One of the areas where I’m noticing more blogging activity is with local businesses.
More local businesses are using their own websites and blogs to connect with a targeted audience of individuals that live within driving or walking distance of their location. Blogs are serving as a way for small, local business owners to provide insight, answer questions, and generally interact with their customers.
When put together, all of this blogging activity seems to spur more discovery for the local businesses along with a more involved overall customer experience. Blogging is part of an overall customer optimization strategy where businesses look to provide the best products, experience, and service for their optimal customer.
Here are five tips for effective local business blogging success.
Local Blogging Success Tips
There can certainly be more tips. Please add your thoughts in the comments.
1. Define Your Customer
Define your customer. It makes writing so much easier. You’ll be focused on exactly what your specific customer is looking for from your blog.
2. Focus on Discovery
There will be a few aspects of your local business blog:
- Discovery
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer relationship
All are important, but when starting I’d focus mostly on discovery. Focus on the things that lead to new customers discovering your business and current customers discovering new products and services. For example, a new post on a new baked good your bakery is offering. Write about the entire process that went into creating the new item. Showcase with photos. People will love it.
3. Encourage In-Person Action
Local business blogging is really about generating interest and discovery. Be sure that calls to action get people to visit your location. You want people to not just look, but to visit you in person. That’s where you can really hook them as customers. Try something as simple as asking them to mention you by name when they visit.
4. Ask for Feedback
Social media is great for customer service. Ask for feedback with blog posts. Then, actually take into account what is being said and show that you’re working to improve the business. People respond when you respond.
5. Spend 10% of Blogging Efforts on Expanded Audiences
I think this is important. A blog can be global. It can take your business to new markets. Sure, you won’t bring in tons of outsiders, but a few might make it a point to visit your site if they’re in your area. That’s a big accomplishment to have someone make it an agenda item to visit your location. A blog can be a way to generate that interest.
Final Thoughts
I think the last point is one of my favorites. There seems to be opportunity for small businesses to attract people from outside their general local area. These are folks that discover your company through your blog, a friend, or perhaps someone that links to your website. These folks might not live in the same city, county, or even state. Yet they might find time in the travel schedules to stop and try your delicious ice cream or to have one of your signature coffees.
Blogging is a great way for new people to discover your local business. Don’t lose out on this opportunity.
Final, Final Thoughts
One more thing.
The most common excuse for not blogging I hear is:
I don’t have time to blog.
Ok. I understand. I especially understand for small, local business owners that pretty much run the show on their own. Blogging is a lot of work and it can be costly in terms of time and money.
The best suggestion I can offer is to put aside 1 hour each day to blog. Now, you have to commit to the benefits of blogging (new customers, improved customer optimization, and profit) otherwise this won’t work. You won’t commit unless you really commit.
With that 1 hour each day, research, write and format blog posts. Take photos. Write interesting posts. Share them with your social channels. Commit to this for six months.
After that six month period you can assess the results and either continue or quit.