It’s taken me a while but here it is.. the White Mouse Design Blog!
For so long I have been preaching to my clients, you have to do a blog! For better SEO (Search Engine Optimization), for traffic to your site, for adding value, for fresh content, for social media! Alas, I did not heed my own advice.. until now! So yay.. what to blog about.. how about Blogging!?
My 5 Excellent reasons why YOU should be blogging for your business
1. SEO baby!
Boost traffic to your website, have more and better key words and show Google you have fresh and relevant content!
Blogs give people a reason to go to your site even if they aren’t going to convert to a sale (for now) but the bonus with this is that it shows the Google bots that more and more people are coming your way therefore your content is rated as more relevant. This is one way to get better ranking in Google search results! And all those fresh key words! Google will love it.Have you heard of bounce rate? If peeps are only in your site for 15 secs and then they navigate away, Google reads this as ‘nothing to see here!’ How much did you pay for your website? Would you like it to work harder for you and have people actually stay on your site and interact? A blog is integral for this.
2. Establish yourself as an industry expert – Build that trust!
Blog posts allow you to demonstrate your expertise in specific areas of your business, and giving away your knowledge is an awesome way to build trust. Helpful educational posts (like this) are great or maybe format it in more of a tutorial style post and teach them how to do something step by step. Tell readers about whats happening in your business wiht a news style post, maybe you won an award? Sometimes people are just really curious about elements of your trade so a demonstration can be cool, video is a great asset or this.All this establishes you as an industry expert and just being generous and helpful is a pretty nice way to position your brand. If you can show potential clients that you have the answers and are happy to help, you will be the first person/brand they think of when it is time to make a purchase.
3. Feed your social media content
Do you struggle to come up with fresh and interesting content for your social media platforms? If you have a weekly blog you can promote that, use content from that, break it up into bite size pieces to showcase through you social media throughout the week. It will actually save you time and improve your social media content!
4. Develop a relationship
The difference between you and another business offering the same service or product? Is you! So why not capitalise on that? Blogs are a great opportunity to familiarise your potential clients with your voice and your values. If conversations begin in the comments this is a great place to get to know your potential clients right back, develop a relationship! Another bonus is that it’s a closed area that YOU manage. You’re not at the mercy of the Zuckerberg and all the rules and regulations that come with FB and IG. You also not lost in the oversaturated market where an ad could appear any second and poach your lead! And I think we all remember that time that Facebook went down..
5. Support your promotions
I’m currently involved in a collaboration with the talented Bec over at Cotton Tree Photography. It is a Mother’s Day photo album – Bec does the photos, I designed the album. Anyway to support this Bec wrote a blog post about ideas for what to wear and things to do for your photo shoot. So great! It’s info that people will naturally want if they book but can also apply without having to buy. It’s info that she already has in her head, no research required!We tend to overthink the whole blog thing but for the most part there is plenty of valuable and ‘bloggable’ information in our heads. You know what they say… ‘Write what you know!’
A few important points:
- Please make sure your blog is posted on your business website, not at a different domain. This is super important to to your SEO and letting new people see your site.
- If you’re worried that you don’t have enough to say, don’t be! Not many people want to read a really long post anyway. Something that offers succinct helpful info is a great place to start but if you’re not sure, test few different options and check your comments and analytics regularly, you should see the proof in the pudding!
- While a bit of personal ‘getting to know you’ stuff is nice, nobody really wants you full life story, they want you to help them solve their problems, address that.
- Don’t be ‘salesy’ in your blog, people will see straight through that and click away.
- Feel free to use more casual and conversational language, it doesn’t tend to be a literary masterpiece. But do spellcheck!
- You don’t actually have to call it a BLOG.. you can call it your ‘News’ page or ‘Stories’ or whatever suits your business best!
Here are some business related Blogs I enjoy!
Empress of Order
Marie is a Virtual Assistant who knows how to get things done.
https://www.empressoforder.com.au/blog
Stevie says Social
For excellent tips and strategies for your social media. These are free podcasts.. blogs you can listen to on the move!
https://steviesayssocial.com/blog/
Craven Content
If you need some copy writing tips OR if writing content is just not your thing then check out Craven Content. Sami specialises in writing website copy and blog posts!
https://cravencontent.com/blog/
Here’s a couple that I love for amazing design inspiration and tutorials:
Every Tuesday
https://every-tuesday.com/blog/
Hom Sweet Hom
https://www.homsweethom.com/blog
