Local businesses are incredibly busy. Often it’s the owner that deals with the customers walking in the door in some way. And even if the owner is working on other things behind the scenes, marketing gets pushed down the list.
That seems especially true when it comes to newer marketing efforts like email, social media and all the online options for local businesses like Google+ and Yelp.
That’s where Main Street Hub comes in. The software provides help for local businesses when it comes to marketing. The focus is on getting local business more customers.
I like their name too.
I’m going to look at their blog. As you can imagine, there is a lot of things they could write about on the blog to help their target customers.
1. Embedded Content And Screenshots
Throughout the Main Street Hub blog you’re going to find amazing images, embedded content and screenshots. All these help to make the post more valuable to the reader. Visuals help make the content easier to comprehend.
Here is one post that is a great example. There are screenshots of Twitter conversations and a few others. It’s one thing to tell someone what to do, but providing an example helps them understand even more what you want them to do. And they’re more likely to do it and get value from doing it.
2. Addressing Common Issues
Everybody has issues.
Okay, that can ready pretty harsh. What I mean is that people have issues, problems or whatever in life. And we’re always wondering how we can fix those issues or avoid them in the future.
That’s where blogging can be really helpful and Main Street Hub does a great job of addressing common issues their target audience has. I would imagine that poor Yelp reviews, especially fraudulent ones, are a big issues. Main Street Hub addressed the issue in a post.
The best part of the post is that the reader is taken through the issue step-by-step on how to fix it and get things resolved. Actionable blog posts always do well and help to build authority for the brand.
3. Using Stats And Studies
Stats and studies are great for getting people on board with what you’re saying. You can say it and people will probably believe what you’re, but if you have science to back you up then you’re even more likely to get people on your side.
Main Street Hub often shares studies and sats on their blog including this example and this one. On both they created images that I would imagine local businesses could post on their social pages to increase engagement. I think that would work especially well with the one for Small Business Saturday.
4. Case Studies
A blog is a good place to include case studies. It’s a way for you to showcase what you can do without really getting to boastful. You’re talking mostly about your client and their story. Readers can read the story and they’ll put themselves in the place of the client and will want to learn more about what you could do to help them.
Here is an example of a case study from Main Street Hub. Also notice the embedded items and images. More visual content to make the post even easier to understand.
5. Keeping A Consistent Schedule
Main Street Hub does a great job of posting 3-4 times per month. That’s a good frequency, but I liked this recent comment by Neil Patel (founder of KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg and QuickSprout):
The more often you blog, the more traffic you will get. Try to blog at least once a week. Keep in mind, though, consistency is more important than frequency. If you decide to blog only once a month, that’s fine — just stick with it.
I’m a fan of consistency as well. If you’re starting a blog it’s good to assess your bandwidth. Like Neil says, if you can do one per month publish on the same day each month such as the first Monday. Plan to write the post the week before and schedule it.
Do the same if you publish 3-4 times per month. Schedule weekly posts to keep it consistent.
Final Thought
There is a lot to like about the Main Street Hub blog. They have a lot of great information that I’m sure their target readers find interesting. Marketing is a big topic so there are lots of items to blog about on a blog like this.
And MSH could even expand into other related areas that would help their target clients. General business items, hiring, scheduling and much more could all be covered on the blog.
This is a great blog and it looks like a great company behind it.