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Blogs, Digital
7th July 20210

Why does my business need a blog?

Why does my business need a blog?

Do you want to find new customers and build better relationships with your existing ones? Do you want to create readymade content for your social media posts and position yourself as an industry leader – all for virtually no outlay? Then your business needs a blog.

Find new customers

… or even better, let them find you! A blog will help you to do this in several ways.

Firstly, it will allow you to create content for your website that answers questions that your potential customers may have – such as “Why does my business need a blog?” – so when they search online, your website pops up. You can maximise this by researching keywords, categories and topics which your potential customers are most likely to search for, but even without doing this, regular blogging will naturally help you to increase your reach. Every post is another opportunity to appear in a web search and thus to drive traffic to your site.

Secondly, regularly adding pages to your blog will send a message to search engines such as Google that your website is active and regularly being updated and that they should include it in their search results. Without a blog, it’s difficult to do this unless you’re constantly updating or adding to the rest of your website.

Thirdly, if other people find your blog posts interesting and useful, they will share them, which will again help you to find a new audience.

Once potential customers have arrived on your blog, you can direct them towards other relevant pages of your website using internal links; turn them into leads by offering some sort of free content, such as a fact sheet, webinar or trial, in exchange for their details; and/or invite them to sign up for your emails, which they’re much more likely to do if they’ve already enjoyed your blog.

Build better relationships with existing customers

Writing a blog allows you to share far more of your own and your business’s personality than sales pages alone do – it’s a chance to show your customers who you are, not just what you do. Allowing your customers to get to know you better can deepen your relationship and mean that they’re far more likely to buy from you than a company they don’t know at all.

Customers also like to feel informed. By sharing your knowledge, you’re giving them something of value and they’re benefiting from the education that you provide.

Plus if you allow comments on your blog posts (and take the time to respond to them!), you can create a two-way conversation with your audience, which not only improves your connection with them, but is also readable by other visitors to your site and generally searchable by search engines. Not only just this build trust as your audience learns more about you, but it can also let you learn more about your audience and what they need, and thus hone and improve your business. (Want some help getting to know your audience? Click here.)

Create readymade content for your social media posts

It can be difficult continually to think of interesting, engaging content for your social media posts, but blog posts provide readymade content, and can be used several times using different quotations, figures or visuals. And, as mentioned above, if people like your blog, they will even share it themselves, thus increasing your reach.

And in addition to this, you will often find that you can reshare the same blog post several times months or even years apart, meaning that you have a solid library of content to fall back on.

Position yourself as an industry leader

Blog posts allow you to share more indepth information about your products and services than your sales pages alone, whether you’re writing a review, a how to guide, a case study or sharing your knowledge about a specific area.

Demonstrating your expertise in this way can help to establish yourself as an authority in your industry and enhance your professional image, and this in turn will build your customers’ trust that you have the necessary knowledge and can deliver what they need.

Becoming known as an authority in a specific area will also help you become more well-known, which means that your potential customer base will grow, and people are more likely to buy from you: if potential clients are already familiar with you and your brand then they are already warmed up for sales.

All this for almost zero outlay – it’s win-win! If you’re wondering where to start, you could even ask your existing audience what they’d like to hear more about: perhaps meeting the team, a before and after case study (who doesn’t love a makeover?), or a Q&A. It’ll get easier the more you do it (or you can always outsource) so take the leap and get stuck in – your business will thank you for it.

Stuck for time? Our team our experts at creating engaging copy or helping you to re-purpose copy you already have. Get in touch on hello@tonicconsultancy.co.uk

Digital
18th January 20210

Social media marketing for business Q&A with Chloe

Can social media marketing really help my business?

Social media can absolutely help your business and we have seen it happen! No matter the size of your business, social media is now an essential piece of your core marketing strategy. Social media helps you to connect with potential customers, increase your brand awareness and build trust and community through engagement with your followers. With more than half of the world now using social media. 4.57 billion people around the world now use the internet, of those users, 346 million new users have come online within the last 12 months! Avid social media users are known to login to their favourite network multiple times a day, so It is an extremely powerful marketing tool! If you are not yet utilising it, your competitors will be dominating that market share.  

What are the benefits of social media marketing for my company?

