Increasing Traffic To Your Business Blog
Customers earned via the internet begin their relationship with a company as simple web page readers. Converting those readers into customers is then the key to earning revenue and increasing sales. Blog readers want information that can help them, but usually desire a strong and positive message to guide them in their activities as well.
Inspiring readers to return to the site is one of the major goals of internet marketing, so It is worth exploring just what characteristics win readers’ willingness to return. Businesses must first of course organize the page and content so that it can be found using the search engines. (Some Low Cost SEO methodologies exist to help in this effort.) But once the reader finds and opens one of the website pages, what should happen next?
Value and content are imperative to deliver for each post, article or webpage. Frequently updated information and copy attracts readers for future visits to the site. It is also somewhat important to remember that blogging is at least to a small degree, a form of entertainment. Most entrepreneurs are inundated by dry, boring business material, so a blog post or article that can at least make the content more interesting is a site that will be remembered. When readers remember a given site, the chances are better that they will return to it in the future.
Posting a comic or joke at the top of each day’s blog post might not be appropriate for one’s line of business. However the reason many email campaigns and blog posts use a joke or ‘daily chuckle’ is that humor invites the visitor to continue reading through the material. It also provides a free bit of value the visitor gets from clicking onto the page. Still, the reason visitors will hit your site are fundamental, so making the business blog a page that attracts future readership, the author should make sure that each post includes: Value – outlining the value found by reading all of the material “Moves the Ball” – showing an incremental advancement that the reader can quickly achieve Support – otherwise known as ‘cheerleading’ or providing some moral support for the reader that is facing obstacles and problems
Value: Client success stories or testimonials are hugely valuable and should be included in blog posts or on the main web page as frequently as possible. Potential clients and customers want to see how the company has helped others. Story telling is highly useful in this environment, but the author should keep the stories as short as possible – perhaps in the neighborhood of 500 to 700 words. Readers are probably time-constrained, so don’t overrun the reader’s attention span.
Using the post to discuss one single point of value is also effective. Readers in a rush to get to the point appreciate brevity and also appreciate knowing the point of value early in the text. Bold statements such a “improve profit margins in retail by 20%” with a certain product or methodology inspires the reader to continue and to look for that point of value within the copy.
“Moving the Ball:” This old football metaphor refers to the importance of making incremental progress if even by small amounts. Under the best of economic conditions, enterprise operators are continuously challenged to make more sales and improve efficiencies so progress is difficult. Showing a reader how to achieve small bits of progress is an attractive reason for a reader to return to the site. Claims of thousands of dollars in income each day using a new internet technique tend to turn these readers off though, so claims of progress should seem reasonable to a well-seasoned entrepreneur.
Support: This can seem trite, but “cheerleading” or motivating your potential customers is important. For new entrepreneurs, business can be depressing when things don’t go as planned. As you don’t know your individual readers’ situation, offering supporting advice is useful. Supporting advice can take the form of advising the reader how to make best use of the company product or service and then setting a positive expectation for the reader if she/he takes certain actions. This adds value to the page makes the reader more inclined to return.
Be sure to specifically invite the reader to return to the page periodically. Depending upon the frequency of postings to the site, ask readers to visit every day or every other day – whenever new information is posted.
Acknowledging a couple simple inclusions in each blog post can build the company business blog into a readership magnet. By attracting more readers to the site, the company has a significantly improved opportunity to convert web page readers into customers.
Matthew Stone delivers Low Cost SEO consultation services to clients across the country. Specializing in link building, blogging and article marketing, SEO Consultants Denver helps companies of all sizes increase sales and income utilizing internet search engines.
