Build Your Sales Base with a Blog

Submitted by: Sarah Day - Founder, Managing Director

A blog is a great online tool that can help you forge relationships with your customers – and potential customers – in order to solidify and increase your sales base. Reach out to more people online, inform customers, showcase your expertise, and keep customers coming back to your website for more.

What’s a blog?
A blog, or web log, is a site with regular entries of commentary, graphics, or video. Blogs are becoming effective business tools to augment conventional advertising, drive customers to your website, and convert shoppers into buyers.

Dive right in.
Creating and posting blogs can be as easy as creating an e-mail or word processing document. Start today. Register with a blog network, like TypePad or Blogger, and follow their setup instructions.Many blog networks give you a choice of templates and styles from which to choose. Pick one that mirrors your website style and reinforces your brand image.

As soon as you’re signed up, write!
Write about your business —what you know, whether it be accounting tips or how to choose a contractor. Write with a personal style, but avoid inappropriate commentary. It takes time to build readership, so you have time to fine-tune your writing — post frequently. If you are grammatically challenged, hire a writer or skilled friend to help. Use your blog to talk about your company and industry, showcase new products or services, or offer helpful tips regarding your products or services.

Promote your website, promote your blog.
Create links from key phrases in your blog to relevant pages of your website. For example, if you’re providing a design tip, you can link the word “design” to a page on your website which discusses your design services. Once you are posting regularly, promote your blog and focus on building readership. Provide a link to your blog on your website. Encourage friends, business associates, and customers to visit your blog and post a link from their site to your blog.

Little money, big potential impact.
While a blog should not replace other advertising methods, it can add value to your marketing mix. For a small financial outlay, you can position yourself as a leader in your profession, build customer loyalty, drive people to your website, collect customer feedback and ideas, create a conversation between you and your customers, and grow your business.

Sarah Day is the founder and managing director of Day One Business Services, a general management consultancy for small to medium sized businesses. Every day Sarah helps guide small enterprises through the process of change - whether that be through the start up process, rapid business growth or a turnaround situation. She does this using a wealth of management experience gathered during a twenty-year career managing a variety of functions in both small businesses and large corporations.

Sarah holds a BA from Marquette University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Minnesota. She is also an accredited executive associate of the Institute for Independent Business, a nonprofit research, training, and accreditation organization established in 1984 to give independent businesses direct access to top management advice. She continues to work with a variety of small businesses on resolving their key issues and sits on the board of a local non-profit agency.

Sarah DayDay One Business Services
952-938-3435
PRACTICAL ASSISTANCE begins DAY ONE
Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business