. But your customers are talking in a variety of ways – through social media, on their own blogs, etc. If you have a group page on Facebook, you may want to see who or what else your customers are “liking.” Your customers are even talking to Google! The free AdWords Keyword tool can be used to show you what keywords are the most popular – search certain words relevant to your business and you’ll see the phrases people are most actively searching for. For instance, a used car dealership owner may find that the phrase “Should I buy a new or used car?” gets a ton of hits each month, and create a search-friendly post about whether new or used cars give the most bang for the buck. Then voilà! New customers. If you can provide searchers with a connection to their interests or concerns, you can bet they’ll look on your business more favorably than before.

For another example, maybe you’re a music store and there’s a big local festival coming up – why not do a quick post on who the headliners are and some of their best albums? Not only will your customers appreciate the background info (everyone wants to be an aficionado, but who has the time to hunt down deep cuts?), but you may also get them thinking about their next music purchase and where they can make it. To maximize the return from your blog posts, make sure the topics you post on aren’t just interesting; if they aren’t relevant to your business, you won’t be any closer to priming your customers for a big sale.

2) If you build it, they might not come . . .
Your job is only half over once you’ve set up a Patch or WordPress blog and made a few posts. The biggest task ahead of you is getting eyes on your blog. Time for a little self-promotion! Getting your blog’s name out there when you’re busy enough advertising your business may seem like a tall order, but you don’t have to do double-duty – your blog should be everywhere you already are. If you have a Facebook group, re-post stories from your blog in your Newsfeed. Your previous followers will see it and you’ll leverage a built-in audience. The same goes for Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever else you are. You can also plug your blog in your email newsletter or on your website.

Remember – in promoting your blog, the same thing applies to how you promote your business: keep it about the customer. “Read my blog” is less compelling than “Read about x topic” or “Get the latest news and insights on x.” Your customer is looking for a solution– it’s your challenge to brand yourself as the provider of that solution.

3) You don’t have to be a part-time journalist.
The idea of allocating the time to do a weekly or * shudder * DAILY blog post may be daunting, but fortunately, blogs aren’t held up to The New York Times’ standards of journalistic rigor. In other words, if you don’t have time, don’t write an essay! A blog post can be as simple as a brief introduction to an article posted elsewhere (properly attributed, of course) or a series of photos (provided they aren’t exclusively self-promotional). Top 10s or news/trend round-ups are also a great way to fill a page without filling a page. If you're using other sources, a best practice is to properly credit outside articles and summarize the most compelling parts.

To start a blog on your Patch, go to your town’s homepage, and look for the “Start blogging” or “Want to blog on Patch?” button.