Every business has a brand and your brand is vital to who you are. We don’t care how big or small you are, if you are not taking your brand seriously, your growth is going to be hampered if not outright prevented. Your blog is a great place to start building your brand voice, getting your name out there, and targeting your audiences. Phantom Copy will help you explore how to build your brand with blog strategy and more.
Blogs can get Your Name Out There
When no one knows who you are, how can you drive sales? We run into it time and time again. Businesses that are surviving off a few clients but aren’t experiencing growth. Of course, having a dedicated sales team can help, but sometimes you just don’t know how to connect with people that might want your product or service, especially if you are selling to individuals.
One of the things that a blog can do very well is to answer a question. In fact, if you were to type a general question into a search engine right now, there’s a very high chance the answer would be a blog post, and that blog post would likely be on a website that is trying to sell you something.
Think about the power of that. Many of your potential customers might be looking for answers to their problems before they are even making buying decisions and you and your brand are leaving an impression.
Example: You run a septic service company, but not many people know about you yet. Someone, who doesn’t know you exist, is worried that their septic system may be too old, so they type in “How Long Does a Septic System Last?” and wind up on a blog on your site. Now they may not have been in the market for a new septic system yet, but your name is already in their head before they even start hunting for a place that can actually do the service for them.
Building a Voice Through Content
Whether you’ve even noticed it or not, your brand has a voice and so too does every other brand. We don’t mean the voice that you speak with, but instead a unique personality that comes through in writing, marketing, style, and more. This voice or tone can be anything from professional to humorous and it’s how you build trust and connections with your audience.
On your website, much of that voice will shine through in the form of your content. And that content should further any voice already present in your branding, style, and products. There’s going to be a disconnect if your ads are humorous and your website is so serious.
Why does all this matter for your blog? For starters, your blog is content on your website so it needs to reflect your voice. Not only is your blog a place that your customers may go to when looking for answers or information, but it might also be a customer’s first interaction with your brand, so it should be handled with care.
As you are starting out with your brand and your blog, your blog can be a place to explore your brand’s voice and even discover what resonates with your customers. As your brand evolves you can even use specific blogs to target important demographics that the focus of your general content tends to leave out.
Example: Let’s say you are an industrial recycling service provider. You know that your business survives on those big business clients. However, your business can also serve individuals that need to get rid of their electronics. You’ve built your business this way not because those little clients earn you money, but because they can create ripple effects in your business and your communities that can generate income. Your blog is the best place to experiment with targeting that audience with blogs like “Are Old Computers Worth Anything?” without spending a lot of marketing dollars.
When is a Blog a Mistake?
Every type of industry or business can benefit from a blog, and we firmly believe that, but that doesn’t mean that every blog is good. Too often brands start a blog for the wrong reasons. They do it because their competitors are doing it, because they have an extra menu item to fill out, or because they want to take full advantage of their website platform. Just because WordPress makes it exceptionally easy to blog, doesn’t mean you should throw a few hundred words into a post every week.
If you build your blog because you want to talk the talk when you aren’t prepared to walk the walk, then you will have an ineffective blog. Instead of empowering your brand and being a marketing tool, it will diminish your brand. People that end up on your blog will think that you don’t care, and if you don’t care about your own blog and brand, why would you care about them or their business?
How do you avoid this mistake with your blog? Make sure you are writing topics you care about or that you are entrusting an experienced blogging team—like the one at Phantom Copy—to get it done for you! Give good direction on your brand and your voice to your writers. Make sure that your blog serves a purpose. Usually, that purpose is to answer questions and drive traffic, but it can also be a place to communicate changes in your business and offerings or evolutions of your brand.
Example: Let’s say you own a restaurant and you start a blog on your restaurant’s website. So far so good, but at some point, perhaps even early on, you start doing your blog just to do it. Instead of talking about new specials, business initiatives, awards, or trying to connect to your audience. You use your blog as a platform to air your grievances, complaining about customers, competitors, or even staff. We’re not going to lie, even this strategy could work if done correctly, but it’s like threading a needle with a rope. In most situations, all this will achieve is wasting your time and effort. It also runs a high risk of losing your customers, staff, and money. This is, of course, an extreme example, but the bottom line is if you do not have a goal for your blog that is beneficial to your business, and if each blog post isn’t serving that goal, then you might as well not even do it.
Location Still Matters, but Not in the Way You Think
We’ve talked about the local blog before as an important way for businesses like car dealerships to drive local traffic, but what if you are not a local business? Does location matter? In a way it does. Your physical location doesn’t matter to your blog or your website, but you can create blogs that are custom tailored to certain regions or locations.
Example: imagine you own a stand-up paddle board company. Though your products can pretty much be enjoyed in every state with a body of water, there are going to be certain regions that will be drawn to your product, and having a blog like “Best Stand Up Paddle Board Spots in Portland” can go a long way towards making some inroads in the Portland paddle boarding communities.
In other words, though your physical location may not matter in your industry, it might still matter what locations your blogs are focusing on, and the best part of your blog is that you can go after multiple audiences without diminishing or sacrificing your brand at large.
Let Phantom Copy Develop a Blog Strategy For You!
At Phantom Copy, developing blog strategies for unique and interesting brands is what we do! Give us the direction you want to go, and we can take you there while maintaining your voice and working towards your goals. Reach out to Phantom Copy today!