Some of the main benefits of social media are:

  • Increases brand awareness- each piece of content you publish increases your reach and audience.
  • Allows your business to give a positive impression and connection to your audience by humanising your brand. As a business if you take the time to engage by sharing content, commenting, and replying to customers or followers, it personifies your brand. And as the saying goes ‘people buy people’.
  • Social media marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies, even paid promotions can be successful for a relatively low cost in comparison to traditional marketing methods. Therefore, as a business you see a greater return on investment!
  • Greater Insight opportunities into the wants and desires of your customers. By monitoring your profile, you can see customer interests and opinions which is great to use for a ‘social listening exercise’.
  • Posting insightful and well-written content on your social media that adds value to your following by informing, educating, entertaining, and engaging is a great way to become an expert in your field.
  • Everything you do on social media can be measured which is essential for any marketing strategy. This allows you to measure what is successful and what isn’t in your strategy so you can constantly improve your efforts.

How should companies measure their social media marketing success?

It is important to measure your social media success for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly so that you can learn what is successful, what is not, and how you can improve your efforts.

The first step in your measurement plan should be to generate a list of what you are trying to achieve from using social media for your business and setting SMART Goals.

The next step is to match your goals to the relevant metrics and behaviours you can measure. For example, if you are trying to measure engagement, then looking at the form of engagement you want to track such as the sharing of a post, replies, comments, and clicks. Depending on your goals here is a few social media behaviours you could measure, based on the most common social media goals:

  • If you want to measure awareness, then use metrics like volume and reach.
  • If you want to measure engagement, then look for metrics on shares, comments, and replies.
  • If your goal is to drive traffic to your website, then track URL shares, clicks through rate and conversions.

If your goal is to increase your brand’s market share, then track the volume in relation to your competitors. How much of the overall conversation around your specific product and/or service is about your brand?

How much does social media marketing cost?

There are many options as a business to make use of social media marketing. If you have the time and inclination to learn, research and are skilled enough to create effective content, publish and manage all interaction, then you can do social marketing yourself for free! However, to do it effectively, it can be very time consuming, especially when spinning all the plates of running a business. If you want to really make an impact, you are always best outsourcing to a professional who has this specific expertise.  The cost of social media marketing varies based on your requirements. Some things to think about before you look to hire an expert is: what social channels you need to be on, how often you want to post, the type of content you want to share and how much time will need to be invested specifically for engagement time to nurture and grow your audience.

What is the ROI?

Social media ROI is a measure of all social media actions that create value, divided by the investment you have made in your social media. After all the time, money, and resources put in you can calculate the return.

Here is a simple formula for how to calculate ROI for social media:

Value / investment (people hours, ad budget, etc.) X 100 = social media ROI (as a percentage) Exactly how you work out the ROI in your business depends on your organisation’s objectives (brand awareness, revenue, customer satisfaction, etc.

Which social media platforms should my business have a presence on?

Simply put the ones where your target audience are! One of the most important things you can do before commencing any marketing activity including social media is to spend time really getting to know your target audience. You can do this by using a buyer persona which is based on age, demographics, interests etc. We can then match this to the best platform(s) we feel would suit your brand and business.

Does my company really need a blog for social media marketing?

Blogging is an amazing way to increase your visibility and drive organic traffic to your site through the search engines with keywords. Social Media is a perfect platform to share your blog content and gain more visibility as well as positioning yourself as an expert in your field.

How much time should social media marketing take each week?

The time you spend on social media is relative to each business. The most important thing is that you remain consistent, so set aside time you know is achievable for you. Batch creating content is also a great way to save time rather than coming up with posts on the fly!

How long does it take before I’ll start seeing results from social media marketing?

Social media is not an overnight fix, it is important to look at this as part of your long-term marketing strategy. To build trust, awareness and community around your brand takes time. All customers have a different purchasing approach, and it may take someone to see you posting consistently over a certain period to nurture them enough to buy your product or service. This is simply because it takes some people longer to ‘warm’ up’ and build that connection and trust.

What are some common social media marketing mistakes businesses make?

  • Incomplete profiles- there is nothing more frustrating than visiting a profile to get information such as opening times, or an email address, to find it is not available.
  • Not having professional branding- branding is as important as the content you put out and will leave a lasting impression on your target audience.
  • Spelling mistakes and poor grammar – this loses trust and credibility.

What are some general tips for social media success?

  • Be social on social media, engage with your audience, and respond to comments.
  • Retargeting ads from your social media to your website is a great way to attract traffic to your business as these people have already shown an interest in your brand.
  • Share a variety of enticing and on brand visuals including graphics and video.
  • Ensure you are putting out a range of content, do not just sell, think of ways to provide value, educate, and engage your audience.
  • Remain consistent in your efforts.