What would you do with a free tool that enhances business visibility?
I’m sure the word ‘free’ made you perk up. It usually does. Especially in conjunction with business visibility.
If you’re sceptical, your inner voice would have said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. However, if you’re an optimist, you will ignore that and want to find out more.
What I’m talking about is a blog
A blog is a free piece of technology you can either add to your website, or have standing on its own. Some people can and do spend money on their blogs, certainly if they want to achieve rapid results, but there is no reason why a free version can be just as effective.
As long as you know what you’re doing.
Let’s think of what kind of business visibility you would like to have:
- PR
- Traffic
- Leads
Thinking a bit further, you may have come up with these:
- Credibility and trust
- Established industry expertise
- Seen as a thought-leader
- Spread awareness about your business’s purpose
Which could be developed into these:
- Educate your customers as to what your business does
- Explain things to avoid confusion or misunderstanding
- Entertain your customers to make them more aware of you
- Educate them to show your expertise in your industry
- Create awareness of developments within your industry
- Spread good news stories to your readers
But these are a bit one sided
One of the key features of a blog is that it is interactive. You can have a two-way conversation with your readers. It doesn’t have to be you blathering on by yourself.
Blogging should encourage your readers to respond. There is usually a comments box at the bottom of your blog posts, so why not ask for feedback?
Blogs are great for expressing your point of view, and for conversing with your readers. That’s why they are considered part of social media.
And it’s the social part that makes all the difference to blogging. Think of your readers: what do they want to read, and how can you make a difference to their lives?
Your business is nothing without customers. So use blogging to find out a bit more about them. Write as if you’re talking to them direct, as if they sitting in front of your desk. Use your blog posts as a transcription of your conversation that you are willing to share with all your readers.
And if you change your writing style this way, your blog posts will become more interesting, entertaining and engaging. Your readers will want to respond, to tell you what they think.
And don’t forget to reply back. You never know what you might gain by developing an online conversation in this way.
What has this got to do with business visibility?
Not only do you need to change how you communicate with your readers, who may not be your customers but may certainly know people who could be, you need to make it easier for them to share your blog posts on social media.
There’s your free business visibility. Social networking can put your posts in front of a much larger audience than you can imagine.
As long as you’ve got it right. And this includes encouraging conversations with your readers not only on your blog, but on social media as well. But it isn’t called social networking for nothing!
So make sure your social sharing buttons are easily seen at the bottom or floating at the side of your blog posts. If you’ve written the kind of content that inspires, educates or entertains your readers, they will want to share it with their friends.
And this could get shared on. Think of the free business visibility you could be getting!
Sound interesting? Sure it does!
And if you have one of those blogs that you have spent money on, make sure you have an incentivised lead magnet your readers could subscribe to receive, so you can create more focused conversations with them later.
More free business visibility! Just think of the possibilities…
If you want to find out more about this, we are holding a free blog coaching course for two separate weeks, starting on 21 or 28 September. If you have any of these weeks free in your diary, go check out http://www.attractreaders.com to find out if we can help you get free business visibility.
